How do I take pre-payments via Online Booking?
Online booking contains a setting which allows you to request pre-payment at the time of booking an appointment, either for all of the treatment types you offer online or for certain ones. If payment is required, clients won't be able to confirm an appointment without first making payment, a great way to reduce the risk of DNA's resulting from online bookings and improve your cash flow. In addition to the booking being added to your diary, an invoice relating to the appointment will also be created and marked as paid for you, streamlining your invoicing and reconciliation processes!
To take pre-payments when your clients book online you need to connect Square (UK only) or Stripe to WriteUpp. The following articles explain how you do this:
Connecting WriteUpp to Square
How do I connect Stripe to WriteUpp so that I can take online payments?
You will not be able to activate pre-payment in Online Booking until you have connected Square/Stripe to your WriteUpp account.
Once you have connected Square or Stripe to WriteUpp, to switch on pre-payments:
Login to the Online Booking Admin Area
Click on settings from the menu at the top:
Scroll down the page to Payment and slide the switch to the right so that it is green:
Click on Save & Publish
If you would like to take prepayment for all of your appointments types, you're good to go, as by default prepayment is switched on for each of your treatments! But, if there are certain ones that you don't want or need to take payment for, you can customise this by going to the treatments option in the menu:
And selecting the appointment type you'd like to change:
Find the treatment switch on this page and set it to the left, so that it is grey:
Then save & publish
For those appointment types, no payment will be requested and appointments will be booked into your diary after clients have selected a slot, entered their details and confirmed their booking.
For appointment types where prepayment is required, clients will select a slot and enter their details, then proceed to an additional step to enter payment information, before confirming their booking. The appointment will then be booked into your diary, and the invoice associated with the appointment and payment will be created and marked as paid for you.
If you take online booking prepayment, we would suggest that you display pricing information throughout the site so that your clients know exactly what they are going to be charged before they enter their payment details. You can read more about how to control price visibility and your options regarding this here.
You might also want to add information on prepayments to the welcome text on your online booking homepage so that clients are aware of this. You could also add any payment requirements to the information on each treatment type. The choice is yours!
To take pre-payments when your clients book online you need to connect Square (UK only) or Stripe to WriteUpp. The following articles explain how you do this:
Connecting WriteUpp to Square
How do I connect Stripe to WriteUpp so that I can take online payments?
You will not be able to activate pre-payment in Online Booking until you have connected Square/Stripe to your WriteUpp account.
Once you have connected Square or Stripe to WriteUpp, to switch on pre-payments:
Login to the Online Booking Admin Area
Click on settings from the menu at the top:
Scroll down the page to Payment and slide the switch to the right so that it is green:
Click on Save & Publish
If you would like to take prepayment for all of your appointments types, you're good to go, as by default prepayment is switched on for each of your treatments! But, if there are certain ones that you don't want or need to take payment for, you can customise this by going to the treatments option in the menu:
And selecting the appointment type you'd like to change:
Find the treatment switch on this page and set it to the left, so that it is grey:
Then save & publish
For those appointment types, no payment will be requested and appointments will be booked into your diary after clients have selected a slot, entered their details and confirmed their booking.
For appointment types where prepayment is required, clients will select a slot and enter their details, then proceed to an additional step to enter payment information, before confirming their booking. The appointment will then be booked into your diary, and the invoice associated with the appointment and payment will be created and marked as paid for you.
If you take online booking prepayment, we would suggest that you display pricing information throughout the site so that your clients know exactly what they are going to be charged before they enter their payment details. You can read more about how to control price visibility and your options regarding this here.
You might also want to add information on prepayments to the welcome text on your online booking homepage so that clients are aware of this. You could also add any payment requirements to the information on each treatment type. The choice is yours!
Updated on: 02/08/2022
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