This article explains how deposits work from a staff perspective — when they're collected, how they appear on a reservation, what the two deposit types mean day-to-day, and what to do at cancellation or checkout.

For policy configuration and setup, see Reservation Management — Cancellation and Deposit Policies.

How Deposits Are Collected

A deposit is collected in one of two ways:

Online booking — when a boater completes a reservation through the online portal, Sharper automatically collects the deposit amount defined in the policy before confirming the booking.
Staff-entered — when you create a reservation manually, you can collect the deposit at the time of booking or record that it has been received.

Once the deposit is collected, the reservation moves from Reserved to Confirmed. If a deposit policy is assigned but no deposit has been collected yet, the reservation stays in Reserved status.

Standard Deposit vs. Security Deposit — What's the Difference Day-to-Day

Both deposit types are collected the same way, but they behave differently on the reservation:

	Standard Deposit	Security Deposit
Applied to invoices?	Offsets the customer's balance	Held separately — not applied during the contract
Appears as a credit?	Yes — reduces the outstanding balance	No — does not appear on invoices mid-contract
Can staff apply it early?	Yes, manually if needed	No — only becomes available at checkout
Common use	Transient reservations, online bookings	Long-term slip contracts, seasonal berths

You can tell which type a reservation uses by opening the Deposit Details panel on the reservation. If the Security Deposit flag is on, the deposit will not reduce the boater's balance at any point during the contract.

Viewing Deposit Status on a Reservation

Open the reservation in Marina.
Locate the Deposit Details panel on the reservation summary or payments section.
You will see the deposit amount, whether it has been collected, and — at checkout — the available action buttons.

At Cancellation

Important: Cancelling a reservation in Sharper does not automatically refund the deposit. You must process any refund manually.

Open the reservation and select Cancel.
Confirm the cancellation. The slip or space is released immediately.
Navigate to CRM → Invoices to locate the customer's deposit payment.
Issue a refund for the applicable amount based on your cancellation policy terms.

Sharper does not enforce cancellation policy terms automatically — refund eligibility is informational only and must be determined and applied by staff.

At Checkout (End of Contract)

When you check out a reservation, any deposit on the account becomes available for action. Open the Deposit Details panel and choose one of the following:

Action	When to use it
Refund	The contract closed cleanly — return the deposit to the boater.
Retain	The marina keeps the deposit — for damages, unpaid charges, or per contract terms.
Apply to Invoice	Apply the deposit toward an outstanding balance on the account.
Issue Credit	Convert the deposit into a house account credit for future use.

Nothing happens automatically at checkout. If you close out a reservation without actioning the deposit, it will remain unresolved on the account.