Payment plans & documents

Split what a guest owes into steps, and decide what their payment document says.

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Everything on this page lives in one place: Bookings, then your rental’s Booking settings, then the Payments tab. You set it once for a rental, and every booking that rental takes from then on inherits it. Nothing here changes a booking you already have.

What a payment plan is

You are deciding how many times a guest pays you, and when. A payment plan is a list of payment steps. Each step has its own amount, its own way to pay, and its own due day.

Leave the plan empty and every booking asks for the whole amount at once. That is a complete setup and most hosts never need more. Add steps when you want a deposit now and the rest later.

Your guest sees the plan by name. Their confirmation email names the step they just paid and the Remaining balance. Their payment page lists every step under the heading Payment plan, with a Paid marker on the ones behind them and a due date on the ones ahead. A single-step plan shows no list, because a one-row list under a total that already says the same number is noise.

Build your payment plan template

You are deciding the default plan for this rental. Each new booking copies it and turns the percentages into real money and the triggers into real dates. Editing the template later never rewrites a booking that already exists.

1Open Bookings, then your rental’s Booking settings, then the Payments tab.
2Under Payment plan, choose Add payment step.
3Give the step a Label. The guest reads this word, so "Deposit" beats "Step 1".
4Set the Amount as a Percent of the reservation total or a Fixed amount.
5Answer How does the guest pay? with Card payment, Bank transfer, or Cash.
6Answer When is this due? and, where it applies, fill in the Days offset.
7Add a second step for the rest. Two steps that add up to 100% is the usual shape.

When is this due? has five answers, and the one you pick decides which day the guest reads on their document and which day the reminder emails count from.

When is this due?	Days offset	The due day becomes
`On booking`	`not used`	The day the booking is created. Use it for a deposit.
`Days before check-in`	`used`	Counts back from the check-in day. 30 gives you a balance due 30 days before arrival.
`On arrival`	`not used`	The check-in day itself. Use it for a balance settled at the door.
`Days after confirmation`	`used`	Counts forward from the day you confirm the request. 7 gives the guest a week to pay.
`Set manually later`	`not used`	No date at all until you set one on the booking. The guest sees Due on request.

Guests are reminded three days before each due day, and once more two days after if the step is still unpaid. That switch is per rental, under Payment reminders on the Emails tab, and it is on by default for every rental that takes payments.

If your rental takes card payments inside the widget (Pay in widget), the first step is locked to Card payment. The guest is standing at your booking form with a card in hand, so a first step that asks for a bank transfer would have nothing to charge. To make the first step offline, open Setup and change the guest payment path to request first, bill later.

Payment requests and invoices

You are deciding what your guest is looking at. RentalBeam builds one document per booking and calls it two things, depending on whether money is still owed.

What you see	When	What the guest gets
Payment request	Something is still outstanding	The amount due, the due day, a secure pay link, and the PDF attached
Invoice	The booking is paid in full, or the request was voided	The paid document as a PDF for their records, marked paid, with no pay link

The button on the booking follows the same rule. It reads Send to guest while money is owed and Send invoice once nothing is. Send it twice and it reads Resend to guest or Resend invoice, so a second send is never a silent duplicate.

A cancelled, declined, or expired booking cannot be billed. RentalBeam refuses to send the email and refuses to mint a new pay link, and any link already out there stops working. A guest who opens an old link reads “This payment link is not currently active” instead of a payment form.

What View PDF gives your guest

View PDFon a booking opens the same document your guest can download. It carries your billing profile, the reservation lines, any discount or tax rows, the reservation total, what has been paid, the balance, the payment plan, and your bank transfer or cash instructions where a step uses them. On the guest’s own payment page the button reads Download PDF, and it is a plain link, so a popup blocker cannot swallow it.

The document is written in English and formatted US-style: “$1,398.75”, “September 21, 2026”. There is no language setting for it yet. A translated label beside a number in another format would be two languages on one line, so we will ship the two together or not at all.

Your billing profile

You are deciding who the document says it is from. These fields print at the top of every payment document for this rental, and they are used in guest emails and hosted payment follow-ups.

All nine print together in the Fromblock at the top of the document, in the order below, directly opposite your guest’s own details. Anything you leave blank is simply left out.

