How to take appointment deposits with a payment link (hair, nails, lessons)

Should you take a deposit at all?

Yes, if an empty slot costs you real money. Short notice makes it worse. Long services, first-time clients and holiday weekends are the usual cases. Regulars who've shown up for years may not need one.

Plenty of people in this position work for themselves. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counted 75,800 barber jobs in 2025, and 80% of those barbers were self-employed. Among the 595,000 hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists, 48% were. No front desk. No booking software paid for by a salon. You're the one asking.

Good news: clients are ready to pay by phone. The Federal Reserve's 2026 payments diary found cash made up 14% of US consumer payments in 2025. In the Atlanta Fed's survey for the same year, about seven in ten consumers paid with a phone at least once. A deposit link sent by text fits how they already pay.

How much should a deposit be?

There's no standard number, and we won't invent one. Pick an amount that covers what a no-show actually costs you in lost time and income, then check that it won't scare off a first-time client.

Two common ways to set it:

• A flat amount per service. Easy to explain. "$25 to book any nail set."
• A share of the price. Scales with the job. Say you charge $120 for color and ask for 25%. That's a $30 deposit.

Round numbers read better in a text. "$30 holds your spot" is clearer than "$28.75".

One more decision. Does the deposit come off the final price, or is it a separate booking fee? Clients may assume the first. If you mean the second, say so in writing.

Three ways to collect a deposit by link

Each one fits a different way of booking. Pick one now. You can mix them later.

Up to 10 pages, plus up to 1,000 one-time links open at a time, covers a deposit page per service and a fresh link for every client.

Booking only works on service pages, not on one-time links. Pages with booking always ask for the client's name and contact details, which is handy when you need to reach them later. More on calendar booking.

Step by step: a deposit link on tipme

This is the one-time link route. It suits anyone who books by message. New to links? Start with what a personal payment link is.

1. Create a service page for the kind of work, for example "Hair appointments", if you don't have one yet.
2. Choose Payment Request on that page's card in the app or dashboard.
3. Enter the deposit amount, for example $30.
4. Check who pays the fee. A new request starts with the page's setting, and you can change it.
5. Share the link in the same text where you confirm the time.
6. Watch for the payment in your dashboard. Once paid, the link closes.

If the client doesn't pay within 48 hours, the link expires. Send a new one or give the slot to someone else. Your call.

For fixed slots, set up a service page with booking times instead. Add a single date, or repeat a time on chosen days for up to six months, and give each time a number of seats. One seat per time works for one-on-one appointments. See one-time links and suggested amounts for the details.

Who pays the processing fee on a deposit?

You do. It's set per page and per payment request. As of October 2026, tipme charges one flat fee for every card and wallet.

Say the deposit is $30:

• You cover it: 4% + $0.30 comes out. That's $1.50, and you receive $28.50.
• The client covers it: about 4.1% + $0.31 is added at checkout. They see a total of about $31.54 before paying, and you receive the full $30.

Splitting a job costs a bit more. Each payment carries its own fixed part. Take a $120 color you cover yourself. Paid in one go, the fee is $5.10. Paid as a $30 deposit plus a $90 balance, it's $1.50 plus $3.90, or $5.40. That's $0.30 extra for a protected slot. Small, but worth knowing.

The balance can be paid on the same page, by QR code, or with Tap to Pay on your phone. Current rates are on the fees page.

How to word a deposit policy

Write it yourself. Plain words. Do it before the first link goes out. tipme's terms leave refunds and cancellations for service payments to your own stated policy and to the law where you work. So the policy is yours to set, and yours to stand behind.

A good policy answers four questions:

1. What does the deposit hold? The time slot, a class seat, a product you'll order.
2. Does it come off the final price?
3. When can the client reschedule or cancel and get it back? Name a window, like 24 or 48 hours.
4. What happens on a no-show or a very late arrival?

Put a short version in the page's message, which takes up to 140 characters. For example: "$30 holds your time and comes off your total. Reschedule free with 24 hours' notice. No-shows forfeit it." Then send the full version in your booking text.

Check local consumer rules too. They differ. Clients can still dispute a card charge with their bank, and a clear policy they saw before paying is a useful record if that happens.

What tipme does not do

Know this before you build your booking around it. tipme does not:

• refund deposits automatically
• send appointment reminders
• send booking confirmation emails
• add bookings to anyone's calendar

You keep that part of the routine. Text a reminder the day before. Put the booking in your own calendar when the deposit lands. Every payment shows up in your history, and on days with payments you get a daily recap email.

What if the client cancels?

Your policy decides. That's why you wrote it first.

Inside your window, it's a reschedule or a refund. Rescheduling is simpler. The deposit stays paid, you move the time, and you note it so the balance you ask for later is right. Your payment history shows the deposit with its date and amount, which makes that note easy to check.

A refund takes one more step. tipme has no button that returns money on its own. If you agree to give a deposit back, contact tipme support at support@tipme-app.com and say which payment it is.

Outside the window, or on a no-show, you keep the deposit if your policy says so. Tell the client kindly and in writing, point to the policy they saw before paying, and keep the message short and calm.

Keep the deposit and the tip apart

A deposit pays for the service. A tip thanks you for it. Mixing them confuses clients and your records.

Tipping habits split sharply by age, which makes this matter. Bankrate's 2025 survey found 54% of people always tip barbers and stylists, but only 25% of Gen Z always do, against 67% of Gen X. If the deposit text says nothing about tips, some clients will assume it covers everything.

Ask at the end. Use a separate tip page with a QR code at your station. The tip fatigue guide covers how to ask without pressure. In tipme, tips and service payments are labelled separately, and invoices come with service payments only, so your records stay clean at tax time.

Frequently asked questions