Require prepayment for online bookings

Online booking prepayment asks customers to pay part or all of the appointment price on your booking page before the booking is confirmed. You turn it on for the whole salon in Settings, override it for individual workers in My preferences, choose the percentage due at booking, and require full online prepayment for individual services. Appointments you create in the admin calendar are unaffected.

Before you start

The Online booking prepayment section appears in Settings only when payments are enabled for your salon. Set up Stripe first; see Set up Stripe in your salon settings.

Turn on prepayment for the salon

1. Open Settings from the sidebar.

2. In Booking settings, find the Online booking prepayment section.

3. Turn on Require prepayment for online bookings. To require payment only from first-time customers, also turn on New customers only; returning customers can then book without paying at booking time.

4. Enter Amount due now (%) as a whole number from 0 to 100. This is the share of the payable price the customer pays during booking; the remainder is paid at the salon.

5. Save your changes.

6. Open your booking link and make a test booking to check the payment step from the customer's side.

Set a different rule for one worker

A worker preference replaces the salon-wide setting for that worker's bookings.

1. Open My preferences.

2. In the Online booking prepayment section, choose Use salon setting, Require prepayment, or Do not require prepayment.

3. If this worker must collect prepayment, enter Amount due now (%). Leaving it empty uses the salon's percentage. If you switch the worker to require prepayment without entering a percentage, 100% is used.

4. Save your changes.

Require full prepayment for one service

Turn on Require full online prepayment for a service when every online booking of that service must be paid in full. The option appears while you edit a service, but only when online payments are set up for your salon.

1. Open Services from the sidebar and open the service for editing.

2. Turn on Require full online prepayment. Customers who book the service pay the full price online at booking.

3. Save the service.

The service rule overrides your salon and worker prepayment settings: any online booking that includes the service requires the full payable booking price from every customer. Services without the option keep following the salon and worker rules.

The charged amount is the payable price, not the upper end of a variable price range. Your public booking terms reflect the service rule; see Explain prepayment terms to booking customers.

What customers see

When prepayment applies to a booking, the confirm button reads Continue to payment instead of Confirm booking. The payment step shows Due now, the amount still due at the salon when the deposit is smaller than the full price, and a pay button with the amount. Customers pay with a card through Stripe's payment form, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.

The payment hold

While the customer is on the payment step, the selected time is held. The customer sees "We're holding this time for you while you pay." with a 15-minute countdown. The slot stays reserved one minute longer than the countdown, so a payment that finishes just after the countdown still goes through.

If payment fails or the hold expires

A failed payment does not create a booking. The customer sees "Payment could not be completed. Please try again." and can retry in the payment step.

When the hold expires, the payment step closes and the customer returns to the details step with the message "The time we held for you has expired. Please confirm your details again." Their entered details are kept, and the time becomes bookable again.

When payment succeeds

The booking is created only after Stripe reports the payment as successful, so no appointment and no confirmation email or SMS exist until payment goes through. After payment, the booking follows your normal flow: it is confirmed directly, or it waits for your approval if you require manual approval for new bookings. A full payment marks the booking paid and a smaller deposit marks it partially paid; you collect the remainder at the salon, as described in Record a payment for a booking. The customer also receives a payment receipt from Stripe by email.

Refunds

Canceling or declining a paid booking does not refund the prepayment automatically. Refund the payment in your Stripe dashboard; Taimli records the refund on the booking when Stripe reports it. If a payment succeeds but the booking cannot be created, the charge is kept for manual handling in Stripe and nothing is refunded automatically.

Staff-created appointments

Prepayment applies only to bookings made through your public booking page. Appointments you or your staff create in the admin calendar use the existing flow and never show the payment step.