Deposits for large groups

A deposit is money a large group pays online for its booking. It goes into your venue's own Stripe account, comes off the group's bill on the iPad, and goes back to the guest's card if they cancel in time. This page covers connecting Stripe, the rules you set, what the guest sees, what you can do with each deposit, and how deposits show in your reports. Deposits come with the Reservations add-on (see Reservations), and they stay off until an admin connects Stripe and switches them on.

How deposits work

Who pays depends on the size of the group, in three bands you set:

• Small groups book free, as before: their booking page request waits for your Confirm.
• Groups in your paying range — 7 to 12 guests to start with — pay the deposit on your booking page to book. Their booking exists only once the payment goes through, and it's confirmed straight away: nobody at the bar has to confirm it.
• Larger groups, up to your Largest party online, send a request as before. If you can take them, you ask for the deposit and they get a link to pay it. The booking is confirmed when they pay.

You can also ask for a deposit on any booking that is still booked — a group of 8 that called, say. Bookings your team takes never ask for one by themselves.

The deposit is the number of guests × your deposit per guest ($300.00 to start with), in pesos. Guests pay on Stripe's secure page, by card — Apple Pay and Google Pay work too. OXXO cash payments, SPEI bank transfers and payments in instalments aren't offered.

The money goes straight into your Stripe account, in your name: your balance, your payouts, your refunds. Barform never holds it and takes no fee on it. Stripe charges its usual fees on each payment, to your Stripe account, as for any payment you take with Stripe.

What happens to a deposit next:

The 48 hours are your Free cancellation up to (hours before); each deposit keeps the window it was paid under.

Connect your Stripe account

Deposits are paid into a Stripe account that belongs to your venue. If you already take payments with Stripe, connect that account; if not, you create one in the same window.

Who can do this: admins.

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Reservations › Deposits.
2. Read the Stripe card: "Deposits are paid to your own Stripe account. Barform never holds the money."
3. Click Connect Stripe. Under the button: "Already have Stripe? Sign in and choose your account. No account yet? Create it in the same window."
4. In Stripe's window, sign in as the person who owns your venue's Stripe account and choose the account — or create a new one — and confirm.
5. You're back on the page with "Stripe is connected." The card shows "Connected:" with your account's name, the account's details, and Charges on.
6. If the card says "Charges aren't on yet — finish your setup in Stripe", Stripe still needs details about your business. Click Open Stripe, finish them there, and come back: deposits can't be switched on until the account can take payments.

Open Stripe opens your Stripe dashboard in a new tab, where you see each deposit, its fees and your payouts.

• If you close Stripe's window without finishing: "You cancelled in Stripe — nothing changed."
• If it takes too long: "The connection took too long — try again." Other problems: "Stripe didn't connect. Try again."
• An account that doesn't settle in pesos shows "This account doesn't settle in pesos: Stripe converts each deposit (+2%)."
• Each deposit is a payment on your Stripe account, made in your business's name.
• If a guest disputes a deposit with their bank (a chargeback), you answer it in your Stripe dashboard; meanwhile the booking reads Disputed in Stripe. A dispute you lose shows on Income as money out.

Disconnect Stripe

1. In Settings › Reservations › Deposits, click Disconnect.
2. Read "Disconnect Stripe?": "Deposits stop: groups go back to sending requests, and Barform can no longer refund deposits already paid — refund those in Stripe."
3. Click Disconnect. You see "Stripe is disconnected."

Set the rules

The Deposits for groups card holds the switch and the rules. Each box saves when you leave it ("Saving…", then "Saved").

Who can do this: admins. A manager who opens the page by its address can read it: "You can view venue settings, but only admins can change them."

