Deposit for online appointments: customers pay by card when booking

With the deposit on, your customer pays the deposit by card when booking on your business website. The deposit is recorded as a payment on the sales card and you collect the rest at the business. It protects against no-shows and last-minute cancellations.

Prerequisites

• Online payments must be on: pilot access, a connected Paynkolay account and the Online payments switch in Pi Store (see Online payments: sending a payment link for a receivable). While it is off these settings are hidden and everything works as before.

• The free cancellation window must be at least 1 hour (in Appointment Settings; 24 hours recommended). With 0 hours every cancellation would count as “late”.

• No deposit is taken in package-required mode, and none for an appointment booked with a package: the package is already paid.

Turning the deposit on

1. 1

   Business setting

   On Business → Appointment Settings, turn on the switch in the Deposit for online appointments card. Enter the type (percentage of the service price or a fixed amount), the value and the payment time (5–60 minutes, default 15). Settings save automatically.

2. 2

   Per service (optional)

   When editing a service in Business → Services, use Online appointment deposit to set a different deposit for that service or choose “No deposit for this service”. The default is “Use the business setting”.

What the customer sees

• The confirm step says “₺X deposit is taken by card now, the rest is paid at the business” (or “the full service price is taken by card now” when you take the full price); after the appointment is created they go to the payment page.

• In a business with auto-approval the appointment is confirmed once the deposit is paid. In a business that requires approval the payment is still taken when the request is made; a paid request waits for your approval.

• While the payment is awaited the booking holds the place; no other customer can take it. When the customer taps “Pay by card” the time is extended to at least 12 minutes so it does not drop while they are on the bank page.

• If the payment does not arrive in time, the booking is released automatically within a few minutes. This is not counted as a customer cancellation (it does not affect the reliability score).

• The “created / request received” messages, your automations and the staff notification are sent WHEN THE PAYMENT IS TAKEN; nothing is sent for a customer who does not pay.

• After paying, the customer returns to the site with “Back to where you left off” and gets a “payment received” notification in the app and on the Notifications screen.

In the calendar and the approval list

• An appointment awaiting payment is shown in the calendar (the time is held) but does not appear in Pending Approvals; its window shows a “Deposit awaited” badge.

• An appointment with a paid deposit shows a “Deposit paid” badge; on the sales card the deposit is an “Online · Paynkolay” payment.

• If you approve an appointment that is awaiting payment by hand, the deposit requirement is dropped: the appointment is confirmed and is not cancelled when the time runs out.

Cancellation, rejection and no-show

• The customer cancels within the free window, you reject it, or you cancel it as the business: the deposit becomes “Refund pending”.

• Late cancellation or no-show: the deposit is kept as income.