Security deposits help rental businesses around the world gain extra assurance that customers will return your products the way they found them, or cover the costs of repairs or replacements if damaged.
This article will guide you through the different ways you can set up Booqable to calculate the best security deposit cost for your rental products, and how they can be charged, authorized, and refunded in the click of a button.
How it works
There are a couple of ways you can charge for a security deposit on an order, and all of these methods are automatically calculated and added to a reservation when a customer places one online.
Additionally, they are calculated automatically when you and your team create manual orders in your Booqable backend.
None: You can choose to not charge a security deposit.
Order amount: Charge a percentage of the total order amount on every order, such as 10%.
💡Note: Only rental items are included in security deposit calculations. Services, consumables, and custom lines do not count towards the total amount of a security deposit set with an order amount percentage method.
Product security deposit value: If you want to charge different deposit amounts for different products, like $50 for bikes and $10 for helmets, you can choose to charge a percentage of the total security deposit value of each product on an order.
Fixed amount: You can choose to charge a fixed price, regardless of the products or duration of an order.
1. Set different security deposit values, for different products
Some products are more expensive to replace than others, so you can set different security deposit values for different products in Booqable.
Click Inventory and then select the product for which you want to set the deposit value.
Click the Pricing tab.
Fill in your desired Security deposit value.
Click Save.
Go to Settings > Pricing > Security deposit, and make sure 'Product security deposit value' is the selected method.
Fill in the percentage of the amount you placed in the previous page that you want to be charged.
💡For example: If you set the Security deposit value of a product to be $50, and you want to charge that full $50 as a refundable damage deposit on every order the product is added to, set the percentage as 100%.
If you want it to be a portion of that amount, you can set a different percentage.
2. Set a security deposit based on a percentage of the order total
You may wish to charge a refundable security deposit based on a set percentage of the overall order cost, like 10% for example, regardless of order duration or cost.
If so, the following method is for you:
Head over to Settings > Pricing > Security deposits.
Select the security deposit method Order amount percentage.
Enter in the percentage amount you wish to apply to all orders as a refundable security deposit.
Click Save.
3. Set a security deposit based on a fixed amount
If you want to charge a fixed amount such as $200 for every order, regardless of duration or cost, this method is for you.
Head over to Settings > Pricing > Security deposits.
Select the security deposit method Fixed amount.
Enter in the cost amount you wish to apply to all orders as a refundable security deposit.
Click Save.
4. Charge a security deposit on a manual order
You can charge a security deposit from your online store, or manually from your Booqable admin.
Click the Payment button from your list of orders, or from the sidebar of an individual order.
Choose a payment method.
Fill in the amount you wish to charge in the Security deposit field.
If you want to conduct a seperate payment for the order amount, remove the entire order amount from the Amount field in this box.
Click Register payment.
💡Tip: Use credit card holds for security deposits to prevent transaction costs for refunds. In the payment pop-up, click the Card method, and make sure the Authorize box is selected. Enter in the amount you wish to hold on the customers card, and release it from the payment panel when the items have been returned.
7. Refund or retain a security deposit
You can keep or refund security deposits from multiple places in Booqable.
When an order is paid and returned, but you still need to keep or refund the security deposit, the payment button for an order shows 'Process deposit'.
Clicking the button takes you straight to the Refund popup, leaving the field for the order amount empty.
Option 1: Retain a security deposit
In the top bar of an order, click Return items.
Fill in how much of the security deposit you want to keep in the appropriate field.
Option 2: Refund a security deposit
In the sidebar of an order, hover over over a payment and select Refund.
Fill in the amount you want to keep or refund in the appropriate fields.
If you keep a security deposit, it appears on your order as a new line containing the reason, the kept amount (including taxes), and the applied tax profile:
💡Note: The kept amount is always entered including taxes, regardless of whether you set up Booqable to display your prices including or excluding taxes.
Best practices
1. Choose to add security deposits to orders, only when required
Are charging security deposits a rare occurrence for your business? In Booqable, you can manually add a security deposit to orders only when you need to, and switch off all automatic security deposit calculations in your settings.
1. In Settings > Pricing > Security deposits, make sure the option for None is selected.
2. Click into a new or existing order to add a security deposit.
3. Click the pencil icon behind the security deposit line in the totals section.
4. Select the desired security deposit method (and fill in a value).
5. Click Apply.
2. Set specific security deposits for specific customers
You can set a recurring damage deposit rule for individual customers (regulars you trust, for example).
Click Customers from the main menu and then select the customer for which you want to configure the default security deposit.
Select a value under Security deposit.
Click Save.
3. Experiencing issues with setting up security deposits? Try troubleshooting!
If you don't see the security deposit applied to your online store, you can do a number of troubleshooting actions to fix this.
1. First, verify that you selected a default security deposit other than 'None'. Note that when you interact with your online store (like selecting a rental period or adding products to your cart), your browser stores the then-current settings (including security deposits).
2. Here are three ways to clear these settings:
Visit your store from a private browsing window.
Check out your current shopping cart; the updated settings apply to the next order.
Clear the settings manually, following the instructions below.
For Chrome browsers:
Press either CTRL + SHIFT + J to open the “console” tab of the Developer Tools.
Paste
window.localStorage.clear();in the console and press Enter.Refresh the page.
For Safari browsers:
1. Press CTRL + ALT + I to open the Web Inspector.
2. Paste
window.localStorage.clear();in the console and press Enter.
3. Refresh the page.For Firefox browsers:
Press CTRL + SHIFT + K to open the Web console (COMMAND + SHIFT + K on Macs).
If Firebug is installed (recommended) Press F12 to open Firebug, and click on the “console” tab.
Paste
window.localStorage.clear();in the console and press Enter.Refresh the page.
You're all set!
You have now successfully learned how to configure refundable security deposits in Booqable.