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Taking a deposit for your event
Taking a deposit for your event

How to use existing Bookwhen functionality to take deposit payments

Jen avatar
Written by Jen
Updated over a week ago

Please note: Ticket costs are available on the Lite plan or above.

You can use a ticket to take a deposit payment via Bookwhen and manually collect the remaining amount later. Although this isn't automated, it's a great workaround if you would like to take a deposit for specific events.

This article covers:


Ticket setup

To set up a deposit ticket on a new entry, select Add a new schedule page from your scheduling page:

Or select your entry, then Edit entry:

From here, you can decide how to set up your tickets for your event under the Tickets and costs tab of your entry:

You can choose only to make a deposit, take the total amount, or give both options.

For example:

  • Ticket name: "Deposit payment"

  • Ticket details: "Please note this ticket is 10% of the total £1000 cost of this trip. The remaining £900 payment will be due 30 days from the purchase date of this deposit."

  • Ticket cost: "£100"

❗️ It's important to clarify that this ticket is not fully paid by utilising the ticket name and details fields.


Booking form

It's a good idea to add a booking form field to clarify the deposit ticket option further.

For example, you may wish to add a 'Yes/No' checkbox for your customers to tick to understand the terms and conditions of purchasing a deposit ticket:

To do this, select the entry, then Edit entry:

From here, select the Booking form tab, then Create a new field type:

If you only offer a deposit ticket on the entry (and no other tickets)

  • Choose if you'd like to apply the field to each attendee on the booking, the whole booking or tickets

  • Add a Field label and Additional help text so customers understand the field and what they may or may not be agreeing to

  • Tick the Mandatory field checkbox to make it mandatory for customers to answer to complete their booking

  • Choose the Yes or No option under the Field data type

If you offer multiple tickets

  • Choose if you'd like to apply the field to each attendee on the booking, the whole booking or tickets

  • Add a Field label and Additional help text so customers understand the field and what they may or may not be agreeing to

  • Tick the Mandatory field checkbox to make it mandatory for customers to answer to complete their booking

  • Choose the Multiple choice - select from list option under the Field data type and type your options using the fields under Options for this field (pressing Add another option for each new checkbox option)

Example of how the field appears to customers completing checkout:


Booking confirmation message

You can add the instructions on how you will collect the remaining payment in the booking confirmation email that customers receive upon booking completion.

💡 Please note: If you offer multiple tickets, you may wish to add this as a 'note' at the end of the message.

To do this, select the entry, then Edit entry:

From here, select the Information tab and scroll down to the Booking confirmation message field:

You can add your ticket T&Cs as well as details on how you will collect payment (such as cash, bank transfer details, etc).


Booking

When your customers select your entry with a deposit payment option, they can press Select to add it to their basket and proceed through the checkout process as normal:

💡 Important notes

  • Once a customer purchases a deposit ticket, there will be no further interaction between them and the Bookwhen system.

  • The outstanding payment must be collected manually directly from the customer outside of Bookwhen by whatever means you choose.

Using a payment provider to collect further payment

  • Payment providers like Stripe allow you to send the customer an invoice for the remaining amount.

  • You may also wish to activate Klarna on your account.


Restrictions

  • It's not possible to manually log who has paid the total amount in Bookwhen, as the system classes the deposit payment as full payment and will not consider any remaining amount as "owed".

  • Using a second ticket on the same entry to collect the outstanding payment won't allow the same attendees to book themselves onto the same event twice, as the system views this as a 'double-booking'.


💬 Any questions or feedback? There are two ways to get in touch:

Thank you! 🕺

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