Charge Customers (Deposits)
Charge Customers collects a deposit or pre-bill charge for upcoming jobs by charging each customer's default card on file.
Overview
Use this page when your company takes money before the job happens — for example, a 50% deposit on next week's first-time cleanings. You pick a range of job dates and a rate, review one row per customer, and charge the customers you select.
Each successful charge is recorded in QuickBooks as an unapplied payment on the customer, which QuickBooks treats as a customer credit. Nothing is attached to a specific job or invoice in MaidCentral Pulse.
Turn on Charge Customers
Charge Customers is off until an Administrator turns it on. If you don't see the Charge Customers tab under Invoicing, or the page says Charge Customers is not enabled for your account, it isn't turned on yet. Go to Settings > Integrations & System > Pulse Features, open Accounting, and turn on Charge Customers. If it isn't listed there, contact MaidCentral support (see How to Contact MaidCentral Support).
Charge Customers also needs a QuickBooks connection; without one the page shows Connect QuickBooks to use Charge Customers.
Key features
- One row per customer, covering every job they have in the date range
- A Flat dollar amount per job or a Percent of each job's bill rate
- The customer's live QuickBooks balance, with any existing credit taken off the amount
- Amounts you can edit before charging
- Protection against charging the same customer twice by accident, including only one run at a time per company
How to charge deposits
- Go to Invoicing and select the Charge Customers tab.
- Pick the date range of the jobs you want to collect for. It starts on today.
- Choose a Rate type and enter the rate:
- Flat — a dollar amount for each job. For example, 25 charges $25 per job.
- Percent — a percentage of each job's bill rate. For example, 50 charges half.
- Click Update. The amounts recalculate.
- Review the list. Customers who can be charged are already ticked in the Charge column. Untick anyone you want to skip, or edit an Amount.
- Click Charge Cards in the bar at the bottom of the page.
- Read the confirmation, which shows how many cards and the total, then click Charge Cards.
- Review the results. Each customer shows a check mark with the amount charged, or the reason the charge did not go through.
Only customers on Credit Card billing terms with jobs in the range are listed.
What the columns mean
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Charge | Tick to include the customer. Blank when the customer cannot be charged. |
| Jobs | How many jobs the customer has in the range. Hover to see each job's date, scope, bill rate, and charge. |
| Customer | Click the name to open the customer. |
| Billing Terms | The customer's billing terms. |
| Scope of Work | The scopes of the jobs in the range. |
| Total Bill Rate | The bill rates of those jobs added together. |
| QuickBooks Balance | The customer's current balance in QuickBooks. Green means they have a credit; red means they owe money. |
| Amount | What will be charged. |
How the amount is worked out
For each job, the amount is the flat rate or the percentage of the bill rate, never more than that job's bill rate. A job that is already invoiced adds nothing. A customer's recurring tip is added per job.
The jobs are added together. If the customer has a credit in QuickBooks, the credit is subtracted. The amount never starts below $0.00 or above the Total Bill Rate.
For example, Beth has two $120 jobs next week and a $30 credit in QuickBooks. At Percent 50, her amount is $60 + $60 − $30 = $90.
Common tasks
Charge a different amount for one customer
Click the Amount on that customer's row, type the new amount, and click away. The total on the Charge Cards button updates.
Find a charge afterwards
Open the Transactions Report under Invoicing. Charges from this page show the area Charge Customers. To return the money, see Refunds and Voids.
In QuickBooks, the customer shows an unapplied payment for the amount charged. Any card surcharge is not included in the QuickBooks payment.
Use the deposit on the job's invoice
The deposit is a credit on the customer in QuickBooks. QuickBooks applies it to the customer's invoices when Automatically apply credits is turned on in your QuickBooks settings. If that setting is off, apply the credit to the invoice in QuickBooks.
Tips and best practices
- Check the total before you confirm. These are real charges, not holds. To hold funds without charging, use Credit Card Preauthorization.
- Click Refresh before a second run. The amounts depend on each customer's QuickBooks balance, which changes after every charge.
- Fix the blank rows first. A customer with no tick box is missing a card or a QuickBooks link.
Troubleshooting
| Issue | What to do |
|---|---|
| A customer shows Not connected | The customer is not linked to a QuickBooks customer, so they cannot be charged here. Once the customer is linked to QuickBooks, click Refresh. |
| A customer shows Add card | The customer has no card on file. Add one from the customer's payment methods. See Saving Payment Methods. |
| A customer shows Unavailable under QuickBooks Balance | Pulse could not read the balance from QuickBooks just now. Click Refresh. |
| "an identical charge for this customer already ran in the last 2 hours" | The same amount was already charged to this customer from this page in the last two hours, so the second charge was skipped. Check the Transactions Report before charging again. |
| "QuickBooks balance changed since the page was loaded" | The customer's balance moved after you opened the page, so the amount was out of date and no card was charged. Click Refresh to see the current amount. |
| "A Charge Customers run is already in progress for your company" | Someone at your company is already charging cards from this page, or your earlier run has not finished. No cards were charged by your request. Wait a few minutes, click Refresh, and check the Transactions Report before charging again. |
| "The card was charged … but the payment could not be recorded for QuickBooks" | The customer's card was charged. Do not charge them again. Contact support with the customer name and the transaction number shown. |
| "The card was charged … but the charge could not be saved" | The customer's card was charged and the run stopped, so the customers after them were not charged. Do not charge that customer again. Contact support with the customer name and the transaction number shown. |
| "This run is taking longer than expected and is still finishing" | A large run can outlast the page. It keeps going in the background. Do not charge again; check the Transactions Report, then click Refresh. |
| Every amount is $0.00 | The rate is 0. Enter a rate and click Update. |
| A customer I expected is missing | They are not on Credit Card billing terms, or they have no scheduled jobs with a bill rate in the date range. |