Tip #17: How to mandate partial payment for your appointments

Tip #17: How to mandate partial payment for your appointments




When you require partial payments during the booking process, customers can only schedule with you after paying a certain amount in advance. This deposit acts as a commitment between both parties. Apart from that, it has many more advantages.

 

Benefits of mandating partial payment

  • Reduced no-shows and cancellations: As the customer has made a deposit, it's less likely that they'll cancel or not show up for the appointment.

  • Only serious inquiries: When people have to invest financially, they will book only when they are sure about proceeding. This filters out customers who book casually with the intention of canceling later.

  • Streamlined processes: Implementing the collection of partial payment through an online scheduler reduces the time and effort needed for follow-up and manual invoicing.

  • Stable revenue: Since only serious customers pop in and book appointments, revenue will be stable for your business.

  • Better time management: As most of the bookings happen without cancellation, you can efficiently manage the time slots for staff members and resources.

Use case

Consider an event management company that has an online scheduler embedded into its website. When clients book event services, such as catering, venue rentals, event decorations, and more, a partial payment requirement ensures commitment and helps cover initial expenses. In certain industries, such as event planning, customers often explore multiple options, which indicates uncertainty about committing to a particular service provider. By mandating partial payment, event planners or service providers can safeguard themselves against last-minute cancellations. Collecting a portion upfront allows event planners to proceed confidently with organizing the events, knowing that the client is invested in the process.

 

Zoho Bookings allows you to set the deposit amount to be paid while booking an appointment. It provides detailed customization by allowing you to configure different partial payment costs for different services (i.e., each services can have its own deposit amount).

 

Steps to set up partial payment

  1. Click Services on the Bookings menu bar, then select the required service on the left pane.

  1. Click Service Information in the middle pane.

  2. In the Type of Payment dropdown, select the option Deposit. A textbox will appear; enter the payment amount that should be paid in advance in the text box and click Save.



Now, when the customer tries to book a service with you, they'll be prompted to pay this deposit amount. But for this to work as intended, you'll need to configure a payment gateway:

  1. Navigate to Integrations > Payments and configure any one of the payment gateways available. Refer to this help page for more details about adding a payment gateway.



  2. After adding a payment gateway, enable the toggle beside Online Payments.



The setup is done; your booking page will allow appointments only when this deposit amount is paid.

 

Although implementing a partial deposit is necessary in many cases, it's also imperative that you stay flexible to show that you understand reasonable requests. This helps maintain good client relations.

 

Thank you for checking out this post. Please leave you questions and feedback in the comments section, or write to us at support@zohobookings.com.

 

Regards,

The Zoho Bookings Team

 


 

Related articles

  1. Configure Payments
  2. Payment Integration

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #13: Identify where your bookings come from with Source Tracking

      Source tracking is the practice of identifying where your bookings originated. This is important, because online bookings come from a wide variety of sources like social media platforms, your website, email and ad campaigns, partner websites, organic

    • Tip #17: How to mandate partial payment for your appointments

      When you require partial payments during the booking process, customers can only schedule with you after paying a certain amount in advance. This deposit acts as a commitment between both parties. Apart from that, it has many more advantages. Benefits

    • Tip #18: Organize a group workshop in a few steps

      It's the season for workshops—they're everywhere, catering to diverse interests and needs. Whether for more professional goals like leadership development or creative endeavors like painting, there's an abundance of workshops offered every day. A scheduler

    • Tip #16: Custom labels for staff, service, and resources

      Every industry uses its own jargon. Take healthcare, for example; when you visit a doctor, it's not just an appointment, it's a consultation. The people who provide consultations are the providers. Similarly, in the tranquil world of a spa, a massage

    • Tip #15: Customize service prices for each staff member

      It's common practice for a service to be priced differently based on the staff member providing it. For example, an experienced hair stylist may charge more for a haircut compared to the other stylists. This pricing strategy allows businesses to charge

    • Recent Topics

    • sales IQ issue on website

      i integrated the zoho sales IQ code on the website but it is comming in distroted form i am sharing the screenshot below the website is bulit in wix platform

    • Multi-currency and Products

      One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. There

    • Deprecation of the Zoho OAuth connector

      Hello everyone, At Zoho, we continuously evaluate our integrations to ensure they meet the highest standards of security, reliability, and compliance. As part of these ongoing efforts, we've made the decision to deprecate the Zoho OAuth default connector

    • I need to know the IP address of ZOHO CRM.

