Take the deposit the moment they say yes.
Service VIN collects a deposit the instant a customer approves a quote, and bills the balance with a hosted Stripe checkout — your shop is the merchant, the funds settle to your bank, and the payment reconciles straight back onto the job. No card data ever touches your shop.
- Powered by Stripe
- You're the merchant of record
- No card data on your shop
Approving books the job and collects the $300 deposit on your card. The rest is due when the work's done.
It's your money. It goes to your bank.
Service VIN doesn't sit between you and your revenue. Cards run through Stripe as a direct charge on your own connected account — you're the merchant of record, a platform fee comes off the top, and the funds are yours.
Step one
The customer's card
The number is typed on Stripe's hosted page, never on yours. No card data touches your shop, which is what keeps you out of PCI scope.
Step two
Stripe — your own account
A direct charge on your own connected Stripe account. Your shop is the merchant of record, which is also why you own your refunds and your chargebacks.
Step three
Your bank
Stripe pays out to you on your account's normal schedule — typically daily. It's Stripe's timing, not ours, and we won't promise you a speed we don't control.
Off to the side
Service VIN — never in the funds path
- Records the payment against the invoice it belongs to, and reads your Stripe balance and next payout back to you in Settings → Payments.
- Takes a platform fee off the top of each charge — it can be zero, but the model is fee-based, and this page won't pretend otherwise.
It never holds or moves your money.
Your shop is the merchant
Card payments run through Stripe as a direct charge on your own connected account — you're the merchant of record, and funds settle to your bank. A platform fee comes off the top (it can be zero), and you own your refunds and chargebacks. Your Stripe balance, your next payout and that fee are all shown back to you in Settings → Payments.
You stay out of PCI scope
Checkout is hosted by Stripe. Card numbers are entered on Stripe's page, not yours — no card data touches your shop, so the PCI burden stays where it belongs.
Statements they recognize
The charge reads as the platform descriptor plus your shop's name — like SERVICEVIN* AUTOSPA — so a customer sees who charged them and you see fewer confused chargebacks.
Partial payments, honestly shown
Take a deposit now and the rest later, or split a big job across payments. The balance due is always in front of the customer, so nobody's guessing what's still owed.
Chargebacks you can actually see
Invoices → Disputes lists every chargeback filed against you — customer, invoice, amount, reason and status — and expanding one pulls the live evidence deadline from Stripe with a link straight to where you submit your case. The disputed payment wears a Chargeback badge on the invoice itself, so the money and the problem sit together.
Told the moment one opens
A new dispute rings your in-app bell, emails you and pushes to your phone the same minute Stripe tells us — because the response window is days, not weeks. It respects your notification settings, and a retried webhook can never alert you twice.
From yes to paid, in three moves.
A deposit at approval, a hosted checkout for the balance, and every dollar reconciled onto the job — so the money and the work never drift apart.
- 1
Approve the quote, drop the deposit
When a customer approves a quote, they pay the deposit right there — pay-on-approval. Ask for a deposit before a job can be booked, or take a card to hold the slot. The approval and the money land together. - 2
Bill the balance, hosted checkout
The invoice carries a Pay-now button to a hosted Stripe checkout. The customer pays the full balance or a partial amount, and the balance due is always shown. No card data ever touches your shop. - 3
Reconciled back onto the job
Every payment records against the invoice — deposits, partials and the final balance — so what's paid and what's owed lives on the job, not in a separate spreadsheet you forget to update.
Approval and payment, in the same tap.
The most fragile moment in a shop is the gap between “sounds good” and a card on file. Service VIN closes it: require a deposit before a quote can be booked, collect it right when the customer approves, and the job is real — not a maybe. Partial payments are supported the same way, with the balance due always shown.
- Deposit required to book — no deposit, no slot
- Pay-on-approval collects the moment they approve the quote
- Partial payments, with the balance due always visible
Invoice #1043 · balance due
Deposit paid on approval. Pay the rest now, or a partial amount — the balance updates as it's paid.
Guarded at the database. Not just in the app.
Money bugs are the ones that keep you up. So the rules that keep an invoice honest live in the database itself, where a double-click or a race condition can't talk its way past them.
Can't over-collect
A payment that would push an invoice past its total is rejected under concurrency — the check runs with a row lock in the database, so two clicks racing each other can't both slip through. Amount paid can never exceed the total or go negative.
Can't double-book a quote
A quote can't be converted into two invoices. A unique index in the database keeps one live invoice per quote, so an approval that fires twice doesn't spawn a second bill.
Can't quietly double-charge
Hosted checkout sessions expire within 30–60 minutes, and an identical repeat click collapses into a single charge. A stale payment link can't come back later and bill a customer a second time.
