Deposits

Reduce no-shows and protect your revenue with booking protection rules. You can require an upfront deposit when customers book, or save a card for an agreed no-show and late-cancellation fee with no payment taken today.

Where to find it. Web: Sidebar → Manage → Deposits (rules and settings), or Deposits dashboard (tracking). Mobile: More → Deposits (dashboard and rules).

TL;DR

• Booking protection requires Stripe Connect. Rules can either charge a deposit upfront or save a card for no-show protection.
• A rule can apply to selected services or to the whole booking. Only service-scoped rules need service assignments.
• New rules do not create manual card holds. Older legacy holds remain visible in the dashboard until resolved.
• A service can have one rule for each client condition. Assigning a new rule for the same condition replaces that condition's existing rule; rules for other client conditions remain assigned.
• Percentage deposits use the discounted appointment total. Checkout shows the appointment total, due today, and pay-later balance before payment.
• If a discounted upfront deposit falls below Stripe's minimum charge for the venue currency, OpenChair waives the deposit and leaves the full discounted balance due at the appointment.

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Overview

Deposits let you:

• Require an upfront payment (fixed dollar amount or percentage) when a customer books online
• Save a card with consent for an agreed no-show and late-cancellation fee, without reducing the booking balance
• Target deposits to specific services, or use the combined whole-booking total with an optional minimum threshold
• Apply different rules for new clients, returning clients, or high-risk clients (PRO)
• Set a cancellation window with configurable refund actions (full refund, credit, or forfeit)
• Define tiered refund policies based on how far in advance the customer cancels (PRO)
• Display a custom agreement message that customers must accept before paying
• Track all deposits from a dashboard with three tabs: Needs Action, Outstanding, and Recent
• View deposit performance metrics on the Intelligence dashboard (PRO)

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Creating a deposit rule

A booking protection rule defines the amount, scope, product type, and policy applied when customers book.

On web

1. Go to Manage → Deposits in the sidebar.
2. Click Create Deposit Rule (or + New Rule if rules already exist).
3. In the Create Deposit Rule dialog, fill in the following fields:

Field	Options	Notes
Rule Name	Free text	A descriptive name (e.g. "Standard 50% Deposit", "New Client $30")
Scope	Selected services or Whole booking	Whole booking uses the combined server-resolved total for every selected service and does not need service assignments
Minimum booking total	Currency amount (optional)	Available for whole-booking rules. The rule applies only when the resolved total is strictly greater than this amount; a $100 threshold does not apply at exactly $100
Protection Type	Deposit Upfront or No-show Card Protection	Deposit Upfront charges at booking and reduces the balance. No-show Card Protection saves a card and takes no payment today.
Deposit Type	Fixed amount or Percentage	Fixed charges a set dollar amount. Percentage charges a proportion of the discounted eligible service total or discounted whole-booking total
Amount	Number	Dollar amount (e.g. 30) or percentage (e.g. 25). Percentage amounts are calculated after an eligible offer or discount is applied
Cancellation Window	Hours (number)	How many hours before the appointment the customer can cancel and receive the configured refund. Default varies by rule
Refund Action	Full refund, Credit, or Forfeit	What happens to the deposit when the customer cancels within the allowed window
Refund Policy	Simple or Tiered (PRO)	Tiered lets you define multiple refund tiers based on cancellation timing (see Tiered refund policies below)
Client Condition	All clients, New clients only, Returning clients only, or High-risk clients	Who the rule applies to. New/returning/high-risk conditions require PRO
Agreement Text	Free text (optional)	A message shown to the customer before they pay the deposit (e.g. "A 50% deposit is required to secure your booking. Cancellations within 24 hours will forfeit the deposit.")

4. Click Save (or Create Rule).

On mobile

1. Go to More → Deposits.
2. Tap Create Rule (or the + button).
3. Fill in the same fields as web, including Scope and the optional Booking total threshold for whole-booking rules.
4. Tap Save. A selected-services rule continues to service assignment; a whole-booking rule applies automatically.

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Writing the client agreement (AI)

Each deposit rule has an optional Client Agreement field - the text shown to the customer before they pay the deposit (e.g. "By proceeding, I agree to the cancellation policy for this booking."). You can write your own, or use the AI writer.

Two AI modes

In the bottom-right of the agreement textarea, an AI action button appears:

Mode	When	Label
Suggest	Empty textarea	Write with AI (Sparkles icon)
Rewrite	Existing text present	Rewrite (RefreshCw icon)

Tap to generate. The AI considers:

• The rule itself (amount, protection type, cancellation window hours, refund action)
• Your venue's brand voice persona (HOST, CONCIERGE, CASUAL, ENTHUSIAST)
• Your venue category (hair, barber, aesthetics, etc.)
• Your Business Memory facts

Output is plain English, first-person from the client's perspective ("I understand…", "I agree…"), single paragraph, maximum 400 characters, British English. No bullets, no headings, no em dashes, no AI tells.