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Reservations › Deposits.
2. Switch on Ask large groups for a deposit. Until Stripe is connected with charges on, it reads "Connect Stripe first." and can't be switched on.
3. Set Deposit per guest and the paying range under "Pay online when booking: groups of 7 to 12": Smallest group that pays online and Largest group that pays online.
4. Set Free cancellation up to (hours before), Time to pay when booking (minutes) and A deposit link lasts (hours).
5. Choose what happens to Deposit money the bill doesn't use.
6. Read the line under the card. It sums up your bands, for example "1–6 guests: book free · 7–12: pay the deposit to book · 13–30: send a request; you ask for the deposit with a link · more than 30: call or message", and gives an example: "A group of 8 pays $2,400.00 when booking."

• Largest party online, on Settings › Reservations › Booking page, is the largest group your booking page takes at all, and it starts at 6 — below the paying range. Until you raise it, the card warns "Largest party online is 6, so no group can pay online. Raise it under Booking page." Raise it to the largest group you want to hear from online, such as 30.
• Changing Free cancellation up to (hours before) doesn't change deposits already paid: each keeps the window it was paid under.
• An amount out of range is refused with "Enter an amount between $1.00 and $10,000.00."; a number out of range with "Enter a whole number between" and the limits.
• When you switch deposits on and your WhatsApp is already set up, Barform sends the deposit request message to WhatsApp for approval (see Guest messages).

What the guest sees

Booking a table and paying

1. On your booking page, the guest picks the party size. For a group in your paying range, a line under Guests says, for example, "Groups of 7 to 12 pay a deposit of $300.00 per person to book: $2,400.00 for 8. It comes off your bill."
2. The guest picks the night and time. Above the button: "Free cancellation until" with the date and time, "After that, or if you don't come, the deposit isn't refunded." For a booking less than 48 hours away: "This booking is less than 48 hours away, so the deposit isn't refundable."
3. The guest taps Continue to payment · $2,400.00 ("Opening the payment…") and pays on Stripe's page. When the form is on your own website, the button reads Pay $2,400.00 securely with Stripe and opens Stripe in the whole window.
4. Back on your page: "Confirming your payment…", then "Your table is booked", with the night, the guests and "deposit paid $2,400.00", a See or change your booking button that opens their own page, and "Save this link: it's where you can see or cancel your booking."

At the same time the booking lands in your book, confirmed, booked by Website, with Deposit paid · $2,400.00. The guest gets the confirmation with the deposit's terms, and your notices email gets "Deposit paid" (see Guest messages).

• Nothing is booked until the payment goes through. An attempt that isn't paid appears nowhere: not in the book, not on the iPads, not in any count.
• If the guest leaves Stripe's page without paying: "Payment not completed — your table isn't booked yet." If the time to pay runs out: "The time to pay ran out, so your table isn't booked. You can book again.", with Book again.
• If the guest already had a request for that night from the same phone, it becomes the paid booking: no double booking.
• A guest who pays twice, or pays for a booking that no longer exists, is refunded in full at once: "Your payment went through, but this booking can't take it, so it's being refunded to your card."
• If the confirmation is slow: "Your payment went through; the confirmation is taking longer than usual. You'll get it by text or email."
• Pages come back in the language the guest used.
• Larger groups read "Groups of more than 12: send your request. If we can take it, we'll send you a link to pay the deposit ($300.00 per person) to confirm." Their button stays Request a table.
• Other messages the guest can see: "You already have a booking with a deposit that night. Use the link in your confirmation to see it, or message us.", "Online payment isn't available right now — please message us." (deposits were switched off meanwhile), "We couldn't open the payment. Please try again in a moment." and "A group this size pays a deposit to book. Please reload the page and try again." (the page was opened before you changed the rules).
• A booking form of your own on your website can't take payments: Barform answers a group in the paying range with your booking page's address, where they pay.

