Collect Payment for a Booking

InflateMate gives you more than one way to get a booking paid, depending on how the customer is buying.

Your main payment options

Once a booking exists, you can usually move it forward in one of these ways:

• take payment during booking creation
• send an invoice from the booking workflow
• mark the booking as paid in cash

The right option depends on whether the customer is paying immediately, later, or offline.

1. Take payment during the booking flow

If the customer is ready to pay while you are creating the booking, collect payment directly from the booking summary step.

This is the fastest path to confirmation because:

• the booking does not have to sit in Pending waiting for follow-up
• the reservation is locked sooner
• downstream communication can continue right away

Use this when you are booking the job live with the customer.

2. Send an invoice when payment will come later

If the customer is not paying immediately, open the booking and use the invoice action instead.

You can trigger invoice sending from places like:

• the dashboard overview
• the booking details sheet
• other payment-related prompts in the booking workflow

This keeps the booking active in your pipeline while giving the customer a clean payment path.

3. Mark the booking as paid in cash

If you collected cash or another offline payment outside of Stripe, use Mark as paid in cash from the booking actions.

This is useful for:

• cash payments at pickup or delivery
• payments already collected by phone
• owner-entered payments that should still move the booking forward

When you mark a booking paid in cash, InflateMate treats it as completed payment and sends the confirmation email flow.

4. Track the booking after payment

After payment is handled, open the booking in the list or calendar to double-check:

• payment status
• booking status
• customer details
• waiver progress

If the customer still has not signed, you can resend the waiver from the booking details.

5. Know when to use each option

Use direct payment when the customer is ready now.

Use Send invoice when the customer needs time.

Use Mark as paid in cash when payment happened outside the platform but the booking should still be advanced and communicated correctly.

Quick tip

If too many bookings are sitting unpaid, tighten up your deposit rules and auto-charge settings in Settings → Booking and review the Payments dashboard regularly.