Previously it was only possible to set your balance due date within the property settings, meaning that all bookings for the same property would have the same balance due date and it couldn't be changed for a one off booking. We understand that this will make life easier for you to manage and offer a better payment terms to different types of customers.
Having the control to edit the balance due date on a per booking basis will benefit you whether you:
- Have returning guests and want to offer them flexibility on when they want to pay
- Link to channels that take payments on your behalf i.e Airbnb. Airbnb doesn't payout until after arrival, so for those bookings you may want to change the balance due date to the actual date Airbnb pays you.
- Have a property that is diversely used i.e you take bookings for weddings. For those booking very far in advance for a larger total you may want to extend the balance due date so the guest has longer to pay, but for regular booking guests you want to still have a standard balance due date.
and many more...
Its as simple as this:
Your balance due day that is already set in Properties>Edit>Booking details will remain as is because this will still be your default balance due date that will show to the guest in the booking summary when they make the initial booking on your calendar. You can only change the balance due date once the booking has been created.
Go to the booking you wish to alter the balance due day of and you will see the setting in the "Payment summary" box. You can simply change the balance due date here, once changed please remember to save using the green save button directly underneath.
Once saved, the new balance due date will be immediately updated on the booking summary screen.
The change of the balance will also take effect in:
- The guest booking summary
- The guest login portal
- Any e-mail/SMS with the {Balance_due_date} tag included
- The payment form link
The payment reminders page under Bookings>Payment reminders will also be reflective of the new balance due date you add to bookings, so if a the balance is due, and you then extend the balance due date on a particular booking, that booking will no longer show as due on the due payments report.
You can change the balance due date on any website, third party or admin booking.
You cannot change the balance due date on any booking that doesn't have monetary value i.e ICAL, owner bookings, cross-updated bookings.
What happens if the arrival date is moved?
If you have manually edited the balance due date within a booking and saved.. You will see a new tick box appear:
You can tick this so that if the date of the booking is changed then the balance due date will automatically be re-adjusted based on the one set in the property settings.. i.e 42 days prior to arrival.
Good question!
The owner payment date will still remain separate from the balance due date setting, the date showing as due to the owner is determined in the Edit Owner settings. We advise that if you are going to be changing the balance due date for specific bookings that you should make sure you have the following setting ticked on your owner statements:
This means that you wont risk paying owners for bookings where the guest hasn't paid yet.
You can also manually edit the owner payment date when you change the balance due date too. If you go to the booking, then go to the Owner payments tab> Find the owner payment line that you want to change the date for and click Edit.
Then on the pop-up you can select the new owner payment date.
