How to Create and Manage Security Deposits

Security deposits are money you hold on your customers’ behalf — and money you owe back unless something goes wrong with the rental. The Security Deposit Tracker is the single screen where every deposit lives from the day you collect it to the day you refund it. Instead of hunting through individual orders, you see all deposits at once, know exactly how much cash is in your hand, and act on the ones that need attention.

Open it from the top menu under Finance → Security Deposit Tracker, or go straight to /security-deposits.

The tracker has two tabs:

Order Security Deposits — deposits attached to a specific order (most of this page).
Customer Security Deposits — standing deposits held against a customer, not tied to any order. See Customer Security Deposits below.

Feature availability. The Security Deposit Tracker is part of the Security Deposit feature module. If you don’t see it in the menu, the module isn’t enabled on your plan. Viewing the tracker requires the Payments or Security Deposits read permission. The default deposit amount charged on each order is set separately in Settings — see How to Configure Security Deposits.

How to create and manage security deposits

Read the In-Hand Summary Band

The band across the top tells you where your deposit money stands right now. It recalculates against whatever search and filters you have applied, so it always describes the list below it.

Figure	What it means
In-Hand	Total deposit money you are currently holding (collected, minus refunds and deductions).
Collected	All deposit money taken in.
Refunded	All deposit money paid back.
Deductions	Money kept from deposits for damage, penalties, and the like.
Retained (Revenue)	Non-refundable deposit money that has moved into revenue once its order closed. Hover the info icon to see non-refundable money that’s collected but still held on open orders.
Pending Collection	Deposit money still owed to you across open orders.
Pending Refund	Held money that is due back, plus a count of how many orders it spans.

The two amber Pending Collection and Pending Refund pills are your action list — click either one to filter the table to just those orders.

Scan the Deposits Table

Each row is one order’s deposit. The columns give you the full picture at a glance:

Order # — click it to jump straight to the order.
Customer and City.
Security Deposit — the configured deposit for the order.
Type — Refundable, Non-Refundable, or Mixed when an order has both parts (more on this below).
Collected, Refunded, and Deducted amounts.
Pending Refund — money still held that is due back to the customer.
Collected On — the date the deposit was collected.
Payment Mode — hover to see a breakdown of how much came in (and went out) through each mode.
Pending Refund Age — how long ago the last item came back, so you can spot deposits sitting unrefunded.
Last Return and Status — the last return date and the deposit’s current stage (see the status table below). Use the column settings icon next to Show Filters to show or hide columns.

Each row’s ⋮ menu holds View (opens the deposit’s detail drawer), plus Record Collection or Process Refund when the deposit is at that stage.

Asset-level deposits expand. When a deposit was calculated from the value of individual assets, its row has an expand arrow. Open it to see the per-asset deposit breakdown that was snapshotted onto the order.

Deposit Statuses

Status	Meaning
Pending	Deposit is configured but nothing has been collected.
Partially Collected	Some, but not all, of the deposit is in.
Collected	The full deposit has been collected.
Pending Refund	Items are back and money is still held — it’s due to be returned.
Partial Refund	Part of the held amount has been refunded.
Refunded	Everything owed back has been returned.
Forfeited	The deposit was retained (for example, a non-refundable deposit at order closure).

Add a Security Deposit to an Order

Use this when a booking was created without a deposit — it works even after the order’s invoice is finalized (the finalized invoice is not changed).

Click Add Security Deposit above the table.
Search for the Order by order number or customer. If the order already has a deposit, a summary shows what’s set, collected, and still to collect — saving then updates the deposit amount on the order.
Enter the Amount and choose the Deposit Type — Refundable or Non-Refundable.
To take the money at the same time, tick Record collection now and fill in the Amount to Collect, Date, Payment Mode, and optional Reference Number and Notes.
Click Add Deposit (or Add & Collect if you’re collecting now).

Record a Deposit Collection

On a row that still has deposit outstanding, open the ⋮ menu and choose Record Collection (or open View and click Record Collection in the drawer).
The Record Deposit Collection panel opens. A banner shows the Deposit Amount, anything Already collected, and the remaining Outstanding.
Enter the Amount and Date. The amount defaults to the outstanding balance — lower it to record a partial collection. You can’t collect more than what’s outstanding.
Pick a Payment Mode. Start typing to search; if the mode you need doesn’t exist, choose + Create to add it on the spot.
Optionally add a Reference Number (a transaction ID or receipt reference) and Notes.
Click Record Collection.

Wallet holds. If the customer wallet feature is enabled, a Collect From choice appears — Direct Payment or Customer Wallet. Choosing Customer Wallet holds the deposit from the customer’s available wallet balance instead of taking cash, and the amount is released back to their wallet when you refund. No payment mode is needed for a wallet hold.

