Set Up and Accept Deposits with Square Appointments

With deposits for Square Appointments, you can charge a portion of the service cost when a customer books an appointment and charge the remaining balance later.

Deposits with Square Appointments is currently in Beta

Note: If you are using Square Appointments POS on Android devices, Square Register or Square Terminal in any part of your business, you should NOT turn on deposits (Beta).

Checkout will be disabled, and you will not be able to take payments on Square Appointments POS. Please wait to turn on deposits until this feature is no longer in Beta and checkout is supported on Android devices, Square Register and Square Terminal.

Note: If you are using Square Appointments POS on iOS devices, certain payment methods and features will be disabled in checkout on iOS if Deposits (Beta) is turned on.

Payment methods and features disabled on iOS with Deposits (Beta) turned on:

Tap to Pay: You will not be able to accept contactless payments.
Invoice: You will not be able to use invoice as the payment method.
Checkout in offline mode: you will not be able to accept payments in offline mode.
Loyalty Rewards: You will not be able to redeem loyalty rewards for customers.

If these payment methods and features are more important to your business needs than deposits (beta) is, please wait to turn on deposits (beta) until all payment methods and features are supported on iOS with deposits (beta) turned on.

There are no deposits (beta) limitations in Square Appointments POS in Dashboard - all payment methods and features will work as usual with Deposits (Beta) turned on.

Step 1: Set Up Deposits

You can access your deposit settings from your Square Dashboard. When deposits are turned on, the deposit amount will be charged to all customers when booking any of your fixed-price services. A deposit will not be charged for variably-priced services, class bookings, nor services in recurring appointments.

You can set the deposit amount as a percentage of the service cost or a fixed amount. If a client books two services in their appointment, they will be charged a single deposit that combines the deposit amount for each service.

To set up and accept deposits:

Log in to your Square Dashboard and click Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations.
Select Require Deposit.
For Deposit Amount, select if you want the deposit to be a set percentage of the service cost or a fixed amount.

Step 2: Add Taxes

If a client is a no-show or cancels, and your policy dictates you keep the deposit, you can set a tax for the deposit forfeited by the customer. The tax will not apply when the customer pays the deposit, only after it is forfeited. Taxes for completed services with deposits will be collected as they normally would.

Note: Business owners are responsible for setting a tax rate for forfeited deposits that complies with the laws and regulations of their region.

To collect tax on forfeited deposits:

Toggle on Collect tax for deposits when clients no show or cancel.
Enter the tax percentage in the Tax Rate field.

Step 3: Create a Deposits Policy

You must establish your own deposit policies that make the most sense for your individual business needs. Deposit policies are independent of your cancellation policy. Square does not have the ability to enforce your deposit policy.

The policy should explain:

Whether a deposit will be fully refunded, partially refunded, or not refunded.
The timeframe within which to cancel the booking to get the deposit refunded.

To create a deposit policy:

Under Required Deposit Policy, enter your refund policy for your deposit.
If you have other policy information for your deposits, enter that information under Additional policy.
Click Save to save your deposit settings.

Note: Deposits will show up in your Sales Summary report as Payments and Sales, depending on the state of the appointment.

Book a Square Appointment with Deposits

Deposits can only be charged on your booking site. Customers can see their total, the amount due at the time of appointment, and the amount to be paid now during booking.

If your business automatically accepts bookings, the customer’s card will be charged for the Deposit when they book the appointment. They will receive confirmation at the end of the booking flow that a Deposit has been paid.

Deposits will show up in your reporting as Payments and Sales, depending on the state of the appointment. Learn more about Square Appointments reporting

Accept and Manage Deposits with Square Appointments

A deposit can only be paid while booking an appointment on your booking site. Clients can see the total balance, the deposit amount to pay during booking, and the balance due after service is completed.

If your business automatically accepts bookings, the client’s card will be charged for the deposit when they book the appointment. They will receive confirmation at the end of their booking that their deposit is successful.

Manually Accept Bookings with Deposits

If you manually accept bookings, your customer’s card will not be charged at the time of booking. Instead, the customer’s card will have a hold for the deposit amount. This hold will expire after seven days. You must accept the booking within those seven days in order to be able to charge the deposit.

If you do not accept and charge the deposit within seven days, you can still accept the appointment, but you cannot charge your customer for the deposit.

If a customer pays the deposit, the amount paid for the deposit along with the remaining balance will be displayed in the booking details. Your customer won’t receive a separate receipt for the paid deposit. However, they will receive an email confirmation of the confirmed booking that includes the amount paid for a deposit.

Customers will pay the remaining balance at the time of checkout.

Learn more about manually accepting bookings with Square Appointments.

Edit an Appointment with a Deposit

When you remove a service from an appointment for which a customer paid a deposit, the deposit will not be automatically refunded. The deposit amount paid will remain the same for the appointment, but the total and remaining balance will update.

Learn more about editing an appointment.

Cancel and Refund an Appointment with a Deposit

You can cancel an appointment with a deposit or mark it as “No-Show”. You can choose to fully refund the deposits for services in an appointment by turning on the Refund deposit toggle when you cancel or mark an appointment as a no-show.

If your client cancels an appointment with a deposit, you can choose to refund the deposit by issuing a refund at Dashboard > Transactions. You can input the amount you want to refund.

Learn more about canceling an appointment.

Learn more about refunding payments.

Forfeit a Deposit

When a deposit is forfeited — meaning you do not refund the deposit in the event of cancellation or no-show based on your deposit policy — the appointment details will reflect the paid deposit amount.

Earn Commissions with Deposits

If your team members receive commission for completed appointments, their commissions are calculated based on the total service cost, not the remaining balance paid after the service is completed.

Learn more about commissions with Square Appointments.