Money inFollow-up
Customer deposits
Take a deposit at the point of booking, so the first week of work is already paid for.
Tools
HoneyBook, Acuity Scheduling, Calendly, Stripe
Outcomes
Deposit requested when the booking is made • Deposits tracked against each job • Fewer unpaid bookings
Documentation
Instruction-ready detail below
What breaks
Bookings are confirmed by a text message and the customer pays at the end, so the owner buys the materials and does the labour first. A late cancellation then costs the week twice: the money never arrives and the slot is gone.
What the workflow does
- Request a deposit at the moment the booking is made, rather than at the end of the job.
- Track which deposits are paid, which are outstanding, and which job each one belongs to.
- Chase an unpaid deposit a couple of days before the appointment, while the slot can still be released.
- Write the deposit against the invoice when the job is finished, so the balance is obvious.
What stays human
You set the deposit percentage and the jobs that are exempt, and you approve the wording of the request before it is sent.