How getting paid works

Booked keeps an eye on payments

Because Booked is the platform behind your card payments, it carries the checks that come with that. Every account is watched for things that look wrong: a day or a month far above your usual, a single payment far above your usual, refunds piling up, chargebacks and fraud warnings from the card networks, and anything the verification checks flag. Most of the time nothing comes of it. When something needs a look, the Booked team may email you to ask what the recent payments were for, and a quick reply keeps everything moving. If Booked ever has to pause payments or hold a payout while it looks, the Payments screen says so and support will be in touch.

What the customer pays

You decide what is due at the point of booking: nothing, a percentage, a fixed amount, or the whole price. The default lives on Settings › Booking rules under Deposits, not on the Payments screen where most people look first. A category can override that default and a single service can override its category, so a £45 travel vaccination can hold a 30% deposit while a blood-pressure check takes nothing. See Deposits and paying in full.

• 1Deposit due today — what is being charged now. When the whole price is taken it reads Amount due today.
• 2The card fields — card number, expiry, CVC and name on card. Where the device supports it, Apple Pay or Google Pay sits above them, with or pay by card underneath.
• 3Pay — charges the card, then confirms the appointment as Paid in full or Deposit paid.
• 4Card details — they are handled by the secure payment form and never reach your WordPress site.

Three things catch people out. A deposit set on a category or a single service is not blocked when payments are not ready, so a customer can be told a deposit secures their appointment and then never asked for a card. On a group booking the deposit is worked out from one person’s price, so even a full-amount deposit collects a single price and the booking reads Deposit paid. And a course takes one payment for every visit, so the follow-ups appear at £0.

Your balance, and when it reaches your bank

Once verification is done the screen fills up. Available has cleared and can be paid out; On the way is still clearing. Under Your money, Payouts to your bank lists what has been sent and Payments lists your recent card payments, searchable by reference, customer, card digits or amount. See Your payments and balance.

• 1Available, On the way, Paid out so far — Available has cleared and can go to your bank; On the way is taken but still clearing and moves across by itself; Paid out so far is the running total sent to your bank.
• 2Pay out now — sends the whole available balance at once, after a "Send … to your bank now?" check. It only shows when there is money available and a bank account on file. Change bank switches the account future payouts go to.
• 3How often — Every working day, Weekly, Monthly or Only when I ask. The header pill shows what is saved.
• 4Refund — refunds that one payment, all of it, half or an amount you choose. A disputed payment shows Respond instead.

Payout statuses in Payouts to your bank appear as raw words such as "paid" and "in_transit". A new bank account only applies to future payouts; money already on its way still lands in the old one. See Payouts and bank details.

Refunds and chargebacks

Refunds are yours to give. From the Payments list you can refund all of a payment, half, or an amount you choose, in as many goes as you like; from the booking itself, Refund payment always sends back everything that was paid. A part refund does not change the booking’s payment status: it still reads Paid in full or Deposit paid. See Refund a customer.

Chargebacks are not. When a customer’s bank disputes a payment the amount is held back while the case runs, and the card network’s dispute fee applies whether you win, lose or accept. Answer under Chargebacks & disputes: challenge it with evidence, or accept it. That card stays hidden until your first dispute, and a Flagged before a chargeback card appears when a bank reports a payment as fraud first. See Chargebacks and disputes.

Where each payment setting lives

The rest of this section takes each stage in turn: verification, deposits, payout schedules, refunds, answering a chargeback, test payments and cards on file.