The purpose of this article is to help you learn: 

  • What is a separate charge?
  • How do separate charges work?
  • Separate payments for the providers
  • Notifications related to a separate charge
  • Syncing with third-party apps

 

What Is a Separate Charge?

The separate charge feature is a customer charging feature that provides an option to the admin to charge the customer irrespective of the booking. It's like a standalone charge that the admin can use to collect money from the customer for something unrelated to a booking.

 

How Do Separate Charges Work?

You can process a separate charge by clicking the “Add charges” button available at either of the following locations:   

Bookings > Booking charges > Pending Charges 

Or,

Bookings > Booking charges > All Charges > Separate 

By clicking the “Add charge” button, the “Add charges” side window appears from the right side of the screen from where you can select the option “Separate Charge” to proceed further.

Once you select the “Separate Charge” radio button option, you can add the “Customer details” for the “New Customer” or select the “Existing Customer” as mentioned below:

  • New Customer: If you select the new customer option, the system will add a new customer with the following customer details:
    • Company name (Optional)
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Gender (Male / Female / Unspecified)
    • Email address
    • Phone no.
    • Address
    • Apt. no. 
    • Please note that if the system can send notifications related to new customer additions, like "New Account" and "Reset Password", the system will send those notifications to this new customer. 
  • Existing Customer: If you select the existing customer option, a “Select Customer” search bar will appear from where you can search for the existing customer's name. The search bar will show the available existing name options matching the search bar name. Click on the existing customer’s name to select the customer and the system will display the following information related to the existing customer:
    • Address Details: You can select the “Existing address” or add a “New address”. 
      • For the “Existing address” option, the system shows all the saved addresses for that existing customer under the “Saved addresses” dropdown menu option. Upon selection of the appropriate saved address from the dropdown menu, the “Address” and “Apt” fields get filled with the data.
      • For the “New address” option, the system shows the blank fields of “Address” and “Apt” to which you can add the required data.

The next section is the “Charge amount” section.

Clicking the “Charge amount” section opens the field where you can add a separate charge amount. Here you can add a fixed amount only. If the taxes are enabled, then the taxes will be charged on the amount added in the amount field and will be added to show the “Total” charge amount. You also have the option to exclude the tax for this separate charge, by checking the checkbox available in front of the option saying “Do you want to exclude sales tax?”. 

Tax calculation on separate charge:  The tax is calculated on separate charges based on the tax settings, from:

Settings > General > Taxes

If the tax is enabled then only it will be applicable on a separate charge.

  • For flat tax: If the setting,"Do you want to set different taxes for different locations?" is “No”, then the tax will be calculated based on the percentage selected. If the setting is “Yes”, then the tax will not be applicable on the separate charge.



  • For Taxify: The tax will be calculated based on the customer's address. 

The next section is “Do you want to pay provider(s)?” from where you can select a provider/team to pay them separately. With the “Yes” option, the system allows you to select the provider/team and add the amount for making the payment against the separate charge, and if the “No” option is selected, then the providers/teams will not be paid any amount against this separate charge.

If the “Yes” option is selected, then a “Select Provider(s)” search bar will appear from where you can search for the name of the existing provider/team, and the search bar will show the available existing provider’s/team’s name options matching the search bar name. Click on the checkbox against the existing provider’s/team’s name that you want to select and click the “Select” button to select the provider. You can choose single or multiple providers/teams from here. Once the “Select” button is clicked, the system adds all the providers/teams selected to this separate charge window and gives you the option to add the fixed amount that you want to pay to each provider/team, individually, against this separate charge.

If you have selected multiple providers/teams, in that case, you get a trash bin icon against each provider/team which allows you to remove any particular provider/team from the separate charge. Please enter the fixed amount in the amount field available against each provider/team for the amount you want to pay to the provider(s)/team(s). You can click the “Clear all” button to reset the amount values and add again.

The next section is the “Notes” section from where you can add notes for the merchant, customer, and provider/team.

Click on the “Add note” button to open the “Add notes” pop-up window, where you can add any specific notes, related to this separate charge, for the merchant, customer, or provider/team. You can apply various test styles on the text and click on the “Save” button to save the notes.

Once the notes are saved, they appear in the “Notes” section with options to edit the notes or delete the notes. Under the customer notes and providers/team notes, you will see a checkbox saying “Includes in notification”, checking this checkbox will include the note in the customer’s notification or the provider/team notifications, respectively.

The next section is the “Payment Information” section from where you can charge the separate charge amount by a credit/debit card or by cash/check. 

  • Select the “Existing credit card” radio button option to charge the credit card from the already saved card option(s) available under the “Your saved card” dropdown field. Please note that this option will appear for existing customers only. 
  • Select the “New credit card” option to open up the “Add new card” fields which allows you to add the card number, card expiry date in MM/YY format, and CVC on which the separate charge can be performed.
  • Select the “Cash/check” option if you want to charge the customer through cash, check, or any other mode of payment like bank transfers, etc.

The next section is the “Notification” section from where you have the option to exclude sending notifications regarding this separate charge. Checking the checkbox against “Exclude notification for customer” will exclude or will not send the notification to the customer regarding this separate charge.

Lastly, click on the “Charge” button to perform the charge. On the successful charge, the separate charge will appear at:

Bookings > Booking Charges > All Charges > under the “Separate” tab

From where, you can sync this charge on QuickBooks (if QuickBooks is integrated) and can refund the charge by clicking the refund icon available against this charge. 

To learn more about the BookingKoala Quickbooks integration, click here. 

 

How will the separate charge be taken with the 3DS2 authentication?

In the case of 3DS2 authentication, separate charge notifications will be sent to the customer and also a “separate charge authentication badge” will be added to the separate charge. Once the customer authenticates the charge from the reauthentication page, the charge will succeed.

To learn more about 3DS2 authentication in BookingKoala, click here.