Where your money goes

When you take deposits or payments online, the money is yours and lands in your own bank account. Here's how it all flows.

You're the merchant

To take card payments, choose Connect with Stripe in Settings → Payments and set up a free Stripe account. Stripe's form asks for your business, your ID and your bank account, and takes about 5 minutes. From then on, card payments land in your Stripe balance, never with BeNotely, and Stripe pays them out to your bank on your payout schedule. Stripe's fee comes off each online payment: 1.65% + 30c for an Australian card and 3.5% + 30c for an international card, with nothing added by BeNotely. A disputed payment also carries Stripe's dispute fee. To change your bank details, choose Log in to Stripe in Card payments. The Payments page lists every payment: every sale - checked-out visits, walk-in sales, gift cards - and every deposit, whether it was paid online or in person. Open any row for its full story: the deposit, any refund, the checkout and how the rest was paid. Disputes show there too.

Your payouts

Card payments in Settings → Payments shows the bank account you're paid to. Below it, Payouts shows when you're paid out and your money on its way there:

• Pending is card payments still clearing, which takes 2 business days.
• Available has cleared and goes out with your next payout.
• On its way has been sent, with the day it arrives.

Below them, Recent payouts lists each payout. Open a scheduled one to see the payments, refunds and Stripe fees that make up its amount, and open any payment from there. One you sent with Pay out now shows its type and fee.

Card payments start out paid out every business day. To be paid weekly on the day you pick, or monthly on the date you pick, choose Change beside Paid out every business day.

Pay out now sends money before your next payout. Instant usually arrives within 30 minutes, any day, for a 1.7% fee (50c minimum), and can include card payments still clearing. Standard sends money that has cleared and arrives the next business day, with no fee.

In the BeNotely app, payouts are under Card payments in More → Settings → Payments. Tap Paid out every business day to change your schedule. Pay out now is under Recent payouts, and Show all payouts lists every payout.

Protect phone and walk-in bookings

A booking added manually can carry the same protection as an online one. When you make it, the Payment section offers a link to pay, where your customer pays on their own phone and the amount is locked to what you quoted, with a gentle reminder if it goes unpaid. Or, when the money is in your hand, Take payment now writes it down against the booking: the amount, and whether it was cash, card on your own machine, bank transfer, other, or a gift card. Nothing is charged; the record is the truth, the same as at checkout.

Either way the deposit comes off the bill on the day, and the Payments tab of your Payments page lists it as a Deposit for the booking, with how it was paid.

Saved cards

Customers who log in can save a card for faster checkout, and a saved card works at any business on BeNotely they book with. Your team never sees card numbers, only that a card is on file.

The rest of the bill

Deposits come off the bill when the customer arrives, and the remainder is paid in person however you already take money. You don't need a card reader, but you can take cards through BeNotely with one, or with Tap to Pay on Android: see Take cards in person.

Every line on the bill has - and + buttons, so two sessions of the same service, or three of a product, sit on one line at the unit price times the count. The receipt and the invoice say the count. A line a package session pays for is always one, because a session is one visit.

Your Payments page

The Payments page has two tabs, Sales and Payments. The page opens on the tab you used last, on the web and in the app.

Sales lists what you sold, newest first: visits, walk-ins, fees, kept deposits, gift cards and packages. A visit is dated the day of the visit, even if you check it out later. Owners and managers see Sales for the last 30 days at the top: everything you sold, paid or not, and how much of it is still owed. When invoicing is on, or a sale is partly paid, Owing sits beside it with what's still owed today. A sale saved Partly paid is finished with Continue checkout: see Checking out a visit.

Payments lists every payment on the day it happened: deposits, money taken at checkout, invoices paid, gift cards and packages bought, and every refund. Money you record at a checkout is dated when you record it, even for an earlier visit; the visit's sale stays on the visit's day in Sales. Money that went back, credit handed back included, shows as a minus. Each day shows its Net: the payments under it added up. Owners and managers see three figures for the last 30 days at the top:

• Gross payments: everything paid in.
• Refunds: everything paid back. A card dispute you lost counts here too, and the line under it says how much.
• Net payments: gross payments less refunds.

Beside them, Customer deposits shows what customers have paid towards visits you haven't checked out yet, as at today, and on how many bookings. Once a visit is checked out, its deposit is part of the sale.

To see one kind of payment, such as refunds, choose Filter and pick it under Type. To see one way of paying, such as the cash you took, pick it under Payment method. You can use both at once, and each day's Net then adds up only what's shown. Open any payment to see its sale, or the booking it was for, with that payment marked.

Sales and Net payments are often the same. They differ when money arrives on a different day from the sale: a deposit paid before the visit, an invoice paid later, or a gift card bought now and spent later. The Sales report has the full breakdown.

FAQs