      The link below is the IP address for Analytics, do you have CRM's? IP address for Analytics I would like to know the IP address of ZOHO CRM to allow communication as the API server I am developing is also run from CRM. Moderation Update: The post below

    • Important Update: Google Ads & YouTube Ads API Migration

      To maintain platform performance and align with Google's newest requirements, we are updating the Google Ads and YouTube Ads integrations by migrating from API v19 to the newer v22, before the official deprecation of v19 on February 11, 2026. Reference:

    • Zoho recruit's blueprint configuration is not functioning as mapped

      Current Status: Zoho Blueprint is not functioning as configured. Issue: We are moving a Candidate status in Zoho Recruit "for active file" but we encountered: "Status cannot be changed for records involved in Blueprint." This happens to various client

    • Add notes in spreadsheet view

      It would be great if we could Add/edit notes in the spreadsheet view of contacts/leads. This would enable my sales teams to greatly increase their number of calls. Also viewing the most recent note in the Contact module would also be helpful.

    • Super Admin Logging in as another User

      How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

    • Blocklist candidates in Zoho Recruit

      We’re introducing Block Candidate, which helps recruiters to permanently restrict a candidate from applying to current/future job openings. Once the candidate is blocked, they will no longer be able to participate in the recruitment process. This will

    • Admin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account

      Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?

    • Zoho Desk - Upsert Ticket

      Hi Desk Team, It is common to request more information from end-users. Using forms is a great way to ensure all the required information is collected. It would be great if there were an "upsert" option on the Zoho Form -> Zoho Desk integration which would

    • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

      The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update

    • Client Side Scripts for Meetings Module

      Will zoho please add client side scripting support to the meetings module? Our workflow requires most meeting details have a specific format to work with other software we have. So we rely on a custom function to auto fill certain things. We currently

    • Introducing Multiple Sandbox Types and Support for Module's Data Population

      Register here for the upcoming Focus Group webinar on Multiple Sandbox | Help documentation to learn more about the new enhancements Hello everyone,  Sandbox in CRM is a testing environment for users to create and test new configurations like workflow

    • Creator Offline

      We had online access setup and working on our iphones. We have just set it up on an 'Android Tablet' and it is not downloading all the images? We use it to show customers our catalogue. Any ideas. Offline components all setup on both devices

    • Updated font library: New font styles and custom font options in Zoho Sheet

      Zoho Sheet's font library now supports 500+ font styles in 60+ languages! The updated font library is stacked with new font styles, and some of the previously available font styles have been replaced with equivalent options. There are two ways you can

    • Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option

      Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to

    • Enable or disable any Field Rule!

      Hello Zoho Forms Community, We are excited to announce a powerful new enhancement to Field Rules that gives you greater control and flexibility in managing your form logic! Previously, if you wanted to temporarily deactivate a field rule, you had two

    • Marketing Tip #20: Increase traffic with strong meta titles and descriptions

      Meta titles and descriptions are what people see first on search results before they ever click through to your website. If your pages use generic titles or basic descriptions, you miss the chance to stand out, and search engines may not know which page

    • Different form submission results for submitter and internal users

      I'm looking for suggestions on how to show an external submitter a few results while sending internal users all the results from the answers provided by the external user. The final page of our form has a section with detailed results and a section with

    • Kanban view on Zoho CRM mobile app!