The guest's own page

The guest's messages carry a link to their own page (see Reservations). With a deposit, it shows where the money stands:

• Asked for a deposit: "Pay your deposit to confirm" — for example "$4,500.00 for 15 guests. It comes off your bill. Pay by" and the date — with Pay the deposit and the cancellation line. Back from Stripe without paying: "Payment not completed — your booking isn't confirmed yet."
• Paid: "Deposit paid: $2,400.00 on" and the date.
• Being refunded: "Your deposit of $2,400.00 is being refunded to your card." Refunded: "Your deposit of $2,400.00 was refunded on" the date, "Banks take 5–10 business days to show it."
• Kept: "The deposit of $2,400.00 wasn't refunded."
• A link that ran out: "The link to pay the deposit has expired. Message the bar for a new one."

To cancel, the guest taps Cancel my booking. The question says what happens to the money: "Cancel this booking? Your $2,400.00 deposit will be refunded to your card." — or, late, "Cancel this booking? It's less than 48 hours away, so your $2,400.00 deposit won't be refunded." Afterwards: "Your booking is cancelled. Your deposit is on its way back to your card." or "Your booking is cancelled. The deposit isn't refunded."

• A booking with a deposit can't be changed online: "To change the night, time or party size of a booking with a deposit, please call us." You change it in the back office.
• A guest without a deposit can't grow the party into your paying range online: "A group this size pays a deposit to book, so the bar has to make this change — please call us."
• Replying 2 to a text or WhatsApp never cancels a booking with a deposit. The guest gets the link to their page, where they see what happens to the deposit before they cancel.

Ask a group for a deposit

For a web request above your paying range, or any booking that is still booked. The guest gets a link to their own page and pays there; the booking is confirmed when they do.

Who can do this: admins and managers, in the back office.

1. Go to Service › Reservations and find the booking.
   • A web request above your paying range reads Web · deposit needed. Click Ask for deposit on its row.
   • On any other booking, click ··· › Ask for deposit.
2. Read "Ask (name) for a deposit?", for example "15 guests × $300.00 = $4,500.00. They get a link by WhatsApp and email and have 48 hours to pay; the booking is confirmed when they do." When part is already paid, it asks for the difference: "… = $4,800.00, less $2,400.00 already paid = $2,400.00."
3. Click Send link. You see "Deposit link sent".
4. The dialog shows the Deposit link, with Copy. For a guest on WhatsApp, Open WhatsApp opens your own WhatsApp with the message typed in, for example "Hi Ana! To confirm your table for 15 at (your venue) on (the night), please pay the deposit of $4,500.00 here:" and the link.
5. The row now shows Deposit requested · $4,500.00. Its ··· menu adds Copy deposit link, Send the link again and Withdraw deposit request ("Deposit request withdrawn").

What follows:

• While the link is out, the booking waits on the guest, not on you: it leaves the "waiting to be confirmed" lists in the book, on Today and on the iPads.
• When the guest pays, the booking is confirmed (if it wasn't already), the guest gets the confirmation, and your notices email gets "Deposit paid".
• If the link runs out unpaid, the booking reads Deposit not paid, and a web request is back among the requests waiting for you. Nothing is cancelled: ask again, confirm it without a deposit, or decline it.
• To take a web request above the range without a deposit, click ··· › Confirm without deposit.
• The link goes by the guest's usual channels (see Guest messages). When nothing can reach the guest automatically, the dialog says "(name) can't get the link automatically yet — send it yourself.": copy the link and send it.
• Until WhatsApp approves the deposit message, a WhatsApp guest's link waits, and the dialog says "WhatsApp is still reviewing the deposit message, so it waits until it's approved — send the link yourself meanwhile."
• Changing a paid booking's party size doesn't change its deposit. To ask for the difference, use Ask for deposit again.
• Messages you may see: "This booking already has its deposit.", "This booking is no longer active." (also once the booking's time has passed), "Deposits aren't set up for this venue." and "Only admins and managers can do this."
• The iPad doesn't ask for deposits. A web request above your range shows "Groups above 12 pay a deposit — ask for it in the Backoffice." on the iPad, where Confirm still takes it without one.

