Configuring ecommerce settings for deposits, payment types, order confirmation, and reCAPTCHA

These Ecommerce Settings control critical aspects of how Checkfront handles payments, deposits, payment method display, customer redirection, and fraud protection (reCAPTCHA). Proper configuration ensures a seamless checkout flow, correct deposit logic, secure order processing, and a reliable customer experience.

Learn how to configure ecommerce settings from the Settings tab, including deposits, payment types, order confirmation, and reCAPTCHA setup.

New to Ecommerce Setup? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to Ecommerce Setup.

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Manage > Ecommerce Setup > Settings
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin permissions to manage settings.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic items version, using items (Inventory > Items), and our classic products version, using products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about classic products

The settings configured here apply to bookings made through your website's embedded Booking Widget or Customer Booking Page.

To change these settings, you must first activate a payment provider. You can use the Test Payment Provider for testing if you still need to configure a third-party solution. 

See the first article in this series for more information:

• Configuring ecommerce settings for payment providers

The following settings allow you to determine how the system handles payments and deposits.

Minimum deposit amount We require a minimum 10% deposit on all bookings for accounts on plans with the Booking Fee. If you set your deposit to less than 10% or have a fixed deposit that equals less than 10% of the booking total, we bump the required deposit to 10% on the invoice and payment page. Learn more about Booking Fees here: Working with Booking Fees for those on the legacy Flex or new Growth (Per Booking) plans

Deposit Mode

You can use the Deposit Mode drop-down menu to control how Checkfront charges customers at booking time. There are multiple choices listed below.

You can choose whether to process payments (full or partial) and require a deposit (percentage or fixed) at the time of booking.

Do not process payments online, just take reservations (no payment)

Under the Deposit Mode drop-down menu, you can use the Do not process payments online, just take reservations option for the reservation-only mode. No payment is collected. Customer books without paying. You can also use Reservation-only mode if the order value is zero.

Charge customer full amount at time of booking (full payment)

Use the Charge customer full amount at time of booking option under the Deposit Mode drop-down menu to charge the Customer the total of the entire order at the time of booking. Customer pays the entire booking amount at Checkout. 

Take a percentage deposit (deposit required)

Under the Deposit Mode drop-down menu, you can use the Take a percentage deposit option to require the Customer to pay a portion of the booking total at Checkout using the Take a percentage deposit option. With this option, you can preset a percentage, and the system calculates the deposit owed during Checkout.

Deposit now, pay later If you turn on the Pay Now Link in the invoice setup, the Customer can pay the remaining balance later. With scheduled notifications, you can use this option to send the Customer a reminder about the payment before the booking date. Managing Booking Invoice layout options

Taking a deposit percentage If you choose the option to Take a deposit percentage at time of booking, and there is also an item-specific deposit or product-specific deposit, then the item/product-specific deposit overrides this Ecommerce setting.

Take a fixed amount deposit

Under the Deposit Mode drop-down menu, you can use the Take a fixed amount deposit option, which requires a predetermined amount regardless of the invoice total. Once completed, the booking reflects the amount paid and shows a balance due.

Deposit now, pay later If you turn on the Pay Now Link in the invoice setup, the Customer can pay the remaining balance later. With scheduled notifications, you can use this option to send the Customer a reminder about the payment before the booking date. Managing Booking Invoice layout options

Fixed deposit amounts Fixed deposit amounts combine with any item-specific deposit or product-specific deposit amounts configured. For example, if you configure a $500.00 fixed deposit and there is also an item or product-specific deposit of $500.00, then the total deposit is $1000.00 when booking that item/product.

Charge customer full amount if booking is created less than X days from start date.

Under Customer Deposit Settings, you can check the Charge customer full amount if booking is created less than X days from start date option to charge the full booking amount during Checkout if the start date falls within a specific time frame from creating the booking. You can set up this time frame for your business.

Restrict customers from paying full balance after a deposit is made

Under the Customer Deposit Settings,  you can check the Restrict customers from paying full balance after a deposit is made option if you wish your Customer to pay a deposit when booking online, but pay their final balance on location when they visit your business. 

Allow customers to optionally pay the full balance or deposit

Under the Customer Deposit Settings, you can check the Allow customers to optionally pay the full balance or deposit option to require a deposit to be paid by the Customer at booking time, but sometimes Customers want to pay the entire balance simultaneously. Checking this option provides them with the ability to do that.

For Customers to see this option, you must show the Pay Now Link on the invoice. 

Deposit now, pay later If you turn on the Pay Now Link in the invoice setup, the Customer can pay the remaining balance later. With scheduled notifications, you can use this option to send the Customer a reminder about the payment before the booking date. Managing Booking Invoice layout options

The Accepted Payment Types settings influence which card types the system displays to Customers at Checkout. This option is a display preference, not a restriction — the actual allowed types depend on your payment provider. Select the checkboxes next to the payment types you would like to display.

Accepted payment types may include Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Diners Club, Discover, and JCB.

Payment types not restricted This setting does not restrict payment types! This option just determines what preferred payment types are displayed at the time of purchase.

Only accept payments from these card types (support varies between payment providers)

With the Only accept payments from these card types setting, you can choose which payment types to offer (provided your payment provider supports them).

Require CVCs for staff payments

By default, when a Staff Member adds payment to the system via credit card, they are not required to enter the CVC number when processing the transaction. However, the Accepted POS Payment Types section includes an option to require this number.

• If you check the Require CVCs for staff payments option, the system prompts the Staff member to enter the CVC number if they attempt to process a transaction without it.
• If the Require CVCs for staff payments option is unchecked, the CVC field remains visible in the transaction window. However, it is not a required field.

