Collecting Deposits for Appointments (Beta)

Overview

The Deposit Payments feature allows clinics to collect a deposit when pet parents book certain appointment types, helping reduce missed appointments and ensuring commitment. Deposits can be configured per visit type and are collected during online appointment requests via the Public Calendar.

🌟 Benefits for Your Clinic

✅ Reduce no-shows and last-minute cancellations.
✅ Secure revenue upfront.
✅ Improve scheduling efficiency.

Setting Up Deposit Payments

❗ Appointment deposits work only with Digitail Secure Payments (DSP).

If you have DSP enabled, to start using deposits, follow these steps:

Navigate to Administration → Visit Types.
Click Edit on the appointment type you want to require a deposit for.
Scroll to the Payment deposit field.
Enter the deposit amount as a fixed fee.
Click Confirm.

How Deposits Work

There are two flows for deposit payments:

Pet Parent-Initiated Appointments (via Public Calendar or Pet Portal)

Pet parent selects an appointment time.
If the appointment type requires a deposit, they are prompted to enter their payment details immediately before sending the appointment request.
The deposit is securely processed via Digitail Secure Payments.
The appointment request is sent to the clinic. The deposit information is displayed on the appointment request.

Multiple Pets Booking: If a pet parent books multiple pets in the Public Calendar, a deposit will be required for each pet. The shared payment deposit information will be visible on the Appointment Request Card.

Clinic-Initiated Appointments

The clinic creates an appointment in pending status.
The pet parent receives the appointment request.
The pet parent is directed to pay the deposit when confirming or rescheduling the appointment.
Staff can also choose to send the deposit payment link via email or chat.
Once the deposit is paid, the status updates from Due to Paid.

🔹 Clinics can manually refund deposits if needed from the Payments report.

🔹 When a pet parent pays a deposit, a credit is added to their account. This is not automatically applied to the record.

Payment deposit visibility

Deposits are recorded in client statements, payment reports, and appointment reports.

Flags & Important Notes

🔴 Clinic initiated appointments with deposits can only be created in pending status.
🔴 Refund:The pet parents might cancel the appointment. They won't get a refund automatically. They will need to contact the clinic for a refund. The clinic can choose to refund the payment from the payments report.
🔴 Deposit Not Paid? If a pet parent does not complete the deposit payment, the appointment request will not be submitted in the public calendar. For the clinic initiated ones, the appointment request will remain in pending state.

🔴 Does the pet parent get anything after they pay the deposit? Yes, they get an email with the receipt, or they can choose to download it from the appointment requested confirmation screen.

Best Practices

✅ Set Deposit Amounts Wisely – Choose deposit amounts that deter no-shows without discouraging bookings.

✅ Monitor your deposits' status - You cand do this from the calendar list view. This is a great way to check what are the pet parents that have still to pay your deposits. You can contact them back to remind them of the deposit and the fact that you are going to cancel the appointment if they do not pay.

Add an Appointment

Set up Visit/Appointment Types

Track Public Calendar Conversions

Set up the Clinic's Preferences

Booking Online Appointments for multiple pets