Follow deposits in the book

Each booking with a deposit wears a badge, in the back office and on the iPad's Reservations sheet, with the same words:

During a chargeback the row also reads Disputed in Stripe. On the iPad, a booking's details list each deposit with its amount, date and, while it can be refunded, the free cancellation deadline.

Cancel a booking or mark a no-show

What happens to the deposit follows by itself, whoever cancels: the guest on their page, your team in the back office, or staff on the iPad.

• Cancel booking says what will happen: "The $2,400.00 deposit is refunded to the guest's card." — or, inside the free-cancellation window, "It's less than 48 hours before the booking, so the $2,400.00 deposit is kept." In the back office you can tick Refund it anyway.
• A refund on a cancellation waits 10 minutes before it goes to Stripe. Book again within those 10 minutes cancels it, so a mistaken tap costs nothing.
• Mark no-show keeps the deposit: "Marked as no-show · deposit kept ($2,400.00)". On the iPad: "Deposit kept: $2,400.00".
• Book again on a no-show or a late cancellation gives the kept deposit back to the booking.

Refund a deposit

Who can do this: admins and managers, in the back office. The iPad never refunds a deposit.

1. On the booking's row, click ··· › Refund deposit….
2. Read "Refund the deposit?", for example "Paid $2,400.00 on (date) · used $1,800.00 · left to refund $600.00". When the policy kept it: "The policy keeps this deposit (cancelled less than 48 hours before). You can refund it anyway." (or "(no-show)").
3. Amount is everything that's left; type less for a partial refund. Add a Note (optional).
4. Click Refund $600.00. You see "Refund sent to Stripe." — or "Stripe didn't accept the refund:" with Stripe's reason.

• More than is left is refused: "That's more than the deposit has left ($600.00)."
• The guest gets the money back on the card they paid with; banks take 5–10 business days to show it. Stripe doesn't give back its fee on the original payment.
• A refund you make in your Stripe dashboard shows on the booking too.
• Refunds work even while the venue is read-only — Barform paused for an unpaid subscription, or the subscription ended: the guest is still owed the money.
• A refund Stripe refuses shows on Today: "1 deposit refund failed".

Decide on a deposit after the night

After the night, Barform settles each deposit that still holds money:

• The group came and the bill is paid: what the bill didn't use is refunded to the guest's card — or kept, if you chose The bar keeps it. A deposit the bill never used at all is always refunded.
• The bill is still open: it waits until the bill is paid.
• The group was never seated, or its bill was voided: it waits for a manager. Today shows "1 deposit is waiting for a decision".

This happens when your service day ends — at 6:00 AM the next morning with a 6:00 AM service time.

Who can do this: admins and managers.

1. On Today, click "1 deposit is waiting for a decision" (or "N deposits are waiting for a decision"). It opens Service › Reservations on the earliest night with one.
2. On the booking's row, choose:
   • ··· › Refund deposit… to give it back (see above);
   • ··· › Keep deposit… — "Keep $2,400.00?" "The guest isn't refunded." — then Keep $2,400.00. You see "Deposit kept";
   • or ··· › Mark no-show, which keeps it.

Use a deposit on the bill

When the group pays, staff use the deposit as a payment method on the iPad. It's never applied by itself.

Who can do this: anyone signed in on the iPad.

1. Open the group's check. If the party seated on it paid a deposit, a line above the buttons says "Deposit paid online: $2,400.00 — use it at Charge".
2. Tap Charge $X. To use the deposit for part of the bill only, choose the part first under Split or partial.
3. Tap Booking deposit, the card under the others: "paid online · $2,400.00 left". When more than one of tonight's bookings has a deposit, it reads, for example, "2 paid online tonight": pick the one to use — This check's booking first, then Other bookings tonight.
4. The iPad checks the deposit, then shows who paid it, how much and when. If the booking isn't seated yet: "This seats (name)'s booking on this check."
5. When the deposit holds more than this bill, Tip from the deposit offers your tip buttons and Other. A tip can only come out of what's left on the deposit: bigger tips are dimmed, and Other says "up to" the most it can be.
6. Read This bill, Tip and Left after. When money stays on the deposit, the line under them says what happens to it: "What's left is refunded to the guest's card after tonight." or "What's left stays with the bar after tonight."
7. Tap Charge $X — or Partial $X when the check stays open — and take the rest as usual, in cash, by card or on a customer account.