      What is Kanban? The name doesn't sound English, right? Yes, Kanban is a Japanese word which means 'Card you can see'. As per the meaning, Kanban in CRM is a type of list view in which the records will be displayed in cards and categorized under the given

    • Not able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed Jobs

      Not able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed Jobs

    • Dheeraj Sudan and Meenu Hinduja-How do I customize Zoho apps to suit my needs?

      Hi Everyone, I'm Meenu Hinduja and my husband Dheeraj Sudan, run a business. I’m looking to tweak a few things to fit my needs, and I’d love to hear what customizations others have done. Any tips or examples would be super helpful! Regards Dheeraj Sudan

    • is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message?

      is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message? I want to change this text

    • Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

      I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,

    • Capture Last check-in date & days since

      I have two custom fields on my Account form, these are "Date of Last Check-In" and "Days Since Last Contact" Using a custom function how can I pull the date from the last check-in and display it in the field "Date of Last Check-In"? and then also display the number of days since last check-in in the "Days SInce Last Contact" field? I tried following a couple of examples but got myself into a bit of a muddle!

    • Any recommendations for Australian Telephony Integration providers?

      HI,  I am looking for some advice on phone providers as we are looking to upgrade our phone system, does anybody have experience with any of the Australian providers that integrate with CRM Telephony? So far we are looking at RingCentral and Amazon Connect, and would love to hear feedback on any of the other providers you might have tried.  Thank you

    • CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

      Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),

    • Enhance Appointment Buffers in Zoho Bookings

      There was previously a long-standing feature request related to enhancing the way appointment buffers work in Zoho Bookings, but it looks like the original post has been deleted. I am therefore adding a new request that Zoho Bookings adjust how appointment

    • Subscriptions for service call

      So we install products and we want to offer a service contract for the customers yearly service calls to be billed monthly. So ideally at some point we want to email them a quote for their needs. WE will choice it our end based on the equipment. It would

    • Delay in rendering Zoho Recruit - Careers in the ZappyWorks

      I click on the Careers link (https://zappyworks.zohorecruit.com/jobs/Careers) on the ZappyWorks website expecting to see the job openings. The site redirects me to Zoho Recruit, but after the redirect, the page just stays blank for several seconds. I'm

    • How to add interviews through API

      I'm trying to add an interview without much luck. The documentation gives examples of adding just about everything except an interview. However, the issue might be the way I'm formatting it, because the documentation is unclear to me. It seems as if the xml should be passed in the url, which seems unusual. I've tried the data as both plain and character escaped, but nothing seems to work, nor do I even get an error response. https://recruit.zoho.com/recruit/private/xml/Interviews/addRecords?authtoken=***&scope=recruitapi&version=2&xmlData=<Interviews> <row

    • Connection to other user

      Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.

    • How to invite friends on other social media platforms to one of my group chats in arattai?

      Hello, I have formed chat groups in arattai. I want to invite my friends on other social media platforms like WhatsApp/ FB to one of my groups. Different friends would be invited to different groups. How to share an invite link of one of my groups to

    • Cliq does not sync messages after Sleep on Mac

      I'm using the mac app of Cliq. When I open my mac after it was in sleep mode, Cliq does not sync the messages that I received. I always have to reload using cmd + R, which is not what I want when using a chat application.

    • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

      my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space

    • Search not working!

      I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?

    • Set expiration date on document and send reminder

      We have many company documents( for example business registration), work VISA documents. It will be nice if we can set a expiry date and set reminders ( for example 90 days, 60 days, 30 days etc.,) Does Zoho workdrive provide that option?

    • Analytics : How to share to an external client ?

      We have a use case where a client wants a portal so that several of his users can view dashboards that we have created for them in Zoho Analytics. They are not part of our company or Zoho One account. The clients want the ability to have user specific,

    • Automatically Update Form Attachment Service with Newly added Fields

      Hi, When I have a Form Setup and connected to a 3rd Party Service such as OneDrive for Form Attachments, when I later add a new Upload Field I have to remove and redo the entire 3rd Party Setup from scratch. This needs to be improved, such as when new

    • Next Page