Take a deposit at booking time and collect the rest later. Chobble Tickets tracks each booking's outstanding balance and gives the customer a secure link to pay it online.
Reservations
A booking can be a reservation rather than a payment in full. You
define the deposit as part of an attendee status, in one of three
forms: a percentage of the order total (such as "10%"), a flat
amount for the whole order (such as "10"), or an amount per item
booked (such as "10x").
For a paid reservation, the booking is created and uses capacity only
when the deposit payment is confirmed. Opening checkout does not reserve
the place.
A deposit of zero is also valid, which means the customer reserves
without opening a payment-provider checkout and pays the whole amount
later. The deposit is always capped at the full order price.
This two-step arrangement is the payment plan Chobble Tickets
provides: a deposit at booking and one balance payment afterwards.
Chobble Tickets does not split a price into a run of instalments.
Attendee statuses
Statuses are labels you define and order yourself, such as
"Reserved", "Confirmed", or "Collected". Each booking sits in one
status, and you move it between them from the admin panel.
One status can be the default for new public bookings, one can be
the status a booking moves to once its balance is paid, and any
status can be flagged as a reservation with its own deposit rule.
A fresh account starts with a single "Confirmed" status, so
bookings are paid in full unless you set up reservations.
Set clear booking stages, choose the defaults, and arrange them in the order your team uses.
The customer payment link
Each reserved booking has a payment link at a tokenised URL. The
page names what was booked, what has been paid, and what is left,
and offers a button that pays the outstanding balance through your
payment provider.
The link is signed, so it cannot be guessed, and it names nobody:
not the person who booked, nor their email address. Once the
balance is settled, the page reports that there is nothing left to
pay, and the booking moves to your paid status.
The page a customer opens from their payment link, naming what they booked, what they have paid and what is left. (src)
Balance tracking and offline payments
The attendee record has a Balance tab showing the deposit, the
amount paid so far, the remaining balance, and the payment history.
Every figure is read from the double-entry ledger,
so the numbers always reconcile.
Payments received outside checkout can be recorded in the ledger
too, for cash, bank transfer, a separate card machine, or vouchers.
A recorded offline payment reduces the outstanding balance in the
same way an online one does.
Example
A hall charges £400 for a Saturday party booking and asks for 25% up
front. The organiser sets a "Reserved" status with a deposit rule of
"25%", makes it the default for public bookings and sets "Confirmed" as
the paid status. The customer pays
£100 at checkout, which takes the date, and the booking shows £300
still owed. The organiser sends the customer the payment link from
the booking's Balance tab, and once the £300 is paid the booking moves
to "Confirmed" by itself.
Limits
Chobble Tickets does not send balance reminders or set a due date. The
payment link appears in the admin area, and the organiser sends it to
the customer when it suits them. A booking fee is not added when the
balance is paid through the link. The deposit rules are published as
test cases for paying a
deposit.
