Stripe Payments in Planning Pod: Payment Reminders vs. Deposit Requests

If you've chosen to use Stripe as your preferred payment processor in your Planning Pod account, you'll now have the option to pass credit card fees, purchase terminals for card-in-hand transactions, and collect or place authorized holds on customer's card for refundable deposits! 

In this article, we will focus on knowing when to use Payment reminders or Deposit Requests and how to set them up! If you are interested in learn more about Stripe's other benefits, check out this article. 

What Payment method do I choose? 
As you set up your Invoice, you have the option to set up different requests! You'll want to make sure you've set this up accurately so the payment is tracked in the right spot and that your payment is received! 

Payment Reminders - Use this type of reminder for any and all payments that go towards the invoice! This would include payments like" first payment to hold event date, payment schedules, and final payments.

• Payment Reminders will reflect the payment at the top and towards the bottom of the Invoice and will update "payments made" and "balance due" data, just like when you click "add payment" on the invoice.
• Setting up a payment reminder and having your client pay through the 'pay now' button will initiate a payment transaction, meaning money will move from the Client to your Stripe account.

Deposit Requests - Use this type of reminder if you are looking to collect a refundable deposit for your event. This would include things like damage deposits, security fees, etc. 

• You have 2 options when setting up a deposit request, make sure to pay attention to the options so it's set up properly!
  • Pre-Approval/Authorization only: A credit hold is placed on the client's card. No money is collected at this time and you'll want to reauthorize the card every 6 days until you can release the hold or apply to the invoice.
  • Authorization + Capture: This option will initiate a transaction so money from the Client's bank account will end up in your Stripe account. It will keep this separate from your invoice payments so you can accurately track your deposit and keep it separate from your actual revenue.
• Once a deposit has been collected, you'll see information populate in the "Deposit" panel- directly underneath the Payment Reminder panel. If you apply any of this towards the invoice, you'll see in the invoice column towards the bottom. It's not an actual invoice payment, so it will not show up there, but rather, you'll see it in the taxes/additional fees section of that column.

How to set this up: 
Please check out this step by step walkthrough to guide you through the steps on setting up Payment Reminders and Refundable Deposits! 

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to email support at: support@Planningpod.com. They will be able to help you with the tool or help guide you to Stripe support- depending on the situation as Planning Pod does not actually handle the money that comes into your account.