This article helps cover common questions around charges and payments in Firefly.
Last Edited: 6/12/2024
Link to Feature: https://app.fireflyreservations.com/reservations (or click here) - then go to the reservation, and click "Charges" tab
Table of Contents
How do Payments and Charges Work?
- What is a Payment?
- Payment Methods on File
- How do I add a Payment?
- How do I Delete a payment?
- Payment Status
- Scheduled Payments
- Reports for Payments
Transfer Funds to Another Charge
How do Charges and Payments Work?
Charges and payments work together. A charge is an amount of money your guest owes you. A payment is when the guest pays you.
For example, if a guest makes a reservation for 3 nights for a total of $95, a $95 charge will be added to the reservation and the charge will be 'Unpaid'. When the guest pays for the reservation, a $95 payment will be applied to that charge, and the charge status will now be 'Paid'.
Notes:
- Charges can have a status of "partially paid"
- Multiple charges can be paid for by one payment
- A charge can have multiple payments applied to it
- If a due date for a charge has passed, it will be marked as "overdue"
Reservation Charges and Payments
The reservation detail page will list all reservation charges and payments under the 'Charges' tab. The top overview panel includes the total payments, balance due, and overdue charges totals. You will also see the payment method on file if available.
The recurring charges panel includes all recurring charges, their status, and other details.
The bottom charges panel lists all reservation charges, and each charge will list all payments applied to that charge. If the charge is unpaid, the due date is displayed as well.
Charges
What is a Charge?
A Charge is a money amount that your guest owes you. Each Reservation has a tab labeled as "Charges" On the screenshot below, you can see an example of the reservation, and two different categories of charges: Recurring Charges, and One Time Charges
Types of Charges
Tip: To set up your add-ons, you can find information here
One Time Charge
One time charges are for one off charges such as a short term reservation charge. You can choose when the payment is due and whether or not to send a 'New Charge' email notification.
Recurring Charge
A recurring charge can be set up to be added to a reservation on a recurring basis of your choice, either annually, monthly, weekly, or daily. This type of charge is used for long term reservations which automatically adds a monthly charge to the reservation. It can also be used for storage units or any other recurring fee. Recurring charges can be configured to automatically add and process a payment when the charge is created, and to send an upcoming payment notification so the guest is aware of the upcoming payment.
For more help managing recurring charges visit this knowledgebase article: Creating a New Recurring Charge and Managing Recurring Settings
For more help with recurring charges, check out this knowledgebase article: Adjusting an Ongoing Reservation and Recurring Charge
Managing Charges
How are charges added?
Firefly will add many charges for you automatically through the system. For example, when a new reservation is created, the charges for the units, and any fees or add-ons that you have set up will automatically show on the reservation. You can also manually go to a reservation and add a new charge as needed.
How do I add a new one time charge?
1. Navigate to the appropriate reservation
2. Click on the Charges Tab
3. Click the New Charge button
4. Fill out the information as needed, and as seen in the screenshot below:
5. Choose to Save or "Save and Add Payment"
NOTE: Be sure to choose the appropriate charge type when creating a new charge. Depending on your accounting setup, the charge type you choose may affect your revenue reports.
How do I add a new Recurring Charge?
To add a new recurring charge, the steps are similar to adding a one time charge. Navigate to the reservation that needs the new charge.
1. Click the New Recurring Charge button
2. Fill out the New Recurring Charge information as needed. Tip: You can choose to have the charge created a few days before the payment due date as well. This is something common we see for long term stays.
4. Click Save
How do I edit a charge?
Sometimes edits are needed after a charge has been created. To edit an existing charge:
- Go to the charge that needs to be edited
- Click on the circle with the three dots (...) then click edit.
- Complete the information as needed, and update the desired information. Explanations for each field of information are below.
- What is this charge for?
- This is a way of categorizing the charge (reservation unit, reservation fee, utility, add on, lock fee, other)
- Which unit is this charge for?
- Usually you won't need to change this, but if you do you have the option
- Description
- This is what the guest sees - you might not need to change this, but can if needed
- Price
- Click to edit the amount
- QTY (Quantity)
- Click to edit the amount
- Payment Due Date
- If you wish to update when the payment is due, you can do so here.
- Options
- Right now you have the option to send or not send a notification to the guest about the updated charge. If the box is checked the notification sends.
- What is this charge for?
- Click Save, or Save and Add Payment (to go directly to the add payment screen)
Need help editing a charge with a balance due or an overpayment? See this article: How do I fix a charge with a balance due or overpayment?
How do I zero out a charge?
The Zero out charge feature automatically makes a charge price equal to the payments received on the charge. If no payments have been received, the charge price will become $0.
1. Navigate to the charge that is needing to be zeroed out, click on the circle with the three dots
2. Click Zero out charge
How do I delete a charge?
The situation might occur where you need to delete a charge that exists. It is not a recommended practice, but we do understand that sometimes it's needed.
