Guide
Take a deposit on a booked signing
Money in hand before the signing — cash, a check, Zelle, Venmo or a card on your phone — kept against the job and taken off the bill when you close it out.
General information, not legal advice
This page explains how Hand & Seal works. Your state’s law, and your commissioning authority, decide what you must do — when in doubt, ask them or a lawyer.
A deposit is money toward a signing you've booked, taken before it happens — at the door when you price it, or when they say yes. It goes into your books the day you take it, and comes off the bill when you close the job out. Nothing is invoiced before the signing.
Take it
Open the booked job and tap Take a deposit. It's also offered straight after you tap Add to schedule on New job. A signing you're only holding for them is confirmed first.
Check the amount. It's filled with the deposit your page asks, if it asks one; otherwise type it. It can't be more than the job's total.
Say how they paid. Card — tap or reader takes it on your Bluetooth card reader — or, on an Android phone, on the phone itself with Tap to Pay — straight into your own Stripe account. Or tap Cash, Check, Zelle, Venmo, Bank transfer, Card, taken elsewhere or Other for money already in hand.
Send the receipt. Email it to them in your name — type their address if the job has none — or text it from your phone.
Open the job. Under Price and deposit, open Take a deposit…. It's there for a booked signing that's still ahead, has a price, and has no deposit or invoice yet.
Fill in Deposit and How. The amount is filled with the deposit your page asks, if it asks one — “Up to $75 — the job's total” says the most it can be. Choose How they paid, and add a Reference if you like, such as the check number.
Choose Record the deposit. The job's Deposit line says so — “$25 · received in cash — taken off the bill at close-out”.
Send the receipt. Choose Email the receipt to … (with no address on file, type theirs first — it's kept for next time), or Text a receipt from a phone.
A card is taken in the phone app. The web records money already in hand.
When you close it out
The deposit comes off what's due: close-out shows it under the total, with Due now for the rest, and the invoice is paid by it first.
If the bill comes to less than the deposit, close-out says so. A card's extra goes back to their card by itself the next morning. Cash, a check or Zelle, give it back yourself, then choose I gave it back on the job — it comes off your income as a refund.
If the signing is cancelled
When you cancel a job that has a deposit you took, you're asked Refund the deposit? Your call, each time:
- Refund it — a card deposit goes back to their card, on your Stripe account; anything else is marked given back, so give it back yourself. It comes off your income as a refund.
- Keep it — it stays yours, on an invoice of its own: “Cancelled — deposit kept”, paid by it.
A job cancelled another way — a company's email called it off — asks the same question on the job until you answer.
Good to know
- One deposit to a job. A job billed in advance doesn't offer one: record the money on its invoice instead. Once the signing's time has come, close it out and collect.
- An assistant can record a deposit in hand, as they record payments. A card is taken by whoever is at the signing.
- A deposit your page asks of people who book there works its own way: Ask for a deposit when clients book from your page.
General information, not legal advice
Hand & Seal applies no state rule to a deposit itself. A deposit here is money toward the job's own total — never more than it — and that total is priced as any job's is, with each act's fee held to your state's limit where the rules built in have one. Where those rules say something about being paid ahead — when a prepaid travel fee must be given back, say — Settings → State rules shows it with what your state says of travel fees. This is general information, not legal advice; your state's notary handbook has the last word.
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