A deposit reduces no-shows — a customer who's already paid to hold a slot has a real reason to show up or reschedule instead of ghosting. There's no fixed percentage we can promise you; the effect depends on your deposit size, your customer base, and what else you have running. Turn deposits on, then compare your own before/after no-show rate in Reports → Operations.
There are two separate places a deposit gets set, and they cover different situations.
1. Per quote — a percentage you type on the quote itself
In the quote builder, below the line items, there's a deposit percentage field. Leave it blank for no deposit, or enter a whole number (e.g. 25) and SalesThumb calculates the deposit off that quote's total. This is the per-job lever: a $4,000 wrap can carry 50% while a $350 tint carries nothing, because you're setting it on each quote rather than configuring it once.
It's percentage-only here — there's no flat-dollar option on a quote.
2. Shop-wide — the online-booking deposit
For customers who book themselves through your public booking page, the deposit comes from one shop-wide rule: Settings → Online Booking, in the Deposit card. Turn the requirement on, then pick a mode — Deposit amount ($) for a flat fee, or Deposit percent (%) for a share of the service price. It's one or the other, not both.
This one is a single rule for the whole shop. Pick the number that fits the bulk of your online bookings.
What isn't there
- No per-service deposit. You can't set 20% on tint and 50% on wraps as catalog defaults. Services do carry deposit fields in the database, but nothing reads them and there's no deposit section on Settings → Services — so per-job amounts have to be typed on each quote (option 1 above).
- No "required at" choice. A quote deposit is paid from the quote's own pay link; a booking deposit is taken at booking time. There's no setting that moves either one to a different moment.
- No refund or forfeit policy field. There's no refundable-hours setting and no auto-forfeit on a no-show. See How to handle no-shows for writing that policy down yourself and applying it consistently.
What to charge
Rough starting points — adjust to your market:
- Tint (under $500): skip the deposit. The friction isn't worth it on low-ticket work.
- Tint ($500-$1500): 20%.
- PPF / ceramic ($1500+): 25-33%.
- Full wraps ($2500+): 50% — materials have to be ordered.
The customer experience
The customer opens the quote link, reviews it, and pays the deposit from that page if one's set. Once the deposit is paid the quote records it against that quote, and your team books the slot from there.
Tracking deposits
A paid deposit is recorded on the quote itself, and when that quote is converted to an invoice the paid amount carries over and reduces the invoice balance — so the final invoice shows only what's still owed.
One naming trap: Reports → Deposits is *not* about customer deposits. It's your settlement/payout report — money your payment processor has actually sent to your bank. Same word, different concept.