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

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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.

 

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Which plans include this feature?

Legacy:  Soho, Pro, Plus, Enterprise, Flex
New:  Growth (Subscription), Growth (Per Booking), Managed
→ Learn more about our new plans or how to change your plan.

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, new or both?

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

 

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

 

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To change this section, 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.

 

You can find more instructions for setting up your payment provider here: Payment Providers.

 

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

 

A minimum of 10% deposit is required on all bookings for accounts on plans with the Booking Fee. This means if your deposit is set to less than 10% or you have a fixed deposit that equals less than 10% of the booking total, the required deposit is bumped up 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 choose whether to process payments (full or partial) and whether to require a deposit (percentage or fixed) at the time of booking.

 

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

Reservation-only mode. No payment is collected. You can also use Reservation-only mode if the order value is zero.

 

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

This setting charges the Customer the total of the entire order at the time of booking. Upon Checkout, the Customer must pay the invoice balance in full.

 

Take a percentage deposit (deposit required)

You can require the Customer to pay a portion of the booking total at Checkout. You can preset a percentage, and the system calculates the deposit owed during Checkout.

 

Important! If you choose 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

This setting is similar to the previous option. However, this option takes a predetermined amount regardless of the invoice total. Once completed, the booking reflects the amount paid and shows a balance due.

If you enabled the Pay Now Link in the invoice setup, the Customer could 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.

 

Important! 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.

 

Customers can visit the same payment link, such as the Pay Now Link in their invoice, to pay a deposit and the remaining balance. The Customer's invoice shows the expected amount by labelling the due amount as Deposit Due or Balance Due accordingly.

 

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

You can optionally charge the full booking amount during Checkout if the start date falls within a specific time 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

Check this 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

You may 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. You can activate this within Invoice Options (Manage > Layout > Invoice > Pay Now Link).

 

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Checkfront enables you to collect payments from various credit card platforms. These include Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, Diners Club, Discover, and JCB.

Check with your payment provider before making your selections here, as not all payment providers can offer all card types.

 

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

You can choose which payment types to display (provided your payment provider supports them).

 

Require CVC's 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, an option to require this number is included in the Accepted POS Payment Types section.

If you check this option, a Staff member is prompted to enter the CVC number if they attempt to process a transaction without it.

If the option is unchecked, the CVC field is still displayed 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 are printed on the signature strip on the reverse of your card. For American Express cards, the four small digits are printed on the front of the card.

 

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In addition to your online credit card processing facility, you may also accept credit cards and other offline payment forms via POS (Point of Sale). If this is the case, check the options you offer as a business. Anything you leave unchecked is not included as an option in the dropdown payment menu for your Staff Members.

 

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

By default, a POS payment is recorded in your system when you manually mark a booking as paid. Sometimes, you must mark a booking as paid rather than generating a POS payment.

For example, when setting up your account, you can enter bookings made before creating your Checkfront account. You can mark the invoice for these as paid. 

 

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.

 

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

 

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After Customers complete their booking, they are automatically directed 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}

 

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

 

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)

 

The following are variables you can append to your Custom Receipt URL.

 

Variable	Description
{$BOOKING_ID}	Booking ID (example: UHXE-492058)
{$BOOKING_TOTAL}	Total value of the booking
{$BOOKING_SKU}	A comma-separated list of item or product SKUs and order quantities in the booking (example: item1:3,item2:1).
{$BOOKING_DATE}	Start date of the booking.
{$BOOKING_PAID}	The amount paid on the booking. This value could be equal to the booking total, the deposit amount, or '0' if no payment is required.
{$BOOKING_STATUS}	The status of the booking. This value is often 'PAID' or 'PART,' but could be other statuses if payments aren't required.

 

Important! 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. Consider using API notifications instead to notify a remote server of a new booking or update its status.

 

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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 the Enable reCaptcha for the payment page is turned on.
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 the Threshold is set 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. Turn this setting off to disable the feature.

 

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. Opt to Send alerts to site owners if Google detects a problem.

 

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

 

Only reCAPTCHA v3 is supported with Checkfront.

 

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 threshold is set to a Score of 0.5.

 

Learn about our reCAPTCHA v3 integration here, including how reCAPTCHA subtly works on the payment pages. Google reCAPTCHA v3

 

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

 

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

 

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• Can we authorize, but not charge, a deposit to collect a security deposit?

  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.
  
  

 

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