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Booking deposits

Text people a secure Stripe link to pay a deposit when they book, so fewer miss their appointment.

Booking deposits asks people to pay a deposit when your receptionist books them in. They get a text with a secure Stripe payment link. The money goes straight to your own Stripe account: CallsCovered never handles it.

What happens

  1. Someone books. They're texted your message with a payment link, for example: "Hi Sam, to hold your appointment at Bright Smiles on Tuesday 3 November at 9:30am, please pay your £20 deposit here: ..."
  2. The booking shows deposit due under Bookings. They pay on Stripe's own payment page.
  3. CallsCovered checks with Stripe every few minutes. Once the money has arrived, the booking shows deposit paid.
  4. If they don't pay within the time you allow, the link stops working and the booking shows deposit not paid. You may want to call them.
  5. If the booking is cancelled before they pay, the link is stopped. If it's cancelled after they've paid, the plugin's activity log reminds you to refund it in Stripe if it's due.

The booking itself stands either way: an unpaid deposit doesn't cancel it. That's your call.

What you need

  • A Stripe account.
  • A Stripe secret key, from the Stripe Dashboard, then Developers, then API keys. Best: "Create restricted key" with Checkout Sessions set to Write, and nothing else.
  • Texts set up on your phone line (your Twilio details under Settings, Phone line). The link is texted from your own number. See Your phone line and number.

Setting it up

  1. Open Plugins, choose Booking deposits and click Switch on.
  2. Paste your key into Stripe secret key.
  3. Set Deposit (£): between £1 and £500, such as 20 or 12.50.
  4. Choose Time to pay: 2, 6, 12 or 24 hours.
  5. Change the Message if you like. You can use {first}, {name}, {business}, {day}, {time}, {amount} and {link}.
  6. Click Save and test.

To see exactly what your customers get, click Show my test payment link. With a test key (starting sk_test_ or rk_test_) you can pay with card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date and any CVC, and no money moves. With a live key it's a real payment page, so just look and close it. The test link stops working after 30 minutes. If you've saved a mobile under Taking over calls in Settings, the test also texts that link to you.

Click Show recent deposits to see the last 30, with whether each is waiting, paid, not paid in time, or cancelled.

Cost

The plugin is free. Stripe charges its own fees on each payment, and each text counts towards your Twilio bill.

Privacy

  • Stripe receives the deposit amount, your business name, the appointment day and time, and the booking reference. It doesn't receive the person's name or number from CallsCovered; Stripe asks for whatever it needs for the payment itself.
  • Card details are entered on Stripe's page and never reach CallsCovered.
  • People who've replied STOP to your texts aren't texted.

Limits

  • Only people who gave a UK mobile number are asked. Landlines and international numbers aren't.
  • The time to pay always ends an hour before the appointment. A booking so soon that this leaves less than 30 minutes to pay gets no deposit request.
  • Refunds are made by you, in Stripe.
  • Only bookings made after you switch it on are asked for a deposit.

Still stuck? Write to hello@callscovered.ai with your business name and what you were trying to do, and a person will reply.