This guide is for course providers who want customers to pay part of an order first and the rest later. A deposit is a percentage of the order total after any discounts, promo code or gift card. The balance is the amount still to pay. Customers pay the balance themselves by a deadline you set; Cademy does not charge their card or PayPal account again automatically.
Deposits are available on Teams and Custom plans; see Understand Cademy Plans, Limits and Fees. You need the System Admin role to change the account’s payment settings and to work with orders. The order needs an available card or PayPal payment method. Customers cannot use Klarna, Invoice or a manual payment method to pay the deposit through checkout.
Set Up Deposits at Checkout
Deposits at checkout are an account setting. Once it is on, every course offers a deposit unless you change that course, as described in the next section.
In the Admin Dashboard, open Settings > Payments, then Deposits.
Turn on Offer Deposits at Checkout.
Set Default Deposit Rate to a whole number from 1 to 95.
Under Balance Due, enter a number of days and choose Days Before the Course Starts or Days After the Order Is Placed.
Optionally enter a Customer Message to explain your payment terms at checkout.
Select Save. Check that the settings were saved successfully.
Set a Different Deposit Rate or Turn Deposits Off for One Course
First turn on and save Offer Deposits at Checkout in your account settings. The course’s Deposits section is shown only while that account setting is on.
Open the course and select Edit Course.
Open Settings > Payments and find Deposits.
Under Deposits at Checkout, choose Use Account Default ([rate]% Deposit), Custom Rate for This Course or Don't Offer Deposits on This Course. For a custom rate, enter Deposit Rate (%) as a whole number from 1 to 95.
Select Save to save the course changes.
A course-specific rate does not replace the account’s balance-due rule or customer message. The account checkout switch must also be on for customers to see deposits at checkout.
What Customers See When They Choose a Deposit at Checkout
At the Payment step, an eligible customer can choose Pay in Full or Pay [rate]% Deposit. The customer sees the actual amounts and the balance deadline before paying. Monthly Payments may also appear if eligible, but one order cannot combine a deposit and an instalment plan; see Offer Payment Plans (Monthly Instalments).
For example, a 20% deposit on a £120 final total is £24, leaving £96.
Why the Deposit Option Is Missing at Checkout
Checkout offers a deposit only when all of these are true:
Your plan includes deposits and Offer Deposits at Checkout is on.
Every course in the basket allows deposits. If their rates differ, checkout uses the lowest rate.
Card or PayPal payment is available for the order.
The deposit and remaining balance each meet the minimum amount for the currency.
The balance deadline is at least 24 hours away. Otherwise checkout requires another available payment option.
For a deadline before course start, Cademy uses the earliest scheduled course in the order. If none of the courses has a date, it uses the configured number of days after the order date. Orders you create in the Admin Dashboard follow different rules, described in the next section.
Take a Deposit on an Order You Create in Admin
An Admin deposit plan requires at least one course on the order. An order containing only custom items, such as room hire or catering, does not offer a deposit plan. If an eligible order contains courses and custom items together, the deposit is calculated from its full order total, including those charges.
Choose the deposit while you create the order. You cannot add a deposit plan to an order that already exists.
Start with Create an Order to Book a Customer Onto a Course to add the customer, billing details and courses. Choose To be paid and select Send payment request.
Under Payment Plan, select Deposit.
Check or change Deposit Rate and Balance Due. Use a whole-number rate from 1 to 95 and a date of tomorrow or later.
Review the deposit and remaining balance, then select Create Order & Request Deposit.
Check the saved order and its invoice. Creating the request does not itself collect the deposit.
Admin-created orders do not have to pass the checkout opt-in rules for every course. The form prefills values from available settings, but you can change them. Your account still needs the deposit feature and a supported online payment method.
If a warning says the first-payment request was not created, the order has already been saved, but its payment email may link to the full invoice. Do not recreate it. Follow the first-payment warning steps in Create an Order to Book a Customer Onto a Course to check the saved balance and share the correct custom-amount request.
Customer Credit cannot be applied at the same time as creating this payment plan. A later credit adjustment is not automatically equivalent to receiving the first payment. See Manage Credit Notes and Customer Credit.
Check a Deposit Payment and the Remaining Balance
In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders, select the order and expand Invoices & Payments. Check the deposit payment, the invoice’s remaining balance and its due date.
