---
title: Payments — deposits & balances
id: payments
description: Request deposits and balances, let couples pay via your own handles, and track what's paid — no processor in the middle.
category: Features
order: 24
tags: [payments, deposit, balance, venmo, paypal, zelle]
related: [branding-and-settings, contracts, add-ons]
updated: 2026-08-03
---

SpinBook tracks the money for each event without taking a cut or sitting between you and
your client. You request payments; couples pay you directly via your saved handles and
mark them paid.

## Add your handles first

Set your **Venmo / PayPal / Zelle** in [Settings](/branding-and-settings) so couples have
a way to pay. Without them, payment requests show but have no pay buttons.

## Your default schedule (set it once)

Most bookings run on the same terms, so SpinBook applies yours automatically. In
**Settings → Payment schedule** you set two numbers:

- **Deposit** — a percent of the total, due to book. Default **50%**.
- **Balance** — how many days before the event the rest is due. Default **15**.

When you mark an event **Booked**, the deposit and balance requests are created for you.
Nothing to type, and the dates are already right.

A few deliberate details:

- **It waits for a total.** No quoted total when you book? Nothing is created — the
  couple never sees a $0 deposit. The schedule appears the moment you enter the total.
- **It runs once per event.** If you delete or rewrite what was created, it stays that
  way; later edits to the total won't put it back.
- **It never touches an event you're already managing.** If the event has any payment
  requests already, SpinBook leaves them alone.
- **The balance is never due in the past.** Book an event inside your lead time (or after
  the date) and the balance is simply due right away.
- **The maths always adds up.** Any rounding goes on the balance, so the two requests
  total the quote exactly. Selected [add-ons](/add-ons) are included.
- **100% deposit** creates a single request rather than a request plus a $0 balance.

Changing your terms affects **future** bookings; events that already have payments are
left as they are.

## Payments central — the whole business at a glance

**Payments** in the top navigation (staff only) is the one place to track money across
*every* event, so you don't have to open weddings one by one to know where you stand:

- **Three numbers up top** — total **outstanding** (with how many events it's spread
  across), **overdue requests** (count and amount), and total **collected**.
- **Outstanding balances** — each event still owing, with paid-of-total and what's left.
  Click through to that event's payments page.
- **Payment requests due** — every pending request across all events, soonest due first,
  overdue flagged in red, each with a one-click **Mark paid**.
- **Record a payment** — add a request to any event without leaving the page: pick the
  event (ones with an outstanding balance are listed first, with what's left), give it a
  label, amount, and optional due date. Tick **"Already paid"** to log money you've
  already received — it lands directly in the collected history.
- **Recently collected** — the latest payments in, with method and date.

Lost or cancelled events stop counting toward what's owed, but anything they already paid
stays in your collected history.

When you mark a payment paid (or record one), you can note the **method** and an optional
**confirmation number** (the Venmo transaction id, a check number) — both show in your
collected history and in the API export. Clicking through to an event from this page keeps
a **← Back to Payments** link, so review → act → back never strands you on the event.

For your books: `GET /api/v1/payments` returns every payment (filter `status=pending` for
all outstanding), and `/api/v1/payments/summary` gives per-month collected and
scheduled/overdue totals — see [Using the API](/using-the-api).

## Request a payment by hand

You can still add one-off requests at any time. On the event's payments page, add a
request with a **label** (e.g. "Deposit" or "Balance"), an **amount**, and an optional
**due date**. The couple sees it in their portal with pay links for your handles.

> Keep the words "deposit" and "balance" in your labels where you can — the matching
> checklist items and the contract's `deposit_amount` / `balance_due` merge fields find
> them by name.

## Marking paid

When the couple pays, they (or you) mark the request **paid**, optionally noting the
method. Staff can revert a payment to unpaid or delete a request.

## Add-ons roll into the total

If a couple selects any [priced add-ons](/add-ons), those are added on top of the quoted
total (shown as an "add-ons +$X" line), so the remaining balance always reflects what's
actually owed. No processor is involved — they pay the higher total with the same handles.

## Ties into the checklist

Deposit and balance checklist items complete automatically when a matching payment is
marked paid — see [Checklists & forms](/checklist-and-forms).

## Checklist

- [ ] Add your payment handles in Settings
- [ ] Set your default deposit % and balance lead time in Settings → Payment schedule
- [ ] Enter the quoted total so the schedule can be created
- [ ] Mark the event Booked — the deposit and balance requests appear
- [ ] Mark payments paid as they come in