Payments Overview
The mental model for deposits, service payments, verification, and reporting.
This page explains the mental model for payments in TatTool: what a payment is, why deposits and service payments are different, and how verification + refunds affect reporting.
Key concept
Payments in TatTool describe what happened. They do not move money.
What A Payment Is In TatTool
A payment in TatTool is a record of a real-world money event (or correction) tied to a booking (when applicable).
TatTool uses payments for:
- Daily operations (verification and follow-up)
- Auditability (who changed what, and why)
- Revenue insights (service date vs payment date)
TatTool does not move money. Stripe, your bank, and your card terminal handle that part.
Bookings, Payment Requests, And Payments
There are three related concepts:
Booking
Bookings represent the service you deliver (date/time, artist, location, client).
Payment Request (online only)
If you use Stripe, you can create a payment request (a shareable link). A payment request is not money by itself — it becomes a payment once the client completes checkout in Stripe.
Payment
Payments are the records TatTool uses for verification and reporting. A booking can have:
- No payments
- One payment
- Many payments (common with deposits + remaining balance)
Where To Create Payments
You create payments from the booking.
- Open the booking
- Go to the Payments tab
- Create an offline payment (cash/terminal/transfer) or an online payment request (Stripe)
Deposits Vs Service Payments (Most Important)
Every payment has a purpose. Purpose is how you explain why money happened.
| Purpose | Use when | Common examples |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit | Money collected to reserve the booking ahead of time | Booking deposit paid days/weeks before |
| Service payment | Money collected for the actual service | Remaining balance paid on the service day |
| Other | Money that doesn’t cleanly fit deposit/service | No-show fee, manual adjustment, misc. income |
Purpose affects filtering and reporting. It does not “validate” money — it describes it.
If you’re unsure which purpose to choose
Choose the purpose that matches how you want to understand the money later:
- Deposit: money collected to reserve the booking ahead of time
- Service payment: money collected for the service itself
- Other: fees or adjustments that don’t fit deposit/service
How To Think About Deposits
Deposits are usually collected before the service is delivered. Teams typically use deposits to:
- Reduce no-shows
- Secure a time slot
- Cover prep time or materials
Whether deposits count as “revenue” immediately depends on how you view revenue (service date vs payment date). See: Revenue & Reporting Behavior
How To Think About Service Payments
Service payments are the payments you consider the main income for the booking (often captured on the service day).
Multiple Payments Per Booking (Partial Payments)
TatTool does not store “partial payments” inside a single payment record. Instead, you record multiple payments.
Common patterns:
- Deposit paid online, remaining paid offline on the service day
- Deposit offline, remaining paid online later
- Two offline payments (split tender / different days)
Each payment has its own method, purpose, status, verification state, and audit history.
Mental model
If money happened twice, record two payments.
Verification: Recorded vs Verified vs Deleted
Verification is how TatTool separates:
- Recorded: the payment is registered, but not trusted for reporting yet
- Verified: the payment is approved and included in revenue insights
- Deleted (voided): the payment is removed from operational views and revenue, but remains in the audit trail
Verification is especially important for offline payments where money happens outside of Stripe.
See: Payment Verification & Approval
Refunds, Corrections, And Cancellations
TatTool never silently “fixes” money when bookings change.
- If money should no longer count, register a refund. See: Refunds
- If a payment was recorded incorrectly, edit it while recorded (or unverify it first)
- If a recorded payment should be removed entirely, delete (void) it with a reason
Important
Bookings and payments are intentionally separate. Canceling a booking does not automatically refund money.
Where Payments Appear
Payments show up in a few key places:
- On the booking (all payments and refunds tied to that booking)
- Finance → Payments (a global list for searching/filtering)
- Finance → Payment verification (daily operational approval view)