How to configure booking deposits without confusing customers

Inqloop supports three upfront states: none, deposit and full payment. Decide from the operational cost of a missed slot, the appointment length, consumables prepared in advance and how easily the time can be resold. A short repeat service and a long specialist treatment do not need the same rule.

• No upfront payment: lowest checkout friction, suitable where missed-slot exposure is limited.
• Deposit: collects part now and records the remaining balance as due at the appointment.
• Full payment: settles the booking at checkout and requires the clearest refund wording.

Define when a customer can cancel or reschedule, what happens inside the late-cancellation window, how practitioner or business cancellations are handled, and how long refunds normally take. Put those terms in the booking journey and confirmation rather than relying on staff to explain them later.

The checkout should label the amount collected today as a deposit, show the service total, and state the balance due later. Inqloop retains these parts separately so a deposit is not accidentally presented as full payment in the appointment and transaction views.

• Create a low-value test service and complete a real or payment-provider test checkout.
• Confirm the customer receipt and confirmation distinguish paid now from due later.
• Open the appointment as a staff member and verify the same figures appear there.
• Test rescheduling, customer cancellation and practitioner cancellation separately.
• Confirm refunds and remaining balances appear once, with no duplicate deposit allocation.

Track checkout completion, payment failures, cancellations, no-shows and refund questions by service. Avoid copying a competitor’s percentage without knowing its appointment value or customer mix. Adjust the rule only when your own booking data and customer conversations show that the commitment is too weak or the checkout burden is too high.