Set up prepayments (deposits) for appointments booked in the calendar

You can ask a patient to pay a prepayment when you book an appointment through the regular Clinicminds calendar. A prepayment is also called a deposit or advance payment. Clinicminds uses the term prepayment in the app, including the Require prepayment checkbox and the Amount field.

This article explains prepayments for appointments booked manually through the regular calendar. It does not explain prepayments for appointments booked through the online scheduler. For online scheduler payments, see Setup Guide: Configuration Online Payments Deposits.

You need an active and connected Stripe account. Stripe processes the payment and provides the payment methods available to the patient, such as iDEAL or credit card. If Stripe is not connected, patients cannot complete the online prepayment.

When a booking requires a prepayment, the appointment stays pending until the prepayment is paid. Clinicminds sends the patient a payment request with a payment link. After the payment is received, the appointment is confirmed.

If the patient does not pay before the deadline, you can configure Clinicminds to cancel the appointment automatically. This helps prevent unpaid appointments from continuing to occupy time in the calendar.

There are two levels of settings:

The place where you configure the prepayment amount depends on how your clinic plans appointments.

Go to Menu > Clinic settings > Calendar > Appointment defaults. At the top of the page, under Calendar, check whether appointments are planned based on treatment categories or bookable services. New accounts use bookable services by default, and this is the recommended setting.

Use bookable service settings when different services within the same treatment category need different prepayment rules or amounts. Use treatment category settings only if your clinic still plans appointments based on treatment categories rather than bookable services.

Go to Menu > Clinic settings > Calendar > Appointment defaults and open the Defaults section.

The Prepayment term determines when the patient must pay. Two selections work together:

For example:

If automatic cancellation is enabled and the payment is not received by the deadline, Clinicminds cancels the pending appointment.

Enable Cancel appointment automatically if prepayment is not made in time if the appointment should be removed from the calendar when the deadline passes. Leave it disabled if your clinic wants to contact the patient or handle the appointment manually instead.

When Clinicminds cancels an appointment this way, your clinic automatically receives an email notifying you that the appointment was cancelled because the prepayment was not paid in time.

Under Defaults: Send to patient, choose whether the Prepayment and Prepayment reminder messages are sent by email, SMS, both, or neither.

These messages contain the payment request and help the patient understand what is required to keep the appointment. The prepayment reminder is sent halfway through the prepayment term. We recommend enabling it whenever you use automatic cancellation, so the patient gets a chance to pay before the appointment is cancelled. Review the message templates before enabling the feature so the wording and payment deadline are clear.

Use this option when your clinic plans appointments based on bookable services. This is the recommended option and the default for new clinics.

Go to Menu > Clinic settings > Calendar > Bookable services and open a service.

For each appointment type in that service, you can set (also applicable for online bookings):

The Terms are the conditions shown to the patient during the booking process and included in the appointment confirmation email. Use them to briefly explain what the prepayment is for, and any cancellation or refund conditions that apply. For example, you can state that the prepayment serves as a no-show fee if the patient cancels too late or does not show up.

Because these settings are configured per service, two services in the same treatment category can have different prepayment requirements or amounts.

Use this option when your clinic still plans appointments based on treatment categories. We recommend switching to bookable services instead (see above); use treatment category settings only if your clinic has not made that switch yet.

Go to Appointment defaults > Defaults for treatment categories and treatments > Treatment categories, then open a treatment category.

For each appointment type in the category, you can set:

The setting is independent for each appointment type. This lets you match the prepayment to the purpose and risk of the appointment. For example, an Injectables category might require a prepayment for a consultation and treatment, but not for an inspection or aftertreatment appointment.

The defaults are intended to save time, but they are not permanent. When scheduling an individual appointment, review the prepayment section in the appointment window. You can change the prepayment requirement, amount, and payment term for that booking when the situation requires an exception.

For example, you may normally require a prepayment for a treatment but decide to waive it for a particular patient or booking. An individual change affects that appointment and does not change the general defaults for future bookings.

After you save a booking that requires a prepayment:

The prepayment and reminder messages are sent automatically, so you do not need to send a separate manual payment request. The appointment message templates can be edited under Menu > Clinic settings > Email & SMS settings > Appointments.

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