How to: Creating a "Book Now, Confirm, Pay Deposit" booking flow

A quick note about this type of booking flow:

This is similar to our "Book Now, Pay Later" configuration whereby third-party agents need to confirm or negotiate with operators that booking inquiries can be confirmed before asking the customer for a payment. This tutorial differs slightly as it will ask for a deposit payment instead of a full payment

 

This Booking flow is currently only available for Checkfront accounts using Items (Inventory > Items). 

To set this type of booking flow up you will first need to set up a payment gateway that will allow you to accept credit card payments from your customers. Once you have set this up then you can continue with the steps below.

1) First set your deposit amount by going to Manage >Ecommerce Setup

2) From Manage > Setup > Configuration and make sure Customer Status is set to Waiting. 

It is important to note that we are using the Waiting status because this status does not lock the inventory as it has not been confirmed. Other statuses such as Pending or Reserved will lock the booking. For more information on statuses please visit: https://www.checkfront.com/support/docs/layout/booking-statuses

3) Create a Payment Collection Status

Go to Manage > Layout > Statuses and click Add to create a new status that will be the trigger to send out the payment request. Name the new status Collect or Payment or whichever you feel is appropriate and then click Save. 

4) Go to Manage > Notifications to create a new notification. 

Change the Booking Event to match your newly created status. Choose who receives the email such as the customer and/or staff.

Important: Be sure to include the variable {$BOOKING_PAYMENT_URL} in the text area. 

You can include this variable as is, or make it the target of a link by using simple HTML code. This will direct customers to your payment gateway with the appropriate invoice data included.

5) Turn off the Ecommerce setting for the desired items.

For the items that you want this feature to apply to, go into the pricing tab of each item and turn off E-commerce. You may need to click on the "Additional Options" on the lower part of the screen to see this

That's it! You've completed the deposit settings.

6)  Confirm the bookings

When customers book an item the default invoice status will be set to Waiting. Which does not lock the booking inventory.

Once you have reviewed and confirmed the booking, change the status of the booking to Collect/Payment. The automatic email notification will go out asking for the deposit.

 The customer will receive an email notifying them that the booking has been confirmed. Once the customer has paid, the invoice status will change to Deposit automatically. 

Depending on how you have scheduled notifications setup additional notifications will be sent asking for the rest of the payment at a later time. For more information on schedule notifications please visit https://www.checkfront.com/support/docs/manage/email-notifications

We hope this helps! If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at support@checkfront.com!