Deposits:
There are two ways you can take a deposit depending on whether you are taking a part-payment deposit or a security deposit. A part-payment deposit is taken when the booking is initially confirmed, and will not be refunded as it is a part-payment of the booking. A security deposit will be refunded after the booking once it has been agreed that there are no damages or charges for over-run of booked time.
Method 1 - Part-Payment deposit.
Example: You have a booking worth £1000 and would like to take an initial deposit payment of £200 on creation of the booking. If you haven't already, create a new Calendar Space in the Manage Tab called Deposits; you can do this in the Venue Management tab. Scroll down to Bookable Spaces and click New Space.
Edit the actual booking value to £800 and then create a new booking in the Deposit space for the £200 up front payment. We would advise using Fixed Cost and inputting this as a 5 minute booking. This will need to be on a different date to the actual booking in order to invoice these payments separately, so we advise inputting the deposit on the date you are taking the payment.
You can then confirm the deposit booking yourself from the calendar...
... and invoice from the bottom of the clients account. The Payment can then be collected via GoCardless or Stripe via the clients login. The rest of the £800 can then be invoiced separately when required (or in your invoice run).
Method 2 - A Refundable security deposit
Example: You have a booking of £1000 and would like to take an additional £200 as a security deposit in case of a cancellation or any damages/additional cleaning/over-running. In this case, as you are not able to create manual invoices for refundable deposits we would advise taking a BACS payment outside of BookingsPlus. You can then record this on the system using the New Payment button at the bottom of the Clients account.
Once created do not allocate this to any invoices.
It is always best practice to write as many notes on this as possible for audit purposes with details such as who the payment was taken by, the date and an indication that it is a security deposit that will be refunded (providing there are no additional charges incurred during the booking).
Refunds:
In the above scenario, if the event went well you are now looking to return the security deposit. This can be recorded on the system using the New Refund button at the bottom of the clients account -
Again it is best to keep your notes as detailed as possible including stating who on the site team confirmed that no additional charges are needed and when this was confirmed.
You will then need to ensure that the payment is allocated to the refund. To do this click on the Payment on the Clients page (in the Account Activity section) and allocate from the Refunds drop down.
Please note - this only records that the money will be refunded - you will then need to request the bank details from your client and make a BACS payment from your bank account to them. Payments cannot be refunded by GoCardless - hence why we advise not raising a booking and invoice (as in Method 1) for any refundable deposit payments.
Watch our video tutorial on how to apply a refund to a hirers account:
