Payments

When a booking is confirmed for a guest without an active package, a pending charge is raised against the member and the booking. The amount and the date it was received are recorded on the payment. It counts toward the day’s takings only after the accounts clerk confirms it. A refund is recorded as its own status on the payment, so the history shows both what was paid and what was given back.

Linking the payment to its booking means the front desk can see at check-in whether a treatment has been paid for, and the accounts clerk can match payments to bookings at the end of the day without a separate spreadsheet. Package holders are covered by their package, so their bookings do not raise a new charge.

Card processing stays with your provider; the payment record is how the spa reconciles what the provider settled.

The front desk confirms the bookings that raise charges; the accounts clerk confirms payments and refunds.

• Pending until confirmed. Only confirmed payments count.
• Linked to the booking. Each payment names the booking it covers.
• Refunds recorded. A refund is a status, never a deletion.

Agree how guests pay (card at the desk, online or by package) and how payments are confirmed against the provider’s settlement. Agree your refund rules for cancellations and no-shows. Prepare examples of a paid walk-in, a payment that fails, a refund and a package holder’s booking.

A walk-in books a facial. Confirming the booking raises a pending charge for the facial price. She pays by card at the desk, and when the card settlement arrives the accounts clerk confirms the payment. The next week she cancels a second facial within the notice period; her payment is refunded and keeps its original amount.

At the end of each day the accounts clerk works through the pending payments list and follows up anything still pending before the day’s takings are closed.

• Pending payments — Charges waiting for the accounts clerk, with member and booking.
• Live member plans — Package holders whose bookings raise no charge.

• Payment confirmation: From pending charge to confirmed or refunded.

Check the data model before importing open payments.