Understanding payments on a booking

Every reservation’s Payment tab follows the same few rules. Bookings look different because they were paid in different ways - a deposit by card, a pre-order paid at booking, cash taken at the bar, a payment made outside Sidedoor - not because the rules change. This guide explains those rules once, so any booking makes sense at a glance.

The short version

A deposit protects the booking. It’s what the venue keeps if the guest doesn’t turn up or cancels late.
A pre-order is food, drink or bottles the guest has chosen in advance.
A deposit can always be spent on the pre-order or on the bill. Spending it never removes the protection - until the guest arrives, the money still covers a no-show.
Each payment on a booking counts towards one or the other: the deposit or the pre-order. You can switch most payments between the two at any time before the booking ends.
The three figures at the top of the Payment tab answer three questions: Pending - what are we still waiting for? Captured - what have we received? Deposit - what do we keep if they don’t show?

Deposit or pre-order?

	Deposit	Pre-order
What it’s for	Securing the table	Items chosen in advance
Protects against a no-show	Yes - it’s what the venue keeps	Only if your policy keeps pre-orders on a no-show
On the night	Comes off the bill, or pays for the pre-order	The items it paid for are already paid
Shown on	Payment tab, the Deposit figure	Pre-order tab (and listed on the Payment tab)
Who sets it	Your payment policy, or a request from your team	The guest while booking, or your team on the Pre-order tab

The Payment tab, figure by figure

Open a reservation and choose Payment. Three figures sit across the top.

Figure	What it means	What’s in it
Pending	Money we’re waiting for, or a saved card that hasn’t been charged	Payment links the guest hasn’t paid yet. On a Card on file booking, the amount the saved card would be charged (Card saved, nothing charged)
Captured	All the money received for this booking	Card payments taken through Sidedoor, plus cash and payments made elsewhere that your team recorded (for example a Dojo link or the card machine), minus anything refunded or returned
Deposit	What the venue keeps if the guest doesn’t turn up or cancels late	Every payment that was taken as a deposit, plus any change your team made with Edit. On a Card on file booking, the fee the saved card is charged

A few things that often cause confusion:

Captured and Deposit are different questions, so they can show different amounts. A booking with a £100 deposit and £300 of pre-ordered bottles, all paid, shows Captured £400 and Deposit £100: £400 has been received, and £100 of it protects the table.
A Card on file booking shows the same amount under Pending and Deposit. Nothing has been charged (Pending), and that’s the amount the card is charged on a no-show (Deposit). Captured stays at £0 unless the card is charged.
Deposit can show £0.00 with Edit under it. That means money has been paid, but none of it was taken as a deposit - usually a pre-order payment. See Making a payment count as the deposit.
Deposit is hidden when nothing has been paid or asked for. Edit isn’t offered once the booking has ended.

Below the figures you’ll see the Payment policy that applies to the booking, a form to request or record a payment, and the Payments list: one row per payment, each labelled with what it counts towards, for example Deposit, Paid externally 1 (pre-order) or Cash 1. Click a row to open that payment: its status, what you can do with it, and its history.

The badge on the Payment tab

Badge	Meaning
Green tick	Money received - a deposit captured, a recorded payment, or a deposit paid outside Sidedoor
Blue tick	A card is saved (Card on file). Nothing to do
Grey !	Waiting for the guest to pay a link
Amber !	Needs your team - a payment link expired and needs sending again, a card hold is waiting, or a card-on-file no-show or late-cancellation charge was declined. A declined charge isn’t retried automatically - send the guest a new payment request instead
No badge	No payment, or everything was refunded or released

The Pre-order tab has its own badge for the items: green when they’re paid (including covered by the deposit), blue when they’re agreed on a saved card, grey when they’ll be paid at the venue, amber when payment hasn’t been collected.

How a payment is allocated

Every payment counts towards the deposit or the pre-order. That’s set when the money comes in:

Where the money came from	Counts towards
The deposit your payment policy asked for at booking	The deposit
The guest paying for pre-order items while booking or from a pre-order link	The pre-order (always)
A request from the Payment tab	What you pick under Purpose: Deposit or Pre-order payment
Cash or a payment made elsewhere that your team records on the Payment tab	What you pick under Purpose

Using the deposit for the pre-order

When a booking has a deposit and pre-order items still to pay, the Pre-order tab shows Deposit on file with a Use for the pre-order button. Tap it and the deposit pays for the items - no money moves, and nothing is charged or refunded.

You can do the same from the payment itself: open it on the Payment tab and change Counts towards to The pre-order. Change it back to The deposit to undo.

This doesn’t weaken the protection. A payment that was taken as a deposit keeps covering a no-show after it’s been put towards the pre-order, so the Deposit figure stays the same.

If there’s still an open pre-order payment request or link out for items this now covers, Sidedoor warns you to cancel it from the Deposit tab, so the guest isn’t asked to pay twice.

If you don’t use the deposit for the pre-order, it isn’t lost: when the guest arrives, the deposit shows as a credit on the booking’s Till tab, to take off the bill.