• The deposit pays as much of this bill as it holds. A group on two checks can use its deposit on either.
• There is no card terminal, no credit or debit choice and no cash drawer: the money is already in your Stripe account.
• The completion card and the receipt name the payment Booking deposit, with its tip if it has one.
• When another iPad used the deposit first: "The deposit changed on another terminal — nothing was charged. Check what's left and try again." Other refusals: "This deposit isn't paid." and "That booking is cancelled or marked as a no-show — book it again first." Nothing is charged on any of them.
• If the deposit is used up while the step is open, Charge is dimmed with "Nothing is left on this deposit".
• If the iPad can't check the deposit: "Couldn't check the deposit — try again.", with Retry.
• An iPad that hasn't been updated doesn't offer Booking deposit. Update it (see Pair and manage iPads), or charge the bill another way: a deposit the bill never used is refunded after the night.
• Voiding a deposit payment gives the money back to the deposit, and a tip change on it comes out of what's left (see Payment corrections).

Deposits in your reports

The reports answer two different questions about a deposit: what the nights sold, and what money arrived when.

Today and Sales — what the nights sold:

• A deposit used on a bill is a payment of the tab's night, like cash or card: it's in Net sales, the bills and the tips, and in Tender types as Booking deposit.
• Under Net sales, three lines show deposit money that isn't a sale, each only when it isn't zero: Deposits received online, with how many — paid online during the range; Deposits refunded — refunds sent during the range; and Deposits kept — kept on bookings for the range's nights. The (i) beside it reads "No-shows, late cancellations, leftovers the bar keeps and deposits a manager kept." None of the three is inside Net sales.

Income — money on the day it arrives:

• A deposit is income on the day the guest paid it online, with its VAT taken out at your rate, like money paid into a customer account. A refund is money out on the day Stripe sends it.
• Using a deposit on a bill isn't new income: it shows as Applied to bills, for information. Keeping it changes nothing: it was income when it arrived.
• A tip taken from a deposit counts in Tips and comes off Net sales: "Less: tips paid from deposits".
• See Income for the Deposits card, the tender lines and the exports.

Closing the day — the drawer:

• A deposit payment is part of Gross Sales and shows under By Method as Booking deposit, but it's never in the cash drawer, the card lines or the terminal total: the guest paid it online.
• A tip from a deposit shows as Tips from deposits, inside the tips and outside the drawer and the terminal.

For example, with made-up amounts and prices that include 16% IVA: a group pays a $2,400.00 deposit on Monday. On Saturday their bill is $3,000.00, paid $2,400.00 with the deposit and $600.00 by card.

• Today: Monday shows Deposits received online $2,400.00 (1). Saturday's Net sales is $3,000.00 — Booking deposit $2,400.00 and Card $600.00.
• Income: Monday's Net sales is $2,400.00, with $331.03 of VAT. Saturday's is the card's $600.00, and the $2,400.00 shows under Applied to bills.
• Had the group not come, Monday's $2,400.00 would stay on Income, and Saturday would show Deposits kept $2,400.00 on Today. Had they cancelled in time, Income would show −$2,400.00 on the day of the refund.

Needs attention on Today adds three lines about deposits: "1 deposit is waiting for a decision", "1 deposit refund failed" (a refund Stripe refused in the last 30 days) and "Stripe is disconnected, so deposits can't be taken or refunded" (deposits are on, but Stripe isn't connected or can't take payments). Each opens the place that fixes it. See Today.

Related

• Reservations
• Guest messages
• Taking payment
• Today
• Income