Cademy uses one invoice for the full order total. A successful deposit payment reduces that invoice’s outstanding balance; it does not create a separate deposit invoice. The invoice remains partially paid until its balance is settled.
Paying the deposit confirms an approved order. While that order is Partially Paid, a payment covering at least the deposit meets the payment requirement for online lessons. The learner still needs an active or completed course place, an unexpired access period and access to the lesson under its opening and progression rules.
How Customers Pay the Remaining Balance
The customer can pay the remaining balance at any time before its deadline. Cademy does not automatically charge their original card or PayPal account. When automatic payment links are enabled:
After a checkout order, they can use Pay Balance on the confirmation page or in the Deposit received email.
For any deposit order, they can open My Account > My Courses & Bookings > Orders & Billing, select the order and use Pay Invoice. Only the Order Contact can open the order in their account.
Share Pay a Course Deposit and the Remaining Balance when a customer needs help paying.
Emails the Customer Receives About a Deposit
Emails about the deposit go to the Order Contact, the customer the order belongs to. For an order placed at checkout, the Order Contact receives the Deposit received email, and the Payment received email when the balance is paid. For an order you created yourself, Cademy does not send those two emails. The customer gets the payment request email instead: its subject starts “Payment required”, and it shows Deposit due now and Remaining balance due by, with a Pay Now button when automatic payment links are enabled and an online payment method is enabled.
Collect the Balance Yourself When Payment Links Are Off
If automatic payment links are hidden, arrange payment with the customer. On the invoice in Invoices & Payments, select Request Payment to copy a link to share yourself. Copying the link does not send an email. See Send a Customer a Payment Link.
If you use Record Payment on the order, the customer’s order page no longer shows its INVOICES section, so Pay Invoice is not there. Cademy also does not send the Payment received email when the balance is paid later. To collect the rest online, send the customer a payment link yourself with Request Payment, as described above. For recording money received outside Cademy, see Record a Cash, Cheque or Bank Transfer Payment.
If a Customer Who Paid a Deposit Can't Open the Course Page
Customers can open their existing course page while an order is Partially Paid or Overdue. Those statuses do not by themselves stop the page opening. Opening the course page does not by itself give access to lessons.
If the course page says the customer is not booked onto the course, or shows No Order Found, ask the customer to check the email address shown and log in with the address connected to their booking. The page has a button to log in with a different email. They can check their order under My Account > My Courses & Bookings > Orders & Billing. The Book button on that page and the Order Course button start a new checkout; they do not open an existing booking.
If the correct account still cannot open the booking, contact Cademy Support with the order number and the message shown. If the booking opens but lessons do not, check approval, payment, the learner’s course place, access expiry and lesson availability. An Overdue order does not meet the paid-deposit or first-instalment access rule.
Reminder Emails for an Unpaid Deposit Balance
Cademy’s daily checks look for eligible, partially paid deposit orders with a remaining balance seven days before the due date and on the due date. These are the Balance due soon and Balance due today reminders. They are sent for checkout orders and for orders you created yourself. A reminder date that has already passed is not a promise of a catch-up email.
Settled balances and cancelled orders are excluded from balance reminders. Automatic payment buttons depend on your invoice payment-link setting. Deposit overdue notifications are part of the deposit workflow: turning off Overdue Payments Reminder Emails for ordinary invoice payments does not switch them off.
Frequently asked questions
Can I turn deposits off without affecting existing deposit orders?
Yes. Turning off Offer Deposits at Checkout changes future checkout availability. It does not erase an existing order’s deposit or balance.
Can I add a deposit to an order that already exists?
No. Choose Deposit under Payment Plan while creating the order. For an existing order, you can send the customer a link for part of the balance instead; see Send a Customer a Payment Link.
Can the customer choose a different deposit percentage?
Not at checkout. They choose the percentage offered for that order or another available payment option. Staff can set the percentage while creating an Admin order.
Why is PayPal missing for some currencies?
PayPal is not available for orders in Malaysian ringgit (MYR) or South African rand (ZAR). Card payments can still be offered when enabled and supported for the order.
Does Xero receive a separate deposit invoice?
No. The deposit and balance belong to one invoice. Where invoice syncing is enabled, use that invoice to reconcile the payments rather than expecting a separate deposit invoice.