Once a client has started to process a payment via stripe (either for bookings they’ve created or bookings they are confirming), a tentative Invoice will be created. As a venue admin, you will be able to see this tentative invoice on the Invoices tab in Invoices Awaiting Payment. It will have an Invoice number, and a red banner over the top of it to state that “Payment is required by XX:XX on the XX/XX/XXXX to confirm your booking. Please make payment to secure this booking."
Please note that this message shows here to display exactly what the client can see and to show that the booking is in the process of being confirmed. The Invoice or Booking does not require any action from the administrator.
Tentative invoices will work in the same way as Full Invoices (that are awaiting payment) in that the booking items cannot be changed because the customer has already committed to make the payment. The main difference is that a tentative invoice can be raised on tentative bookings only, and is only generated when a client clicks to make a payment on a new or provisional booking. Once the payment has been successfully processed, the tentative invoice will became an actual invoice and will move to the Paid Invoices tab.
If a payment has not been received by the expiry time displayed on the invoice, then it will be automatically voided (with the message 'Instant payment not received within xx) and any related booking items will be cancelled so that the space is available again for others to book. The exception to this, is if the booking was originally entered by the admin as provisional and the client was confirming it. In this case, the booking will just revert back to being provisional again, so that the admin can decide whether this needs to be cancelled or not.
Whilst the payment is processing as an admin you will not be given the option to void the Tentative invoice.
Our automated Invoicing functionality works very well with Instant pay to reduce the admin time needed each month to Invoice clients for future bookings. For further information take a look at our article here.
