If you choose, you can collect deposits when your clients book online.
How it works
Setup: In your Online Booking settings, choose the deposit amount needed to book an appointment online. This can be a percentage of the service cost (e.g. 20%), a set amount (e.g. $20) or the full cost of the service.
Watch the video below to see how to set up Online Booking Deposits.
Note: If you choose to take a deposit for online bookings, it’s a good idea to update your cancellation policy so that your clients know what happens to the deposit if they cancel their appointment.
You can choose if you would like to allow customised deposit amounts for particular services and packages. If you select Yes, all bookings will still use your default deposit setting unless the package or service being booked has had a customised deposit set up.
To customise the deposit setting for a package, go to the Packages page and find the one you want to customise.
Select Yes to create a customised deposit setting and choose the setting you’d like to apply to this package. Click Save changes to apply the change.
To customise the deposit setting for a service go to the Services page and find the one you want to customise. Check the box to create a customised deposit setting, choose the setting you’d like to apply to this service. Click Save at the bottom of the page to apply the change.
Client Booking: When your clients make an appointment via Online Booking they’ll be asked to pay a deposit with their credit card or PayPal account to secure their booking.
Note: If you collect a deposit for Online Bookings, your clients will not be able to reschedule and cancel their appointments via Online Booking. You are still able to reschedule and cancel any bookings using Kitomba.
At your business: When the client finishes their appointment and comes to pay, the system automatically applies the deposit so they only need to pay you the remaining balance.
Cancelled & no-show appointments: If your client cancels or fails to show up for their appointment you have the option to keep or refund their deposit, depending on your preference and the terms set out in your cancellation policy.
Comments
12 comments
Hi there,
I've just been looking up how to set up deposits for online bookings but as most of the other people on this chat I'm wanting it for new clients and also big services.
99% of our no-show/late cancellation problems are with new clients.
Please let me know if/when you change these settings.
Kind regards, Natalie
Hi Donna, It's now a few months ago since this was being discussed - Is the feature for long services and new client deposits ONLY, activated yet? Thanks, Angela
Hi Natalie
Currently you can only take a deposit for every service, however I will add this to the feature request list to be considered in the future.
Hi Angela
Thank you for your comment. This feature is on the list of feature requests in our communty section. We monitor these requests and the ones that have the highest votes are considered in the development plan. If this is a feature you want please add your vote. (if you search for 'Online booking deposit for new clients' you will find the request).
warm regards
Donna
Is there anyway that this can also be activated for bookings made via phone etc? Cancellations and no-shows don't discriminate on how their appointment was originally made. Thanks
can we have a deposit option applied to certain services only. you wouldn't take a deposit for a kids cut, but would for a three hour service. can kitomba work on deposits for selected services only?
Hi Kylee
There is no way to automate a deposit on an appointment other than in Online bookings.
However, you could take a payment from the customer at the time of the phone booking using their credit card details and manually enter this in Kitomba. If they are then a 'no show' you could have a service set up as "No Show" and use this as the service in the customers invoice. This would then use the deposit in the customers account to pay for it.
Hope this helps.
warm regards
Donna
Hi,
If we apply the o line booking deposits does that mean when a client rebooks there appointment in salon we should also be taking deposits?
Yes would be great if we could take a deposit for big services only e.g. Full foils / balayage as these take a lot of time and no shows can be a real problem as you may have turned away clients and you have a lot of time booked out
There is no plan for adding options to Online bookings at this time. However if you have some suggestions of what would help you use this feature please enter these into the community page. This is where we look for ideas for future development.
The thing that puts me off taking up the deposit option is that the client must make a deposit at the booking time and has no choice. Im concerned a new client will then surf to find a non deposit salon nearby. Also if the service is small say $30 can the system then go directly to prepaid if they wish. Like a parent paying for a student cut but doesn't need to attend with them.
Will there be more options added to online deposits??
No Show clients etc etc.
We feel we would actually lose online clients if we activated feature this however if we could create bad customer lists or new client % then it would be amazing..
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