Damage deposits

A damage deposit is the hirer’s money, held in case the hall is left in a state. It is not part of the hire fee, it never goes on the invoice, and until it goes back the hall owes it. That is why this screen is built around two lists: deposits waiting to be paid before a hire, and deposits due back after one.

Set the usual deposit for each kind of hirer and HallPro adds it to every confirmed booking by that kind of hirer from then on. Most halls ask one-off private hirers and leave regular groups at nothing. A repeating booking pays one deposit for all its dates, and gets it back after the last one.

After the hire, settle it: return it all, keep some, or keep it all. Keeping any means saying why, and the hirer can be emailed a short statement. HallPro does not move money — return it the way the hall always does, and record it here.

All of that is free. The Standard plan adds the emails that happen without anybody remembering: asking the hirer when the booking is confirmed, one reminder if it has not arrived a week before, and a weekly note to the committee about deposits that should have gone back.

For example: The Hendersons book the main hall for a 40th. As a one-off hirer they are asked for £100, which they pay by bank transfer. After the party the caretaker finds a scuffed floor and a broken chair; the treasurer keeps £35 “for a replacement chair”, records £65 returned by bank transfer, and the Hendersons get an email saying exactly that.

Questions people ask

Is a kept deposit income?
The part kept is, on the day it was kept, and the annual report counts it that way. Money held is not income at all: the report shows it separately as owed back at the end of the period.

The damage cost more than the deposit.
Keep it all, and bill the rest as a separate invoice. HallPro will not record keeping more than was paid, because that is not what happened to the money.

What if a booking is cancelled?
A deposit that was only asked for disappears by itself. One that was paid moves straight to Due back, because it is still the hirer’s money.

We deleted a booking by mistake.
A deposit the hall is holding is never deleted with the booking. It stays on Due back, marked as a deleted booking, until somebody settles it, because deleting a diary entry must not make a debt disappear.

Some deposits were paid before we started using HallPro.
Add them at the bottom of the screen with “the hall already has it” ticked, before switching on the automatic emails, so nobody is asked to pay twice.