Process a Refund (with Deductions)

When the rental ends and items are back, return what you’re holding — keeping back anything you’re owed.

Open the row’s ⋮ menu and choose Process Refund, or open View and click Process Refund in the drawer.
The Process Deposit Refund panel opens with a banner showing the Collected Amount and, if relevant, what’s already been refunded or deducted and the current Refundable hold.

To keep money back, click Add under Deductions and add one row per charge. Pick a Reason and enter an Amount:

Deduction reason	Typical use
Damage	Repair or replacement for damaged items.
Unpaid Invoice	Outstanding rental charges owed on the order.
Cleaning	Cleaning beyond normal wear.
Late Fee	Charge for a late return.
Other	Anything not covered above.

The Refund Amount defaults to what’s left after deductions. Edit it to refund only part now — the remainder stays held and a note tells you it can be refunded later.
Set the Refund Date, choose a Payment Mode for the cash going out, and optionally add a Reference Number and Notes.
Click Process Refund.

Refund to wallet. With the wallet feature on, a Refund To choice lets you pay out as Cash / Bank or credit the Customer Wallet. A wallet refund moves no cash and needs no payment mode.

Add or Correct a Deduction After the Fact

Sometimes damage turns up after you’ve already refunded, or a deduction was entered wrong. Open the deposit’s detail drawer (View on the row) to fix it — everything is logged in the transaction history.

Record Deduction — for a missed damage, penalty, or late fee. Click Record Deduction, pick a Category, enter an Amount and optional Notes, then save. The charge lands in the deposit ledger and on the order’s Additional Charges list.
Adjust a deduction — click the pencil on a deduction in the transaction history to correct its amount. The old entry stays in the ledger as voided so the audit trail is preserved.
Void a deduction — click the trash icon to reverse a deduction entered in error. The amount returns to the deposit hold and any linked Additional Charges row is removed from the order.

Collection and refund entries in the history can also be edited (via the pencil) to fix their reference number, notes, amount, date, or payment mode.

Reverse a collection — the red reverse icon on a collection entry undoes a payment that was recorded in error. It’s only shown to users with the Security Deposits reverse permission.

Refundable vs Non-Refundable Deposits

The Type column tells you how a deposit behaves:

Refundable (the default) — held money you return at the end, minus any deductions.
Non-Refundable — retained, not returned. The Refund action is hidden for these, and when the order closes the deposit is marked Forfeited. The drawer shows a “retained when the order closes” note as a reminder.

Customer Security Deposits

A customer security deposit is a standing deposit held against the customer, not tied to any order — useful for regular customers who keep one deposit on file across many rentals. Switch to the Customer Security Deposits tab to manage them.

The tab has its own summary band (In-Hand, Collected, Refunded, Retained (Revenue), Pending Refund) and one row per customer showing Type, Collected, Refunded, Held, Status, and Last Transaction. Status is Held, Partially Released, Released, or Retained. Non-refundable customer deposits count as revenue as soon as they’re collected, so they never sit in the held balance.

Collect a customer deposit

Click Collect Customer Deposit (or open a customer’s row with ⋮ → View and click Collect Deposit).
Pick the Customer, enter the Amount and Date, and choose the Deposit Type — Refundable or Non-Refundable.
Choose a Payment Mode, add an optional Reference Number and Notes, and click Collect Deposit.

Manage a customer’s deposits

Open a customer with ⋮ → View to see every collection with its date, type, amount, payment mode, and reference. From here you can:

Refund — the Refund Customer Deposit drawer shows what’s Currently held. Enter the Amount, Date, and Refund To (Cash / Bank Payout, or Customer Wallet when the wallet feature is on), then the Payment Mode, and click Refund Deposit.
Edit a collection to correct its details.
Reverse a collection that was entered in error.

Find Deposits Fast

Search — the box at the top matches order number, customer, and city.
Show Filters — opens a panel with Order #, Customer, Period (All Time, Last 30 Days, Last 90 Days, Last 6 Months, Year to Date), Refund Age (All, over 7 / 15 / 30 days), and Deposit Type (Refundable / Non-Refundable). The button shows a badge with the number of active filters.
Refund Age is how you triage overdue refunds — filter to deposits whose items came back more than 7, 15, or 30 days ago and haven’t been fully refunded.

Jump here from a reminder. When the notification bell warns you about aging refunds, clicking it opens the tracker pre-filtered to pending refunds older than the configured number of days, sorted oldest-first. A banner explains the filter; click Clear to see everything again.

Export the List

Click Export to download the current deposits as an Excel file.

Choose a Date Range — from a preset (All Time through Previous Year) or Custom Date Range with your own From and To dates.
Leave Apply current page filters to export ticked to carry your active search and deposit-type filter into the file, or untick it to export everything in the range.
Click Export to Excel. The file downloads to your device.