Bonds

A bond is an additional amount you can require as security for a hire.

In HirePOS, adding a bond to a Booking or Invoice records the Bond Required amount. It does not, by itself, collect money or place a hold on the customer's card.

A bond can then be handled in different ways depending on how you want to take the security:

• The customer can pay the bond, which is an actual payment that may later need to be refunded.

• If you use Pin Payments, you can instead use a Bond (Pre-Auth) to temporarily reserve funds on the customer's card without collecting them.

To add a bond:

1. Open the Booking or Invoice.

2. Click + Add Bond below the totals section.

3. Enter the Bond Required amount.

4. Save the sales record.

The bond is included in the amount HirePOS considers required from the customer while the hire is outstanding.

Bonds are not displayed on the customer preview when the sales record is in Quote mode.

It is important to distinguish the bond amount recorded on the sales record from money actually received.

Changing or removing the Bond Required amount does not automatically refund a payment or release a Pin Payments pre-authorisation.

You can collect the bond as an actual payment together with, or separately from, the hire charges.

Once the bond has been paid, the money has been received by your business.

When the equipment is returned and the bond is due back, refund the bond using the normal payment refund process.

If you use Pin Payments and the bond was charged to the customer's card, use the Pin Payments refund process.

A paid bond does not expire automatically after seven days. The seven-day period applies only to a Pin Payments pre-authorisation.

If you use Pin Payments, you can temporarily reserve the bond amount on the customer's card instead of actually collecting the money.

This is commonly useful for short hires where you only need the bond as security while the equipment is out.

For example:

1. The customer pays their normal hire charges.

2. At or shortly before collection, open the Booking or Invoice in HirePOS.

3. Open Card Payment (Pin Payments).

4. Select Bond (Pre-Auth).

5. Process the pre-auth for the required bond amount.

6. When the equipment is returned:

   • Void the pre-auth if the bond is no longer required.

   • Capture the pre-auth if the authorised amount needs to be charged.

A pre-auth is different from receiving a bond payment. The funds are reserved on the customer's card but are not included in the normal HirePOS Amount Paid.

See Pre-Auth with Pin Payments for full instructions.

A Pin Payments pre-authorisation can remain active for up to seven days.

If it is not captured within that period, Pin Payments automatically expires the authorisation and releases the reserved funds.

For a short hire, you can void the pre-auth as soon as the goods are returned rather than waiting for it to expire naturally.

The customer's bank controls how quickly the released funds or updated transaction status become visible to the cardholder.

Take care when adding a bond to a Booking or Invoice well before the hire begins.

HirePOS can include the Bond Required amount in the customer's outstanding balance while the hire is still pending. The bond is not automatically delayed until the estimated hire start date.

This is particularly important when customers are allowed to pay through the online HirePOS payment page.

If the customer pays the bond online, it is processed as an actual card payment. It does not become a Pin Payments pre-authorisation.

For example, if an Invoice is issued in September for a hire beginning in February and already contains a Bond Required amount, that bond can be available for the customer to pay in September.

If your normal process is to accept the hire payment well in advance but only place a temporary card hold for the bond near collection, consider when you add or request the bond and process the actual pre-auth using Bond (Pre-Auth) at the appropriate time.

HirePOS does not currently use the future hire start date to automatically prevent an existing Bond Required amount from being paid online.

If the bond was actually paid rather than pre-authorised, return it using the normal refund process.

Do not use Void Pre-Auth for an amount that has already been charged.

For Pin Payments card transactions, see Refunding a Pin Payment in HirePOS.

Removing the Bond Required amount from the Booking or Invoice does not return money to the customer.

If the bond was taken using Bond (Pre-Auth) and you no longer need the security, void the authorisation instead of issuing a refund.

From the original Booking or Invoice:

1. Open Card Payment (Pin Payments).

2. Select Void/Capture Pre-Auth.

3. Locate the relevant pre-auth.

4. Click Void.

Voiding releases the card authorisation. It is not a refund because the funds were never captured as a payment.

If the authorised bond needs to be charged:

1. Open the original Booking or Invoice.

2. Open Card Payment (Pin Payments).

3. Select Void/Capture Pre-Auth.

4. Locate the relevant pre-auth.

5. Click Capture.

The current HirePOS Pin Payments pre-auth workflow captures the authorised amount as a card payment.

Once captured, it is no longer simply a temporary hold. Any money that later needs to be returned must be handled as a refund.

If you have already collected the bond as a payment and need to retain some of it, add the applicable charges to the Invoice.

You can then refund the remaining amount due back to the customer.

For Pin Payments transactions, the refund can be for an amount up to the available amount of the original card payment.

You can assign a default bond amount to individual items.

1. Go to Setup > Items.

2. Open the item.

3. Go to the Rates/Prices tab.

4. Enter the item's bond amount.

5. Save your changes.

These item bond amounts can then be used by the Calculate option in the Bond section of a sales record.

When items have bond amounts configured, use Calculate in the Bond section of the Booking or Invoice to calculate the required bond from the items on the sales record.

The calculation method is controlled by your Bonds & Deposits preferences.

You can also set a default bond amount for new sales records.

Go to:

Setup > Preferences > Bonds & Deposits

Enter the required amount in Default Bond Amount and save your changes.

Go to:

Setup > Preferences > Bonds & Deposits

The bond calculation can use either:

• Sum of Bonds: Adds together the bond amounts for the applicable items on the sales record.

• Maximum Bond of All Items: Uses the highest individual item bond amount.

This setting controls the result of the Calculate option in the Bond section of a Booking or Invoice.

First establish whether the bond was:

• only recorded as Bond Required

• actually paid

• or processed as a Bond (Pre-Auth)

These require different actions.

For pre-auths, normally use the HirePOS Card Payment (Pin Payments) > Void/Capture Pre-Auth screen so both the Pin transaction and HirePOS payment record are handled together.

If you are unsure whether an authorisation is still active, you can also check it in your Pin Payments Dashboard.

An authorisation that has expired at Pin Payments may still appear as a Pending Payment in HirePOS. Pin Payments is the best place to confirm whether the card authorisation itself is still active, captured, voided or expired.

If you capture or void an authorisation directly in Pin Payments, the corresponding Pending Payment in HirePOS may not automatically change to match. Contact HirePOS Support if the two records no longer agree.