Setting booking reservation fee amounts

With the reservation-fee payment policy, patients pay a booking reservation fee to secure the slot, unless it is free to book. Full payment and Patient chooses use their own payment rules. Under Settings, Clinic, Online booking policy, How the booking reservation fee is set lets you choose A fixed amount or A percentage of the treatments booked. The default and per-treatment amount instructions below apply to A fixed amount.

The default fee for A fixed amount

1. Go to Settings, Clinic and find Online booking policy.
2. Under How the booking reservation fee is set, choose A fixed amount.
3. Set the Default booking reservation fee.
4. Press Save booking policy.

The default starts at 20 in your clinic currency and is normally used for treatments with no fee of their own. For several treatments in one visit, the fixed fee is the highest effective fee, rather than the sum. It cannot be set to zero: to let patients book something without paying, set that treatment's own fee to 0 (below).

A fixed fee for one treatment

1. Go to Settings, Treatments and open the treatment.
2. In Booking reservation fee, enter an amount, or 0 to make it free to book.
3. Press Save.

Blank and 0 are different. Blank normally means "use the clinic default". If the field's hint says blank is free to book because all your treatments are free, that rule applies instead. 0 means "free to book, no fee taken". The hint under the box tells you which one is in force.

A percentage of the treatments booked

In Settings, Clinic, Online booking policy, choose A percentage of the treatments booked. Set Percentage of the treatments booked (%) and Minimum booking reservation fee, then press Save booking policy. The fixed default input is hidden in this mode; its value is kept for when you switch back.

One fee is worked out for the visit: the percentage of the included treatment prices, rounded to the nearest penny, or your minimum if higher. It is capped at the total price included in that calculation. A from price counts at its from amount. A visit with no price set takes the minimum; a visit priced at 0 takes no fee.

Only a treatment's fee of 0 affects this mode: it makes that treatment free to book and leaves it out of the calculation. Positive per-treatment fee amounts are ignored. If every treatment is set to 0, no reservation fee is taken. See Payment at booking for the percentage setup instructions and worked examples.

How the fee behaves

• The fee secures the appointment and comes off the treatment price. The patient settles the balance in clinic. If they do not attend, the fee is kept.
• Any promo or voucher code the patient enters is applied against the amount being paid at booking.
• Fees are recorded against the appointment. Reservation fees held totals successful fee payments against future appointment times; it does not subtract refunds or exclude cancelled appointments. See Reservation fees held and finance reporting before using it as a net liability figure.
• Changing a fee only affects new bookings.

For an eligible unpaid visit booked by your team, open the appointment and choose Take reservation fee to record a fee taken at the desk.

Taking fees online needs your Stripe account connected. See Connecting Stripe to take payments and Free consultations: booking without a fee.