Receiving Payments Through Your Online Scheduler Is Essential

Many appointment-based business struggle with managing their payment and invoicing system.

There is a long list of headaches associated with such systems, from general disorganization to a long list of clients with outstanding payments to a lot of paper clutter.

The list goes on.

That’s part of the reason why taking payments through your online scheduler is essential.

Your scheduling software does not just take appointments 24/7. It does not just automate booking reminders and many other time-consuming tasks that appointment-based businesses face.

It can also completely streamline your payment and invoicing process. Take a look below.

1. A Streamlined Payment Process

A major benefit of an online scheduler is that it completely streamlines your payment process. An online scheduler can take prepayments, deposits, full payments, partial payments (i.e insurance amount + credit card amount) and so on and so forth all within the same window.

If you are using an online scheduler, you will get the most out of it by integrating it into your business in as many ways as possible. If you’re relying on additional software, you are adding extra tasks into your workflow and not only making your process much difficult but also more inefficient.

Taking payments through your online scheduler is only one way to get the most out of your scheduler. There are a lot of other things businesses should be to doing as well. Here’s how to get the most out of your free scheduling software.

2. Customer Flexibility = More Bookings

When you give your customers more flexibility to pay for your services however they want, barriers to booking are reduced. The result is more bookings.  

3. Prepayments and Full Payments – Reduce No Shows

As mentioned above,  online schedulers like Yocale are capable of taking prepayments and full payments. It has been found that when clients pay for a portion or all of their payment in advance of their appointment, no-shows are reduced by 99%.

No-shows – when a client not only fails to show up to their appointment but also does not call to let you know – are a significant sore spot for appointment-based businesses.

Appointment-based businesses lose a lot of money a year because of them. An average-sized business that makes brings in 10K a month will lose roughly 26K a year due to no-shows alone.

4. Option to Enable Penalties for No Shows, Etc.

As you can see, no-shows are a significant problem for many businesses. The result is that businesses lose massive amounts of money every year.

Online schedulers do automate confirmations/booking reminders and prevent a significant amount of no-shows, but the reality is that any they will always lose at least some profit because of no-shows.

But, an online scheduler puts additional systems in place to reduce no-shows even further.

One way that businesses can minimize their losses even further is by enabling penalties for no-shows. Since you have stored the client’s credit card information, businesses now have the ability to offset some of their losses by charging a cancellation fee, etc.

Often, however, these cancellation fees serve to prevent no-shows from the happening in the first place since clients won’t want to be charged. But, in the event of any no-show, businesses can still at least recoup some of their losses in the process.

5. Get Paid Faster – Get Paid Without the Fuss

Your online scheduler will also make it possible for you to accept online payments. This could be via credit cards or it could be via PayPal and so on. Whatever the case may be, it means that you will get paid faster. As such, you will eliminate the need to track down any outstanding payments.

6. Invoicing Management

Top online schedulers will also offer invoicing management. Client billing information can be tracked and stored; purchase history, payments, tips, taxes are all tracked with ease as well. Receipts can be automatically sent to clients.

The Bottom Line

Payments and invoicing have never been more streamlined and convenient than with your online scheduler. Taking payments through your scheduling software also allows you to drastically reduce no-shows in the process.

Yocale is the top online scheduler on the market today. Yocale also has been featured in Microsoft, Forbes and beyond. We also offer a free suite of business management and marketing tools. For more information, click here.