---
title: "Taking partial payments"
slug: "taking-partial-payments-1"
updated: 2026-03-13T04:08:50Z
published: 2026-03-13T04:08:50Z
canonical: "support.bookingtimes.com/taking-partial-payments-1"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://support.bookingtimes.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Taking partial payments

> [!NOTE]
> **Note**
> 
> The ability to apply a Partial Payment to a booking or sale has been disabled by default. The best practice is to create an invoice for each cash payment to the client's account balance. This allows full and accurate tracking of each individual payment from the client. You can then pay for the full invoice using the accumulated account balance. If you must apply partial payments, please email [support@bookingtimes.com](mailto:support@bookingtimes.com) and we can re-enable it for you.

You are able to take partial payments for a booking, for example, taking a booking deposit first and having the client settle the remaining balance at a later date.

You can also take multiple credit payments using this same process. Please see the section further down in this article.

Within BookingTimes, any partial payments that are processed are added to the client's account balance first, and when the booking is settled in full by the client at a later date, any account balance will be applied first so then they only pay the remaining balance.

## Adding an Account Balance product type

Any partial payments that are made, are handled through creating an internal product (i.e. not visible to the public) that we refer to as the client's account balance, and their payment is applied to this. This partial payment amount is added to the client's account balance and will sit there until they use it to settle their outstanding balance.

### Steps

1. Navigate to **Setup** > **Shopping** > **Products & Packages**
2. Click **Add Product**
3. Enter the **Product Name**. e.g. "Account Balance", “Deposit”, “EFT payment” etc.
4. Set the ***Category*** to "Accounts" to keep it organised (if this doesn't exist then it can be added, please see [Creating product categories](/v2/docs/creating-product-categories) article)
5. IMPORTANT - set the ***Product Type*** to "Account Management" to ensure the amount will be added to the account balance
6. Set the ***Retail Price*** as $0.00 as it will be set upon the creation of each actual sale.
7. Click **Save**

![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/image%28231%29.png)

---

## Processing a partial payment

### Steps

1. Navigate to the **Bookings** page

2. Select the relevant Booking

3. Click **New** > **Sale / Purchase**

![New sale purchase - 1](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%201.png)

4. Click **Add Products**

![New sale purchase - 2 add product](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%202%20add%20product.png)

5. Select the **Account Balance** product created previously

6. Enter the partial payment amount to be credited under the ***Sale Price*** column

7. Click **Update** at the bottom of the screen

![New sale purchase - 3 select product](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%203%20select%20product.png)

8. Click **Pay Now**

![New sale purchase - 4 pay for product](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%204%20pay%20for%20product.png)

9. Enter the partial payment amount in the appropriate payment type

10. Click **Charge Card** button (for credit card), or **Save Payment** button (other types)

![New sale purchase - 5 pay for product credit](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%205%20pay%20for%20product%20credit.png)![New sale purchase - 6 pay for product cash](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%206%20pay%20for%20product%20cash.png)

11. Confirmation of the partial payment is shown

![New sale purchase - 7 paid](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%207%20paid.png)

12. To see the client's account balance select the client and scroll down to the ***Account Balance***

![New sale purchase - 8 see acct balance](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%208%20see%20acct%20balance.png)

13. You may repeat this process for each partial payment

---

## Settling a booking in full

When the booking is ready to be settled in full by the client, any account balance via partial payments will be applied first so then they only pay the remaining balance.

### Steps

1. Navigate to the **Bookings** page

2. Select the relevant Booking

3. Notice the ***Account Balance*** from any previous partial payments

4. Click **Pay Now** to pay the remaining balance for that booking ![New sale purchase - 9 booking see acct balance](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%209%20booking%20see%20acct%20balance.png)

![New sale purchase - 9b booking see acct balance](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%209b%20booking%20see%20acct%20balance.png)

5. Click the **Use Balance** link to use the client's account balance

6. Enter in the remaining outstanding balance into the appropriate payment field. Here we'll apply a credit card payment.

7. Click on **Charge Card** (or you'll see a **Save Payment** button for the other payment types)

![New sale purchase - 10 booking make payment](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%2010%20booking%20make%20payment.png)

8. See the confirmation of the total payment of the booking, and notice **On account** under the PAID to indicate that an account balance amount was also used.

9. Click the **Show detail** link in the service payment section to see a breakdown of how this booking was paid

![New sale purchase - 11 booking paid confirmation](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%2011%20booking%20paid%20confirmation.png)

![New sale purchase - 11b booking paid confirmation](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%2011b%20booking%20paid%20confirmation.png)

10. Notice that this booking consisted of a $40 credit card payment and a $20 account balance payment

![New sale purchase - 12 booking payment detail](https://cdn.document360.io/6926c75e-9b20-4216-bf9f-d7ca1df9c74f/Images/Documentation/New%20sale%20purchase%20-%2012%20booking%20payment%20detail.png)

---

## Multiple credit card payments

Cannot charge a partial credit card payment

Please note that the system will not allow you to **charge a partial payment** with a credit card on a booking, you can only pay the full amount for a sale or booking.

  
  

All credit card payments must have an associated, independent invoice so they must be tracked appropriately. There are multiple reasons for this, from chargeback/dispute handling to creating a receipt for the payment taken

Please follow the same process as outlined in this article in creating appropriate partial credit card payments to create credits on the client account balance. This would also cover the scenario where a client wants to use 2 different credit cards at the same time to pay for a product or service.

For example:

You have a booking for a 1 hour automatic lesson for $100. The client wants to make a partial payment of $40 using a credit card, and later on they want to settle the booking for the remaining balance of $60 using their credit card again.

This is the process you would follow:

- Create a new **Sale / Purchase** for an "Account Balance" product for $40, and pay for this using a credit card. This will add $40 to the client's account balance.
- To settle the booking, navigate to the booking and select to make a payment. Apply $40 of the client's exisiting account balance to the booking, and enter in the remaining outstanding $60 into the Credit field, and choose the credit card payment option to pay for this $60.