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PayPal: Setting up ClickBook for automatic online customer payments

Mark Demicoli  18 August 2010 07:19:10 PM


PayPal is a convenient and safe online tool to request and send money to people and business online.  It has grown so dramatically over the last few years that it has become commonplace for businesses to offer a PayPal payment option alongside Credit Cards.

The nice little advantage of using PayPal, in terms of security, is that you are only giving your credit card details to PayPal and not to lots of people and businesses directly, or even to ClickBook.  We like this fact because we don't have to handle any one's credit card details, which would be a major risk.

We have just finished 'integrating' PayPal wtih ClickBook.  What this means is that you can now request and receive pre-payment for appointments by barely lifting a finger.  Customers only give their card details to PayPal and never to ClickBook.  PayPal directly credits your account and 'voila',money in the bank.

Step 1
. The first step is to get yourself a PayPal account.  Please visit PayPal.com for this task.

Tip:  Registering on PayPal takes minutes, however PayPal will take you through certain steps to verify who you are, by transferring random amounts (small number of cents) into your bank account.  You will then have to tell PayPal what these numbers are.  It is a very secure way of verifying who you are, so that when you come to transferring your money out of PayPal, the money will definitely go into your own bank account.


Step 2
. The second step is telling ClickBook the email address you used to register on PayPal.com.  To do this, visit the PayPal tab in your ClickBook Booking Center, and enter the email address that you used to register on PayPal.  This field will default to your ClickBook email address, but does not have to be the same.


Image:PayPal: Setting up ClickBook for automatic online customer payments

Step 3 - Enable PayPal


Select "Enable PayPal" and submit the form.  We have now enabled PayPal, however, nothing is going to happen until we set up at least one Payment Rule.


Step 4. Payment Rules


This is the fun part, and it can get a little tricky if we try to get too creative here.  Payment Rules are designed to be as simple or as complex as you desire.  In essence, Payment Rules allow you to set rules for specific services, entire locations, or a combination of both.

So what rules are we talking about?  Lets take a peek below.  Here is the form that appears when you click "Add Payment Rule".   Lets start with the basics.  Julie Jones, our fictitious businesslady for the day,  Julie wishes to request pre-payment for all services, simple as that.  To do this, Julie sets up her PayPal details as above, and creates a single Payment Rule as shown below.  Quite simply, Julie has named the rule "All Services" and has ticked the  "Request full pre-payment" option.  That's it!


Image:PayPal: Setting up ClickBook for automatic online customer payments

Getting fancy

You guessed, there are more tricks in this dog.  A payment rule can be narrowed in focus, and told to behave slightly differently based on requirements.  Lets take a look at the Locations & Services section in the above image.  By default, this section is empty, which means that the Payment Rule applies to all services in all locations.  We could however, decide that we only want to request payment for certain services or locations, or further, to request pre-payment for certain services and leave the status as PENDING (ie NOT Confirmed) until payment is made.

Example:
 Julie Jones offers some services which require a huge amount of effort to prepare for.  No Shows can really drag down her bottom line for these type of services, so she decides that she requires full pre-payment for such services.  To do this, she clicks the Add/Remove link in the Locations & Services section.  The Service Selector pops up and Julie clicks on the desired service(s) and / or location(s).


Image:PayPal: Setting up ClickBook for automatic online customer payments


Finally, Julie Jones selects the third option in the Rules section.  This option instructs ClickBook that appointments for the service(s) selected are not Confirmed until payment is received.  You will know when payment is received because PayPal will send you a receipt, one to the customer, and ClickBook will send you a final appointment confirmation.  *Badabing*!

Image:PayPal: Setting up ClickBook for automatic online customer payments

Interesting Fact

Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal went on to establish SpaceX, one of the most promising space travel startups in the world.

On December 23, 2008, SpaceX announced that it had won a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, which guarantees NASA missions worth US$1.6 billion for resupplying the International Space Station, after the Space Shuttle retires in 2010.

In 2005, SpaceX announced plans to pursue a manned commercial space program through the end of the decade.
Comments

1Theresa Hall  11/04/16 8:21:01 AM  non-refundable deposits

How can flag a client file for non-refundable deposits?

2Kim Van Tussenbroek  14/04/14 3:01:32 PM  Depost via Paypal

Hi there,

Just wondering if there will be any updates soon with regards to prepayments via Paypal. I have read through the comments and suggestions that have been left previously, but can see that none of them have been implemented as yet.