Rewrite mode

When you have existing text and tap Rewrite, the AI keeps any specific details you wrote that are still accurate for the rule, then re-tunes for voice and brevity. Useful after you've changed brand voice and want the agreement to match.

Cost

1 Spark per AI generation (each Suggest or Rewrite call). See Understanding Spark.

Owner role required for the AI button. Manager and stylist accounts can edit the agreement text but not trigger AI generation.

When to use AI agreement

• Setting up a new deposit rule and want a clean baseline
• Changed your brand voice and want every rule's agreement to match
• The default text feels generic and you want something on-brand without writing from scratch

For especially sensitive language (clinical, medical, legal), write or review manually - AI is a draft accelerator, not a legal advisor.

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Assigning rules to services

After creating a service-scoped deposit rule, you choose which services it applies to. A service-scoped rule with no services assigned has no effect. Whole-booking rules apply venue-wide and skip this step.

On web

1. After saving the rule (or from the rule's detail view), the Assign to Services step appears.
2. The service list shows all active services at your venue. Each service displays its name and current deposit status.
3. Tick the checkbox next to each service that should require this deposit.
4. Click Save Assignments.

On mobile

1. After saving a selected-services rule, OpenChair opens Assign Services. Whole-booking rules do not need this step.
2. Toggle each service on or off.
3. Tap Save.

A service can only have one deposit rule assigned at a time. If you assign a new rule to a service that already has a different rule, the new rule replaces the old one.

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Protection types

OpenChair supports two booking protection products for new rules.

Deposit Upfront (FREE and PRO)

The customer's card is charged immediately when they complete the booking. The deposit amount is deducted at the time of booking and the deposit status moves to Captured.

This is the simplest option and works well for most venues.

No-show Card Protection

The customer's card is saved at booking time with off-session consent, but no payment is taken today and the booking balance is not reduced. If the customer cancels late or no-shows, an Owner or Manager can charge the agreed fee from the booking detail.

The fee amount and consent text are saved on the booking, so later rule edits do not change existing bookings.

Legacy manual card holds

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Client conditions (PRO)

By default, a deposit rule applies to all clients. With a PRO subscription, you can target specific client types:

Condition	Who it applies to
All clients	Every customer who books a service with this rule assigned
New clients only	Customers who have never booked at your venue before
Returning clients only	Customers who have at least one previous booking
High-risk clients	Customers flagged as high-risk (e.g. history of no-shows or late cancellations)

When a customer books online, OpenChair evaluates the deposit rules assigned to the selected service and checks the client condition. If the condition does not match, no deposit is required for that booking.

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Cancellation and refund policies

Each deposit rule has a cancellation window and a refund action that together determine what happens when a customer cancels.

Simple refund action

Every deposit rule has a Cancellation Window (in hours) and a Refund Action:

• If the customer cancels before the cancellation window (e.g. more than 24 hours before the appointment), the configured refund action applies.
• If the customer cancels within the cancellation window (e.g. less than 24 hours before), the deposit is forfeited.

Refund Action	What happens
Full refund	The full deposit amount is returned to the customer's card
Credit	The deposit is converted to account credit for future use
Forfeit	The deposit is kept by the venue, no refund issued

Tiered refund policies (PRO)

Tiered policies let you define multiple refund tiers based on how far in advance the customer cancels. Each tier specifies a time threshold and a refund percentage.

Example tiered policy:

Cancel timing	Refund
More than 48 hours before	100% refund
24 to 48 hours before	50% refund
Less than 24 hours before	No refund (forfeit)

Tiered policies are stored as structured data on the deposit rule and evaluated automatically when a cancellation is processed.

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How deposits work during booking

When a customer books a service that has a deposit rule assigned:

1. The service list shows a deposit preview when the amount is already final. For a promoted offer, it shows Deposit confirmed after your details until OpenChair can resolve the discount and customer condition together.
2. After the customer enters their details, the review and payment steps use the server-confirmed quote.
3. The financial summary shows Appointment total, Due today, and Pay later. If an offer applies, the offer and discount amount are shown separately.
4. If the rule has Agreement Text, the customer sees the agreement message and must accept it.
5. The customer enters their card details via the Stripe payment form.
6. Depending on the protection type:

• Deposit Upfront: The card is charged immediately. The booking is confirmed with deposit status Captured.
• No-show Card Protection: The card is saved with consent. The booking is confirmed with no payment taken today.

