If you're offering appointments via online bookings, you can take payment at the time of booking—and you can opt to require payment, or just make it optional. (Or, of course, you don't have to offer it at all—it's completely up to you!)
If you do want to accept payments at the time of booking, though, you can specify which appointment types should (or should not) require payment. For example, perhaps you want to make sure all patients booking into something called "First appointment" pay before they come in, but don't necessarily care about enforcing it for returning patients. You'll be able to customise which appointment types should definitely require payment, and which ones won't. Below, we'll walk you through the steps!
Choose which appointment types should require online payments
In order for this to work properly, your appointment types will need to have related billable items set up. Learn how to do this here!
Once you've done that, head into Settings, and then Appointment types:
You'll see your main list of all appointment types, as in the example below:
Select one that you know you want to offer online payments for. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, and make sure that the box under Show in online bookings is checked. Assuming it is, you'll see another field called Online payments:
If this is your first time using online payments, each appointment type will be defaulted to "Disabled".
If you select the menu under Online payments, you'll see four options:
The definitions of those options are as follows:
Disabled: online payments will not be offered for this appointment type.
Allow payment during booking: online payments will be allowed, but not required. Patients can book this appointment type without paying before booking the appointment.
Require deposit during booking: you can require a deposit (not the full amount) at the time of booking. The remainder of the payment can be taken at the time of the appointment.
Require payment during booking: patients will have to pay in full before they can book the appointment.
If you require that a payment is made before the patient completes the booking, be sure to select "Require payment during booking"! If that option is not selected, a patient would be able to get through the entire booking process without paying.
After you select whether payment type will be allowed or required, make sure to hit Update appointment type.
And that's all you need to do! When the patient selects their appointment and fills out their personal details, they'll be prompted to input their payment information. If you require that payment (either in full or a deposit) is entered prior to the booking, the patient will see this at the top of the online bookings page, before they can actually confirm their appointment:
Below, they'll have to input their payment details:
And then they'll be able to get it all booked! If you have more questions about online payments, head over here!