Field	Prints as	What to put in it
`Business name`	`the From heading`	The name your guest should recognise on a bank statement. Your trading name, not the rental's name.
`Address`	`one line per line you type`	The postal address the document is issued from.
`City / region`	`its own line`	The rest of that address.
`Country`	`its own line`	Completes the address. When a payout account is connected, this always comes straight from Stripe.
`Email`	`its own line`	Where a guest replies about the money. Stays per rental even when the rest comes from Stripe.
`Phone`	`its own line`	Optional. Stays per rental too.
`Website`	`its own line`	Optional. Your own site, which is where the booking came from.
`VAT / Tax ID`	`Tax ID 12345678`	Optional. Fill it in if your guests or your accountant need it on the document.
`Registration number`	`Reg. no. 12345678`	Optional. Your company or trade registration number.

Two shortcuts save retyping. Import billing profile copies the profile from another rental that already takes bookings. Use default beside a single field, or Use all defaults at the top, puts your account-level details back.

If this rental has a connected payout account, Stripe owns the business identity fields: business name, website, address, city / region, country, VAT / tax ID, and registration number are locked and stay matched to Stripe wherever Stripe has them. Billing email and phone stay yours to edit. Where Stripe has left a field blank, the blank stays editable so you can fill the gap.

Payment number format

You are deciding how the reference on the document is built. The header always shows Next payment number, so you can read the answer without opening the block.

Control	Choices	What it does
`Series`	`3 options`	Whole account keeps one running series across every rental. Per payout account gives each connected Stripe account its own. Per rental gives each rental its own.
`Prefix`	`up to 16 characters`	Leads the number, for example INV. Leave it blank for a bare number.
`Number length`	`3, 4, 5, or 6`	How many digits the counter shows. 4 gives 0001.
`Date`	`3 options`	No date runs one series forever. Year adds the year and restarts each January. Year + month adds both and restarts monthly.
`Separator`	`dash, slash, dot, or none`	What sits between the parts.

Numbers are handed out automatically, one at a time, and are never reused inside a series. So INV-2026-0001 exists exactly once, whatever you change afterwards.

Changing the format changes the next number only. Every document already issued keeps the number it was issued with. That is deliberate: a number your guest and your accountant have both filed is not ours to rewrite.

If you pick a Date of Year or Year + month, the counter restarts on the same cycle, which is what keeps the series free of duplicates. Pick the shape you want to live with, then leave it alone.

Optional document notes

You are deciding what extra words print on the document. Most hosts need only the two notes that sit above this block: Bank transfer instructions and Cash payment instructions. Those show up whenever a payment step uses that method, on both the document and the guest’s payment page. The four notes behind Optional document notes are for the hosts who need them.

Note	Where it prints	Use it for
`Guest note`	`near the top`	One short line the guest reads before the payment details.
`Extra offline note`	`after the payment instructions`	One line that applies to bank transfer and cash alike, for example where to send confirmation. Leave blank unless both methods need the same extra line.
`Footer note`	`centred in the footer`	Rarely needed. A thank-you line, or a note that applies to every booking.
`Terms and conditions`	`bottom of the document`	Your payment or cancellation terms, when a guest or an agency asks for them in writing.

If a payment step uses bank transfer or cash and you have not written those instructions, the section warns you which one is missing. A guest reading “pay by bank transfer” with no account number has to email you to ask, and that is a day lost on every booking.

Preview payment document

The button at the bottom of the Paymentstab opens a real PDF in a new tab, built from a sample five-night stay with one fee. It uses what is on screen right now, including edits you have not saved, so it is the fastest way to check a note’s wording or a new number format before a guest ever sees it.

Preview once after you set the billing profile, and once more after you write your bank transfer instructions. Those are the two places a typo is expensive.

One booking, end to end

A rental in Oregon charges $1,200.00 for the stay. The host wants a 30% deposit on the card and the rest before arrival.

1On the Payments tab, step one is Label "Deposit", Amount 30 Percent, How does the guest pay? Card payment, When is this due? On booking.
2Step two is Label "Balance", Amount 70 Percent, How does the guest pay? Bank transfer, When is this due? Days before check-in, Days offset 14.
3Bank transfer instructions hold the account name, the bank, and the account number.
4Payment number format is prefix INV, Date Year, Number length 4, so the next number is INV-2026-0001.
5A guest books for September 21, 2026 and pays $360.00 by card in the widget.
6Their confirmation email says Reservation total $1,200.00, Payment step Deposit, Remaining balance $840.00, and "$840.00 is due on Mon, 7 September 2026".
7On September 4, 2026 they get a reminder naming the Balance, the amount, the due day, and How to pay with your transfer details.
8The money lands, you record it on the booking, and the guest gets a receipt. The document is now paid in full, so it is an Invoice, and Send invoice emails them the paid PDF.

Two steps, four settings, and the guest was told the number and the day at every stage without you writing a single email.