7. A confirmation is sent to the customer showing the deposit collected or the no-show card protection terms accepted.

Percentage deposits are calculated from the discounted appointment total. For example, a $310 service with a 99% offer has a $3.10 appointment total. A 20% deposit is $0.62, leaving $2.48 to pay later.

If the calculated upfront deposit is below Stripe's minimum charge for the venue currency, OpenChair does not increase the configured percentage to reach the minimum. It waives the deposit and shows: No deposit today because the discounted amount is below the payment minimum. Pay the balance at your appointment. For example, an AUD $2.25 discounted appointment with a 20% rule produces a $0.45 deposit, so no deposit is collected and the $2.25 balance remains due at the appointment. An AUD $0.50 deposit is chargeable because it meets the minimum.

For No-show Card Protection, checkout says No payment today and Add card to secure booking. Saving the card does not reduce the amount due at the appointment.

If the deposit payment fails (e.g. card declined), the booking is not confirmed.

Sending a booking protection link for operator bookings

Operator-created bookings can still require booking protection after the booking is made. From booking detail on web or mobile, OpenChair can send the customer a payment link for Deposit Upfront or a card setup link for No-show Card Protection.

The booking detail footer shows the available actions based on the current request:

Action	When it appears
Send new deposit link	No active request exists, or the existing request is stale and the booking needs a fresh link.
Copy deposit link	A request exists and has an active public link.
Resend deposit link	The request is sent, viewed, or failed, and the booking has an email or mobile number to receive the link.

When the customer opens the link, the page shows the service, appointment time, deposit or no-show fee amount, policy copy, and either Continue to secure payment or Continue to secure card setup. A no-show card setup request shows Today as No payment.

If the request is no longer active, the customer page says the deposit request or card setup request is no longer payable and asks the customer to contact the venue.

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Deposit statuses

Each deposit moves through a lifecycle of statuses from Pending to a terminal state such as Captured, Refunded, or Forfeited.

Status	Meaning
Pending	Deposit has been initiated but not yet processed
Authorised	Legacy card hold placed successfully, waiting for capture or release
Captured	Deposit has been charged to the customer's card
Forfeited	Deposit was kept by the venue after a late cancellation or no-show
Refunded	Full deposit amount was refunded to the customer
Partially refunded	A portion of the deposit was refunded (e.g. from a tiered policy)
Expired	Legacy card hold expired without being captured
Cancelled	Deposit was cancelled before processing

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The deposits dashboard

The deposits dashboard gives you a centralised view of all deposit activity across your venue.

On web

Go to Deposits in the sidebar. The dashboard has three tabs:

Tab	What it shows
Needs Action	Deposits that require your attention, including expired legacy card holds. These need to be resolved (contact the customer or write off).
Outstanding	Active deposits, legacy authorised holds waiting to be captured, and pending deposits. These are in-flight.
Recent	Completed deposits from the last 30 days, captured, forfeited, and refunded deposits.

Each deposit entry shows the customer name, service, amount, status badge, and the date. Click a deposit to view details and take action (capture, refund, or forfeit).

A Needs Action count badge appears on the Deposits sidebar item when there are expired holds requiring attention.

On mobile

Go to More → Deposits. The same three tabs are available. On iPad, the screen uses a master-detail layout with the deposit list on the left and details on the right.

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Processing refunds

When a booking with a deposit is cancelled:

1. OpenChair checks the deposit rule's cancellation window and refund action (or tiered policy).
2. The appropriate refund amount is calculated automatically.
3. If a refund is due, it is processed through Stripe back to the customer's original payment method.
4. The deposit status updates to Refunded or Partially refunded.

Refunds use a compare-and-swap pattern to prevent double-refund errors, if two refund requests arrive simultaneously, only one is processed.

For manual refunds (outside the automatic cancellation flow), venue owners can process a refund from the deposit detail view.

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Deposit performance metrics (PRO)

Open Reports -> Deposit Performance on web or mobile for an appointment-period review. The selected venue-local date range controls every metric.

• Gross captured includes deposits currently held for service and deposits later refunded or forfeited.
• Net retained subtracts recorded refund value from gross captured value.
• No-show coverage is the share of no-shows with authorised or captured protection. It is shown as “No sample” when the period has no no-shows.
• Forfeited shows retained deposit value and the number of recovered no-shows.
• Deposit outcomes separates held-for-service, forfeited, refunded, authorised, and expired states for the appointments in the period.