I would love to have the system be able to send out a request for a deposit on the booking instead of only being able to send a request for full payment. Also being able to flag individual people for prepayment would be great also... ie if somebody doesn't show or cancels last minute then we can flag them to prepay a deposit before their booking can be confirmed.

Thanks!

Kim

3Carolyn Clark  13/09/13 10:19:55 PM  payment 48 hours before the appointment

I would like the payment to come 48 hours before the appointment, can this happen, as they would be paying for the appointment at that time.

4Julie McGrath  20/10/11 6:22:11 AM  Untitled

I would like to offer" Square" my credit card phone app that accepts credit cards to my clickbook page and website as a replacement for Paypal. Can you please tell me how I can add this as a payment option.

Thank You,

Julie McGrath

Pur Zen Spa Owner

5Tracy Clarke Assoc MAPS  16/05/11 10:02:52 AM  paypal

it would be helpful if we could see after we have setthis up, what it lloks like for the customer when they are booking, what emails etc they receive etc etc. i have set it up, no-one has used it and feel like i am flying blind because i can't explain to customers what it looks like for them.

6Barbara DoDero  28/02/11 12:59:14 PM  paypal payment in the office

I was wondering how I take a paypal payment from a client in the office?

7online booking software  03/02/11 12:16:28 PM  Untitled

It is great news that Clickbook has integrated PayPal. This makes our lives more easier while doing the payments.

8Robin Shope  18/01/11 4:42:00 AM  Still awaiting answer from 1/09/2010

I posted this a long time ago but never saw an answer. Please address. Thank you.

I attempted to set up PayPal payment for Clickbook but got a message telling me I had to be a paid ClickBiz subscriber to use that feature!! Since I am a solo practitioner and do not have any need to use ClickBiz, I think this is unfair. No where in your set up instructions for PayPAl does it say this is only available to paid, clickbiz users. I am disappointed.

9Robin Shope  01/09/10 12:30:40 PM  PayPal set up

I attempted to set up PayPal payment for Clickbook but got a message telling me I had to be a paid ClickBiz subscriber to use that feature!! Since I am a solo practitioner and do not have any need to use ClickBiz, I think this is unfair. No where in your set up instructions for PayPAl does it say this is only available to paid, clickbiz users. I am disappointed.

10Jennifer Harrington  30/08/10 2:21:57 PM  Day specific

My wish list would include being able to be day specific. I have little problem with no shows during the week, but Saturdays are notorious bad for people just forgetting to turn up. I would love to make this day prepayed to help my clients remember me.

Thanks

Jen

11Sharon Hataway  29/08/10 8:46:53 AM  gift certificates

what if the client making the booking has a gift certificate?

12Mark Demicoli  23/08/10 6:26:04 PM  Payment rule refinement

@Mark: We didn't think of that one Mark, excellent suggestion. Taking it a bit further, customers/services/locations which require pre-payment (in full or deposit only) could have their appointments automatically cancelled if they have not paid a certain number of hours or days before the appointment, freeing up the slot.

Taking it (yet) further, a discount can be applied if payment is made online... I hope our competitors aren't reading this :)

13Mark Shukhman  23/08/10 11:47:58 AM  pre-paying

different rules for pre-paying are great! let us go further:

I would be go happy if the rules apply not only to the categories of customers or services, but also to a specific customer. Let me mark the John's account with: "must pre-pay $10" and Sally's account with "no pre-payment necessary"

14Mark Demicoli  21/08/10 2:06:12 PM  Fancy pants

well well well... if we'd known we had so many fancy people around here we would have brought out the silverware!

These are great suggestions.

15Justine Robinson  21/08/10 12:08:35 PM  Paypal

I also have some "fancier" questions~

Can pre-payment for services that require more prep time or effort be a precentage of the price or a set amount, yet not the full amount? (ie. a large package costing $130USD could have a set pre-payment price of 65$USD)

And I agree with the above question about certian clients being tagged as pre-payment, or deposit only to reserve a timeslot.

Also~ If services are listed as 'Ala Carte' but multiple services are requested by a client, is there a way they can pay for all services at one time, to save effort on their behalf?

Thanks,

Justine

16Cathy in Melton  20/08/10 4:32:44 PM  Paypal

Surely, you knew your users would come up with 'fancier' requirements?!

1. Can I set Paypal up so that only new clients (those that haven't used Clickbook before) need to pay deposit (say AUD$25)?

2. I have a few clients that like to make bookings and then not show up (grrrr!). Can their client file be tagged so that when they book, a (non-refundable) deposit is required?