Receiving a booking in instalments

When to use it

A high-value booking, a holiday bought months ahead, a group that agrees to pay half now and half on arrival. Instead of writing that in a notebook, you record the plan on the booking itself.

Building the plan

1. Open the booking under Bookings, or create a new one.

2. Enter the number of instalments.

3. Review the generated instalments — each has an amount and a due date, and both can be adjusted.

4. Save.

The rule the screen enforces: the instalments must add up to the booking total. If they do not, it warns you and refuses to save. That rule is what prevents a plan that could never close.

Once confirmed, the plan exists in the Instalments module, and that is where it is tracked.

Deposit and balance

There is no field called "deposit": the deposit is simply the first instalment, with whatever date and amount you want.

For "50% now, 50% at check-in", create two instalments: one due today and one due on the arrival date.

While nothing has been paid

A newly created plan is only a forecast. The screen says so plainly: the financial plan is expected, and no payment has been recorded yet.

Creating the plan records no money. It organises what *should* come in, and when.

Recording an instalment payment

Each instalment is settled separately, with the real date and payment method. The booking's status comes from the instalments — you do not type it.

The four possible statuses:

Pending — not yet paid and not yet due.

Partial — part of that instalment has been received.

Paid — the instalment is settled.

Overdue — past its date and unpaid.

On the booking, you can see how many instalments have been paid out of the total.

Changing the booking amount later

If the total changes — an extra night, an approved fee, an add-on included — the plan has to follow. The instalments must still add up to the total.

This is not card instalments

They are different things, and confusing them causes arithmetic errors:

Booking instalments are your collection calendar, agreed with the guest. Each one is received when you record it.

Card instalments, when the guest pays online, are an arrangement between them and the card issuer. For you, the payment arrives according to the provider's rules.

Where to track it

On the booking, to see that guest's plan.

Under Instalments, to see every open plan.

Under Transactions and Payments, with the status filters, to find what is overdue.

Worked example

A New Year booking of R$ 4,500 closed in September, agreed as 30% now and the rest in two parts.

You create three instalments: R$ 1,350 due today, R$ 1,575 in November and R$ 1,575 in December. They add up to R$ 4,500, so the screen accepts it.

In September the guest pays the first one: you record it and it becomes Paid. The other two stay Pending until they are due.

Common mistakes

Adjusting one instalment's amount and forgetting the others — the sum stops matching.

Creating the plan and thinking the money was recorded. A plan is a forecast.

Marking the whole booking as paid instead of settling each instalment — you lose the tracking.

Confusing the calendar agreed with the guest with the card issuer's instalments.

Related articles

How to track booking revenue

How to edit a booking already created

How to enable online payments (Pix and card)