A card on file is a client's card kept with your business, so it can be charged without the card there: a sale they approve at the register, a late cancellation or no-show fee, a change to an online order they ask for, a subscription or a membership. The card number itself never reaches BookNovi; it is typed into the card processor's own form, and only the brand, the last four digits and the expiry are kept here, with what the client agreed to.
What a client agrees to
A card is charged without the client there only for what they agreed to when it was saved, and every agreement is kept with its words, the day the words were last changed, and when it was given:
- To hold a visit booked online: that visit's late cancellation or no-show fee, under your cancellation policy.
- Saved by your team: what they approve at the register, and your cancellation policy's fees.
- From their account at your store: paying at the store, changes to their orders they ask for, and the subscriptions and memberships they choose it for.
- Ticked at your store's checkout: paying at the store next time. Your team cannot charge it.
- For a subscription or a membership: its orders, or its renewals.
On a client's record, Cards on file shows each card with May be charged for, and What they agreed to opens the words. A card is marked Expired once it has run out (it is never charged), Expires soon in its last 60 days, and Not charged without them when the card processor said a charge to it was not theirs.
Saving a card for a client
- On the client's record, under Cards on file, choose Save a card.
- Read the words shown to the client, on the phone or at the desk.
- Tick agreed to these words once they say yes, enter the card in the form, and choose Save the card.
The card is kept with the words they agreed to and who saved it. Saving a card is part of the Clients switch.
Charging a card on file
At the register, pick the client's card under Card. For a visit canceled late or missed, open the visit and charge its fee to the card. Charging a card on file takes its own switch, Charge and remove cards on file: it starts on for the front desk, managers and admins, and an owner turns it on or off for any login under Logins, What they can do.
- No more than what is owed. A charge is held to what is still owed on the sale. An owner can allow a tip on top, as a percent of the sale, under Settings, Card payments (A tip may add up to); it starts at 0%. An owner can always charge more.
- Fees follow your policy. A late cancellation fee goes on a card only when the visit was canceled inside your policy's hours, a no-show fee only once the visit's time has come, and never more than the fee the client agreed to.
- Confirm it is you. From the amount set under Settings, Card payments (Confirm it is them from, $500 to start), whoever charges is asked for a code from their authenticator app, or their password, first. It counts for ten minutes. Set it to 0 to never ask.
- A receipt every time. The client is sent what was charged, to which card and why, by email or text, as soon as it goes through.
- Never twice. Asked again for the same sale and amount, the charge already made is used, not a second one.
Every charge, and every one declined, is in the Activity log with who made it, how much, and why.
Removing a card
A client removes a card from their account at your store. Your team removes one from the client's record with Remove, with the Charge and remove cards on file switch. Either way the card is let go at the card processor, every agreement on it ends, a visit it was holding is no longer held by it, it is noted in the activity log, and the client is told. A card still paying for a subscription is kept until another card pays for it or the subscription is canceled.
When a bank says a charge was not theirs
When a client disputes a charge to a card on file, or their bank reports it as fraud, the card is no longer charged without them, and the owner is emailed once with the charge, who made it, what the client agreed to and the receipt they were sent, which is what answering a dispute asks for. Answer it from Settings, Card payments, Open your payments page, where Disputes to answer counts them. A card's new expiry from the bank is kept by itself.
Card testing
People with stolen card numbers sometimes try them, one after another, on a business's booking page or store. Every card form opened without your team is counted: after a few failures from one place, or for one email, each try waits a little longer, then that place or email is turned away for the hour. When your whole business sees too many, its card forms close for an hour and you are emailed. Settings, Card payments shows the card forms and failures of the last day under Card Testing.
What the assistant and the API can do
The assistant never reads a card. When you talk to BookNovi, from the app or from Claude or ChatGPT, you can ask it to take a payment for a sale from the client's card on file, or to charge a missed visit's fee, if your login has Charge cards on file: it says the amount and the card's last four back to you, and until your owner changes the rules for AI under Settings, Approvals, the charge waits there for someone with Charge cards on file to approve. A charge at or above the amount that asks for a fresh proof is made at the register instead. A program connected with your API key can read a client's cards as brand, last four digits, expiry and agreements, and nothing more; it never charges or removes a card. See the register and payments for ringing up a sale and taking payments.
Best practices
- Save a card at the desk only with the client there, and read them the agreement before they say yes: it is what you will point to if a charge is ever questioned.
- Keep Charge cards on file to the people who settle visits and fees. Anyone can still take a card payment with the client present.
- Set the amount above which a charge asks who is charging to prove it is them, under Settings, Card payments. A few hundred dollars suits most salons; a wholesale desk may want more.
- Keep your cancellation policy honest and short. A fee a client agreed to in plain words is paid; one they never saw is disputed.
- Look at Card Testing when a card form fails more than once or twice in a day, and at a card frozen after a dispute before you ask the client for another.