What is a CVC Number? The Card Verification Code, or CVC, is an extra code printed on your debit or credit card. With most cards (Visa, MasterCard, bank cards, etc.), the final three digits of the number display on the signature strip on the reverse of your card. For American Express cards, the four small digits display on the front of the card.

In addition to your online credit card processing facility, you may accept other offline payment forms via POS (Point of Sale), such as POS-Cash, POS-Visa, or Bank Transfer.

If so, check the options you offer as a business under the POS Payment Types section. The system does not include anything you leave unchecked in the drop-down payment menu for your Staff Members. 

Suggest applying a POS transaction when manually marking a Booking as Paid

The Suggest applying a POS transaction when manually marking a Booking as Paid setting determines whether the system prompts Staff to apply a POS payment when marking a booking as paid.

• If the option is selected (default value), the following message displays when updating the booking:
  
  
  
  Confirming this update adds a general POS payment to the booking.
  
  Admin or Staff can deselect the setting and opt not to apply a POS payment. For example, when setting up your account, you can enter bookings made before creating your Checkfront account. You can mark these invoices as paid and apply a POS payment.
   
• If the option is not selected, the following message displays when updating the booking:
  
  
  
  Confirming the update does NOT automatically add a payment for the outstanding balance to the invoice.

Although Checkfront provides several POS payment types by default, you may need to create your own. Click the Add POS Payment Type icon (+) to do this.  

This option reveals a new field to enter a label for the custom POS payment type. 

After entering your label, click the blue Save button at the bottom of the screen. Refresh your page, and you can now see the new POS payment type included in your list of options.

Custom POS payment types are deleted Custom POS payment types are deleted from the system if unchecked and saved.

After Customers complete their booking, the system automatically directs them to a standard Checkfront booking receipt page. This page contains a brief thank you message and a copy of the booking invoice. Customers also have the option to download the invoice in PDF format.

Instead of displaying the standard page, you can redirect Customers to a page on your website by entering the address in the Custom Receipt URL field.

You can also pass information to the URL via variables to help you build a customized thank you page, for example:

https://www.example.com/thankyou/?booking_id={$BOOKING_ID}&total={$BOOKING_TOTAL}

Personally identifiable information We do not pass personally identifiable information in the URL for security reasons.

Booking invoice/receipt Inserting a booking invoice/receipt on a Custom Receipt URL page is not supported. You must pass the information using variables or our API (which is available to select plans)

What is a variable? A variable is a placeholder that the system replaces with specific information—such as a booking ID, booking date, or booking status. In this case, variables pass information to your custom webpage.

The following variables can be appended to your Custom Receipt URL.

Conversion tracking Any conversion tracking integrations, such as Google Analytics & Google Ads plugins, DO NOT WORK when using a Custom Receipt URL. You must build in tracking on your Customer receipt page. Instead, use API notifications to notify a remote server of a new booking or update its status.

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect your bookings from fraudulent payment attempts and transactions. 

To configure reCAPTCHA, follow these steps.

1. Ensure you have turned on the Enable reCAPTCHA for the payment page setting.
2. Get reCAPTCHA V3 (API) keys via the link provided, as this integration works with reCAPTCHA version 3. This process registers your site with Google reCAPTCHA, including your Checkfront domain (For example, yourcompanyname.checkfront.com).
3. Enter the Site Key and Secret Key within the fields provided under your reCAPTCHA Settings.
4. Note that we set the Threshold to Google's recommended value of 0.5. This value is not adjustable.
5. SAVE your settings! 

These steps are described in detail below.

Turning this setting on is the first step to adding extra protection to your payment page. You can turn this setting off to turn off the feature.

First, click the Get reCAPTCHA keys link to Register a new site with Google reCAPTCHA. 

The registration process generates your reCAPTCHA keys and includes the following steps.

1. Choose reCAPTCHA v3 as the reCAPTCHA type for your site.
2. Add your Checkfront Domain. (For example, yourcompanyname.checkfront.com)
3. Enter the email addresses of the Owners of the site. 
4. Accept the reCAPTCHA Terms of Service.
5. Choose the option to Send alerts to site owners if Google detects a problem.

Checkfront domain Add your Checkfront domain when registering a new site, as instructed in step 2 above, to avoid blocked payments due to suspicious traffic.

Supported reCAPTCHA version We only support reCAPTCHA v3 with Checkfront.

Enter site key, secret key, and threshold values into CheckFront

Back to top

 

Enter the Site Key generated by Google for your registered site.

Enter the Secret Key generated by Google for your registered site.

Set your tolerance level for suspicious interactions. Scores range from 0.0 to 1.0, with 0.0 indicating abusive traffic and 1.0 indicating good traffic. By default, the system sets the threshold to a Score of 0.5.

Learn more about reCAPTCHA For a detailed look at our reCAPTCHA v3 integration, including how reCAPTCHA subtly works on the payment pages, check out the following article: Google reCAPTCHA v3

For more information on creating a reCAPTCHA v3 site and your options, please consult the Google reCAPTCHA guide: About Google reCAPTCHA

Live payment providers reCAPTCHA v3 only works with LIVE payment providers, not Sandbox Mode.

• Can we authorize a deposit to collect a security deposit without charging it?

  We cannot hold credit card details and charge later. Rebilling only occurs on Checkfront's side if a transaction exists on the invoice, such as from a deposit. 
  
   

Next Steps

You can learn more about ecommerce settings for taxes with the following article in this series.

< Configuring ecommerce settings for payment providers    |     Configuring ecommerce settings for taxes >