Nothing goes unrecorded
A Stripe-captured payment is always written down for audit, even in an edge case. If one would overpay, the system records it and flags the overpayment for a clean manual refund rather than letting a balance quietly go negative.
What Payments & Deposits won't do.
A page about your money owes you the boundaries as plainly as the promises. These four are enforced, not intended.
It won't hold your money
Service VIN never holds or moves your funds. Cards are a direct charge on your own connected Stripe account, and Stripe pays out to your bank — we read your balance back to you, we don't sit on it.
It won't promise you an instant payout
The timing is Stripe's, not ours. Payouts follow your own Stripe account's schedule — typically daily — and we won't promise you a speed we don't control.
It won't take a card before Stripe is connected
Online payments run on a connected Stripe account. Until you've onboarded with Stripe once, the Pay-now buttons show as unavailable rather than failing on the customer.
It won't let a payment push an invoice past its total
The over-collection guard is in the database, not just the app: the check runs serialized under a row lock, so amount paid can never exceed the total or go negative — an operator-entered payment that would overpay is rejected outright.
Illustrative estimate: a job with a deposit on the card tends to stick, while a verbal “yes” with nothing down is easier to walk away from.
| Item | No deposit (%) | Deposit at approval (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Bookings kept | 70% | 95% |
Every payment lands back on the job.
Deposit, partials, final balance — each payment records against the invoice it belongs to. You can also record a payment by hand for cash or an e-transfer, and the same guards keep the amount paid honest. What's collected and what's still owed live on the job, always current.
Connect Stripe once, then take cards for good.
Online payments run on a connected Stripe account, so there's a one-time onboarding with Stripe before checkout goes live — we walk you through it. Until it's connected, Pay-now shows as unavailable; once it is, deposits, balances and reconciliation all just work.
Questions, answered.
Where does the money go?
Straight to your bank. Card payments run through Stripe as a direct charge on your own connected Stripe account, so your shop is the merchant of record and Stripe pays out to you on your account's normal schedule. A platform application fee comes off the top of each charge — it can be zero, but the model is fee-based — and because it's your account, you own your own refunds and chargebacks.
Do I need Stripe set up first?
Yes. Online payments run on a connected Stripe account, so you'll onboard with Stripe once before checkout is live. Until that connection exists, the Pay-now buttons show as unavailable — the guards, descriptors and payouts all assume Stripe is configured. Setup is a one-time thing and we walk you through it.
How fast do I get paid out, and can I see it?
The timing is Stripe's, not ours. Because the money settles to your own Stripe account, payouts to your bank follow your Stripe account's schedule (typically daily) — we won't promise you an instant payout we don't control. But you don't have to leave Service VIN to check on it: Settings → Payments shows your available and pending balance, the date and amount of the next payout, your last ten payouts, and the charges behind each one linked back to the invoice they paid — plus what Service VIN took in platform fees this month. It's read live from your own Stripe account; we never hold or move your money.
Can a customer accidentally get charged twice?
The system is built to stop it. Hosted checkout sessions expire within 30–60 minutes so a stale link can't be paid later, and an identical repeat click collapses into a single charge rather than a second one. On the invoice side, the database rejects any payment that would push the amount paid past the total, so an over-collection can't happen by a double-click either.
What happens if two payments land at once?
The over-collection guard is enforced in the database, not just the app. The check runs serialized under a row lock, so if two payments race each other only what fits within the invoice total is accepted — the amount paid can never exceed the total or go negative. For an operator-entered payment that would overpay, it's rejected outright.
What about a Stripe payment that overpays?
Externally-captured Stripe payments are always recorded for audit — we never drop one. If one would take the invoice past its total, the system records it and flags the overpayment so you can issue a clean manual refund, rather than silently letting the balance run negative. The hard reject is reserved for operator-entered payments.
What happens if a customer disputes a charge?
You hear about it immediately — bell, email and phone push — and it lands on Invoices → Disputes with the customer, invoice, amount, reason and status. Expand it and we read the evidence deadline live from Stripe and count it down, next to a link to the exact page where you upload your case. Because your shop is the merchant of record, Stripe debits the disputed amount from your balance right away; if you lose, we net it out of that invoice so your books stop counting it as paid, and if you win, the flag clears itself.
Is any card data stored on my shop's system?
No. Every card entry happens on Stripe's hosted checkout page, which keeps your shop out of PCI scope — no card number ever reaches Service VIN or your device. What you see back is the payment, recorded against the invoice, with the customer's statement reading as the platform descriptor plus your shop's name.
It doesn't work alone
Where the money comes from and where it lands
Quote it, close it, get paid for it — in one place.
Get paid at yes. Reconciled by done.
Stripe-powered deposits and balances, your shop as the merchant, and money-safety enforced where it counts. Start free and connect Stripe when you're ready.
Free for 14 days, card required. Import your price list and quote a real job today.