1. Navigate to the charge that is needing to be deleted
2. Click on the circle with the three dots next to the correct charge
3. Click Delete
4. Click Delete Charge
Note: If a payment has already been applied to the charge, you will not see the option to delete it. You will first need to address the payment prior to deleting the charge. Typically, a charge should not be deleted if it has been paid.
Reports for Charges
Setting a Charge as Uncollectible (and Collectible)
When balancing the books - if there are charges that you know you will never see the money for you have the option to set it as uncollectible. This can also be undone if you later are going to receive payment.
Setting a Charge As Uncollectible
1. Go to the charge
2. Click on the circle with the three dots
3. Click Set as uncollectible
It will then show a note that lists it as uncollectible:
Setting the Charge as Collectible
1. Go to the charge
2. Click on the circle with the three dots
3. Click Set as collectible
Payments
What is a Payment?
A payment is the money that is applied to a charge or Point of Sale transaction. Payments can be taken in smaller amounts than a balance due, this is a partial payment. Payments can also be applied to multiple charges at once.
Note: If taking a payment for multiple charges, all the charges must be paid in full. If a payment will partially pay multiple charges, make a partial payment on each charge.
Payment Methods on File
Firefly stores payment methods on reservations so you may safely and securely keep a guest's credit/debit card or bank information. This allows you to quickly and easily use a payment method to pay reservation charges and Point of Sale transactions. You can even import a payment method on file in one reservation to other reservations under the same guest.
Payment methods are managed on a reservation's Charges tab in the summary box. Underneath reservation credit information, you can see if there is a payment method of file.
Click Add payment method to put one on file. Enter the guest's information then Save.
Click Update payment method to edit or delete the payment method on file. You may have more than payment method on file so simply add or delete payment methods as needed.
To import a payment method already on file, click Add payment method then click Import.
How do I add a payment?
To add a payment, you will first go to the reservation, and click on the charges tab to find the charge(s) that need(s) to be paid.
There are two buttons that will allow you to add a payment. The easiest is to click the blue "New Payment" button under either charges section.
When the payment screen appears, you have a few payment settings to choose from. The explanations for each section are listed out below this image: 
The "Notes" box on payments are for your internal use. These will not reflect on receipts, invoices, or in the guest portal.
Select charge(s) to apply the payment
When adding a new payment, you must select one or more charges to apply the payment to. If you select multiple charges, you must pay the entire total with the payment. If you only select one charge however, you have the option of entering a custom payment amount to only partially pay the charge.
Select payment option
The two payment options available are either collect the payment now or schedule the payment for a future date. If you choose to schedule a payment, you must select a future date, and the guest must have a payment method of file.
Choose a payment method
Cash, Check, Gift Card, Credit Card, and Bank Transfer are the available payment method options. The payment method on file will be listed if available. If you want to process the payment through an external credit card processor, do not select this option if it is visible. Under "Payment Process Method" choose "Offline Payment"
Choose options
Selecting the 'Charge the card on file' checkbox will process the payment through your credit card processor which you can configure in property settings.
Guests must have a payment method on file for the option to appear.
If a guest does not have a payment method on file, follow these steps to add one.
The 'Email payment receipt' checkbox can be selected to send the guest a 'New Payment' receipt email.
The 'Email payment notification x days before' checkbox allows you to schedule an 'Upcoming Payment Notification' email to be sent to the guest before the payment is processed for schedule payments.
If you are processing the payment now, this option will not appear.
How do I Delete a Payment?
On rare occasions you may find yourself looking to delete a payment. For example, you accidentally entered the wrong payment method or a guest's bank transfer or check is returned. You may have the ability to Delete the payment using the Options dropdown.
If you do not see the option to delete, you may enter a refund for the payment to offset the funds in accounting and reports. Just be sure to select the original payment method for the payment to be properly offset.
Payment Status
Scheduled - a payment set to process on a future date, no funds have been received yet
Pending - a payment in process of running
Paid - a past successful payment
Failed - a past unsuccessful payment
If a payment fails, Firefly waits 3 days then attempts to process again with 3 reattempts.
Scheduled Payments
See our article dedicated to payments linked to a charge but set to process on a future date: Scheduled Payments
Reports for Payments
Refunds
See our article dedicated to refunds: Refund a Payment
Transfer Funds to Another Charge
You may transfer funds between charges on the same reservation. Using a payment's Options dropdown, select Transfer to another charge.
Select the charge to receive the funds, select if you are transferring all or part of the payment, enter the transfer amount, then click Transfer. Note: you must select Transfer part of payment to change the transfer amount.
If you need to transfer funds between reservations, you must use reservation credit. See this article for more information: Reservation Credit
Invoices
To send an invoice to your guest:
- Go to the reservation
- Click on the Invoices tab
- Click Generate Invoice
- Complete the information as needed:
- Choose which charges you wish to include on the invoice
- Add notes to the invoice as needed - these are seen by guests
- Select options, if you wish. You can choose to show individual payments and refunds as well as unit details like unit number and pricing rate used.
Note: If guests book by unit class instead of unit number, selecting 'Show reservation unit info' will not share the unit number on an invoice. More about booking by unit class can be found here: How do I hide unit numbers from guests?