Making a payment count as the deposit

Money taken as a pre-order payment doesn’t protect the booking. If it should - for example, the guest paid £500 for bottles and you want that £500 to cover a no-show:

Cash or a payment made elsewhere that your team recorded: open the payment on the Payment tab and change Counts towards to The deposit. The Deposit figure goes up to match.
Any other payment: choose Edit under the Deposit figure and set the amount, with a reason. It can go up to the money paid or asked for on the booking.

What can’t be switched

A payment that has been refunded or returned, or hasn’t been paid yet.
A payment link your team sent for the pre-order.
The guest’s own payment for items they chose themselves.
Any payment once the booking has ended (cancelled, no-show or rejected).

The life of a deposit

1 · BookingAsked for

The guest pays a deposit while booking, or receives a link. Until they pay, it shows under Pending.

Payment policy, or a request from the Payment tab

2 · PaidCaptured

The money moves to Captured, and the Deposit figure shows what it protects.

Payment tab

3 · Before the visitPre-order (optional)

Use the deposit for the pre-order, or keep it as a credit for the bill. Either way it still protects the table.

Pre-order tab

4 · OutcomeSettled

The guest arrives, cancels in time, cancels late or doesn’t show - see below.

Automatic

The deposit is paidCaptured, and counting as the deposit

Guest arrives

Spent on the nightIt has paid for the pre-order, or it shows as a credit on the Till tab to take off the bill. Nothing is refunded.

Cancels in time

RefundedRefunded to the guest’s card under your in-time cancellation rule.

Cancels late

KeptSettled like a no-show, under your late cancellation rule.

Doesn't show

KeptThe venue keeps the Deposit figure. Any pre-order money above it follows your pre-order no-show setting.

A booking that’s never checked in is marked a no-show automatically at the end of its time slot, and the no-show is settled after the delay set on your payment policy.

On a no-show, deposit and pre-order together

The venue keeps whichever is larger: the Deposit figure, or the pre-order items (if your policy keeps pre-orders on a no-show) - never more than was actually paid. Any other pre-order money paid by card is refunded if your policy releases pre-orders on a no-show. Cash and payments made outside Sidedoor are never refunded automatically; your team returns them by hand and marks them returned. The full rules are in What a no-show or late cancellation keeps.

Card on file instead of a deposit

With Card on file, the guest’s card is saved and nothing is charged. The Deposit figure shows the fee the card is charged if they don’t turn up or cancel late. If they arrive, the card is released and they pay at the till as normal. Pre-order items agreed on the card are paid at the venue when they arrive.

Cash and payments made elsewhere

When a guest pays by cash, a Dojo link, the card machine or any other way outside Sidedoor, record it from the Payment tab: choose Cash (taken at the venue) or Paid externally under Type, pick the Purpose, and add a note saying where it was paid.

It counts in Captured, and in Deposit if its purpose is the deposit.
With a pre-order purpose, it marks the pre-order items it covers as paid.
Sidedoor didn’t process it, so it can’t be refunded online. If you give it back, mark it returned (or refunded) on the payment so the figures stay right.

Bookings moved from another system

Bookings brought over when your venue moved to Sidedoor show their deposit as Paid, recorded on migration: it was paid in your old system, so it can’t be refunded or charged from Sidedoor, but it protects the booking and counts towards the bill like any other deposit. Upgrades or pre-orders paid in the old system show as a locked Paid externally (pre-order) payment.

Worked examples

1. A deposit, then bottles pre-ordered. A party of 10 pays a £100 deposit when booking. Your team later adds £300 of bottles on the Pre-order tab.

Before anything else: Captured £100, Deposit £100. The Pre-order tab shows £300 due and Deposit on file £100.
Tap Use for the pre-order: £200 is left to collect. Deposit still shows £100.
Request the £200 as a Pre-order payment. Once paid: Captured £300, Deposit £100, and the bottles show as paid.
If they don’t show, the venue keeps £100 at least, or the bottles’ value if your policy keeps pre-orders on a no-show.

2. Bottles paid on a Dojo link. A guest pays £500 for bottles through a Dojo link.

Record it: Type Paid externally, Purpose Pre-order payment, note “Dojo”.
Captured £500, Deposit £0.00: the bottles are paid, but nothing protects the table.
To make the £500 cover a no-show too, open the payment and set Counts towards to The deposit. Deposit becomes £500.

3. Card on file. The policy saves the card with a £20 per person no-show fee for 6 guests.

Pending £120 (Card saved, nothing charged), Captured £0, Deposit £120.
They arrive: the card is released and they pay at the till.
They don’t show: the card is charged £120 after your no-show delay. Captured becomes £120.

4. Cash deposit at the bar. A regular drops in £50 cash to hold a table.

Record it: Type Cash, Purpose Deposit. Captured £50, Deposit £50.
On the night it shows as a £50 credit on the Till tab. If they cancel in time, hand the cash back and mark the payment returned.

Checking a booking in ten seconds

Badge on the Payment tab - green means money’s in, grey or amber means something’s outstanding.
Captured - how much we’ve received in total.
Deposit - how much we keep if they don’t show. If it’s lower than you expect, check how each payment counts towards in the Payments list.
Pre-order tab - are the items paid, covered by the deposit, or still to collect?

Deposits & payments - the full reference: policies, refunds, top-ups and every rule
Running pre-orders from start to finish
Choosing a payment setup