Refund rate is refund value divided by gross captured value, so refunded bookings remain in the denominator. Outcome labels reflect each booking's current deposit status. The compact Reports briefing card uses the same definitions over its rolling period.

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Assistant deposit nudges (PRO)

OpenChair Assistant can proactively suggest deposit-related actions, such as reminding you to capture an expiring hold or flagging a customer with repeated no-shows who might benefit from a deposit requirement. These nudges appear in the Assistant interface and require a PRO subscription.

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Role access

Owners manage deposit rules; Managers can view deposits and capture/release holds; Stylists have no deposit access.

Action	Owner	Manager	Stylist
Create and edit deposit rules	Yes	No	No
Assign rules to services	Yes	No	No
View deposits dashboard	Yes	Yes	No
Capture or release a legacy card hold	Yes	Yes	No
Process a manual refund	Yes	No	No
View deposit performance metrics	Yes	Yes	No

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Platform differences

The core deposit workflow is available on both web and mobile with minor navigation differences.

Feature	Web	Mobile
Navigation (rules)	Sidebar → Manage → Deposits	More → Deposits → Rules
Navigation (dashboard)	Sidebar → Deposits	More → Deposits
Create rule	Dialog with form fields + service assignment step	Full-screen form → service assignment screen
Dashboard layout	Three-tab table with pagination	Three-tab list (master-detail on iPad)
Rule editing	Inline edit in rule detail sheet	Separate edit screen
Service assignment	Checkbox list in second step of create/edit flow	Toggle list on dedicated screen
Deposit performance	Reports -> Deposit Performance	Reports -> Deposit Performance
Capture/release legacy holds	Action buttons on deposit detail	Action buttons on deposit detail

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Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Deposit not appearing at booking	Ensure the deposit rule is active and assigned to the booked service. Check that the client condition matches the customer (e.g. a "New clients only" rule will not trigger for returning customers). Verify Stripe Connect is configured on your venue.
"Expired" deposits in Needs Action tab	Legacy card holds expire after 7 days if not captured. Contact the customer to arrange payment, or write off the deposit. New booking protection rules do not create manual holds.
Customer says they were charged but booking shows "Pending"	The payment may be processing. Check Stripe for the payment intent status. If the charge succeeded but the webhook was delayed, the status will update automatically when the webhook arrives.
Cannot create deposit rules	Only venue Owners can create and manage deposit rules. If you are a Manager or Stylist, ask the venue Owner to set up deposit rules.
Deposit amount seems wrong	For percentage rules, check the current appointment total after offers or discounts. The deposit is calculated from that discounted total, not the original service price.
Booking says no deposit is due after a large discount	The calculated deposit is below Stripe's minimum charge for the venue currency. OpenChair waives it instead of charging more than the configured rule, and the full discounted balance is due at the appointment.
Customer cannot complete booking with deposit	The customer's card may have been declined. They should try a different card. If the error persists, check that your Stripe account is active and charges are enabled.
Refund not processing	Refunds are processed through Stripe. Ensure your Stripe account has sufficient balance. If the original payment was made more than 180 days ago, Stripe cannot process a refund, you will need to arrange an alternative refund method.
Advanced options (client conditions or tiered refunds) not available	These features require a PRO subscription. On a FREE plan, deposits apply to all clients.
Deposit rule assigned but no deposit charged for a specific customer	Check the rule's client condition. If set to "New clients only", returning customers will not be charged. If set to "High-risk clients", only flagged customers will be charged.

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FAQ

Why is a deposit not appearing at booking?

Ensure the deposit rule is active and assigned to the booked service. Check that the client condition matches the customer, a "New clients only" rule will not trigger for returning customers. Also verify that Stripe Connect is configured on your venue.

Can I require deposits only for new clients?

Yes, on PRO plans, client conditions let you target All clients, New clients only, Returning clients only, or High-risk clients. Basic deposit rules on FREE plans apply to all clients.

What happens if a legacy card hold expires?

Legacy card holds expire after 7 days if not captured. They move to the Needs Action tab in the deposits dashboard. Contact the customer to arrange payment or write off the deposit. New rules use Deposit Upfront or No-show Card Protection instead of manual holds.

Can I refund a deposit?

Yes, when a booking is cancelled, OpenChair automatically processes the refund based on the rule's cancellation window and refund action. Venue owners can also process manual refunds from the deposit detail view. Stripe cannot refund payments older than 180 days.

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Related Articles

• Cancellation & Rescheduling Policy
• Checkout
• Payment Issues and Refunds
• Setting Up Stripe & Card Payments
• Booking Rules & Policies
• Rescheduling & Cancelling Bookings
• Understanding Fees & Processing