Ticket deposits: why the till needs full payment
Why an events business cannot take a deposit or part payment at the till, and how to take deposits properly with an invoice, part payments and a pay link.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A corporate client wants ten tables at your gala dinner and offers to pay half now and half closer to the date. A school wants to secure a block of tickets for its matric group with a deposit. A wedding party wants to hold a hospitality package. In every case, the question at the desk is the same: can we just take the deposit on the till?
With Achekam, the answer is no, and the reason is worth understanding, because the right alternative is not difficult. Deposits belong on an invoice. This article explains why, and how to run deposits from first payment to final balance.
The till's Lay-by button is a label
Achekam's till shows several modes on screen: Lay-by, Quotation, Sales Order, Service Work Order, Delivery and Click & Collect. It is easy to assume that Lay-by takes a deposit and holds the balance open. It does not.
Those modes are labels only. Whichever one is selected, every till sale is recorded as an ordinary sale, paid in full. Nothing about choosing Lay-by creates a balance owing, a schedule of instalments or a reserved item.
Every till sale must be paid in full
Behind the screen, the server refuses any till sale that is not paid in full. A cashier who tries to ring up a table package and take half its price will find the sale cannot be completed.
That rule protects the business. A till sale posts revenue, VAT and stock in one step. If a till could record half-paid sales, the books would show income that had not been collected and leave no proper record of who owed the rest. For walk-up ticket sales and bar takings, full payment is exactly right. For deposits, you need a different tool.
Invoice the booking instead
The cleaner approach for most events businesses is to invoice the whole booking at once and accept payments against it.
An invoice starts as a draft you can change or delete. Issuing it gives it the next number and posts it to the ledger: the amount the customer owes, the sale and any output VAT. You can download it as a PDF on your letterhead or e-mail it to the customer, and the screen tells you if the e-mail failed.
Achekam does not offer pro-forma invoices, so a customer who asks for one to process a deposit should receive the real invoice. Most corporate buyers can pay against it in the same way.
Before you settle on how to invoice deposits, ask your accountant about VAT timing. The rules on when VAT becomes due on a deposit are set by each country's VAT law, and the answer may affect whether you invoice the full booking up front or the deposit and balance separately.
Part payments against the invoice
Once the invoice is issued, every payment the customer makes is recorded against it. A part payment leaves the invoice part-paid, with the balance still showing as owed. If a customer pays more than the invoice, the extra is held on their account.
Payments can also be spread across a customer's invoices, which helps with a corporate client that books several events and pays in lump sums.
Here is a worked example in words. A company books a hospitality package for a gala. You issue one invoice for the whole package. The company pays the agreed deposit, which is recorded against the invoice, leaving it part-paid. A month before the event, you send a link for the balance. The company pays it, the invoice shows as paid, and the booking is settled before anyone sits down to dinner.
A pay link for the balance
For the balance, a pay link makes paying easy. You can create a payment link for any issued invoice, copy it, or e-mail it with the invoice. The customer pays on a public page showing your business's name and branding, through a gateway you have set up.
Some details to know:
- A link cannot be made for a draft or voided invoice; issue the invoice first.
- A link lasts 14 days by default.
- If a link for the same amount is already open, it is reused rather than duplicated.
If the balance is not paid on time, credit control follows up. It is on for new workspaces and once a day e-mails overdue reminders, plus a monthly statement to customers with a balance. It never charges anyone, and it records whether each e-mail went out. Reminder e-mails do not carry the pay link, so send a fresh link when a customer asks how to pay.
When a booking is cancelled
Cancellations happen. A credit note is issued from the invoice it corrects, in full or for chosen lines, and posted to the ledger, with any leftover credit held for the customer. Whether a deposit is refundable is a question for your booking terms, so make the policy clear before the customer pays. In South Africa, write those terms with section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act in mind: it sets out when a supplier may take a reasonable deposit for a booking or order, and what cancellation charge it may keep if the customer cancels.
If money has to go back after an online payment, Achekam does not send the refund through the gateway. It is made in the gateway's own dashboard, and a person then records it.
Setting the routine
Agree a simple rule for the team: deposits and balances go on invoices; the till is for sales paid in full on the day. Then write your deposit and cancellation terms into the booking confirmation. On the cost side of the same event, see keeping vendor spend inside the event budget, and for setting up the tills that take payment on the night, pop-up tills and floats for an event.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
