Run your business without connecting online payments

You do not need to connect online payments to use Zelun. You can set up your staff, services and hours, publish your booking page, accept bookings from Clients on the web and in the mobile app, manage appointments and clients, check out visits, record cash and card payments you take yourself, and use inventory, expenses and reports. All of that works with no payments account.

Connecting payments only matters for things that move money online: deposits, saved-card guarantees, automatic card fees, online gift purchases and online package renewals. You can connect later whenever you like.

Your Zelun subscription is a separate thing. It is what you pay Zelun, it works the same whether or not you connect payments, and your trial, billing and renewal rules do not depend on it.

1. An active Zelun subscription or trial. The guided setup article explains how to get there.
2. Someone allowed to change payments for the company. Ask the account owner if you land on a Forbidden page.
3. Know that messaging has its own setup and consent rules, and does not depend on payments.

Choose in-person collection for a location

1. Open My business and go to Payments and deposits.
2. On a location that is not connected you see the notice Payments not connected in followed by the location name, with two choices: Receive payments from clients online and Collect payment in person.
3. Press Collect payment in person. The screen then explains that bookings and checkout stay available without connecting Stripe, and that you can connect online payments later.
4. Carry on with setup. You can leave online payment setup unstarted or half finished.

Take a payment yourself

1. Open the appointment in the day diary and press Checkout.
2. Choose Cash, or Credit card or Debit card if the Client paid on your own terminal.
3. Finish the checkout. Zelun records what you took. A card payment taken on your own terminal is only a record: Zelun does not charge the card, does not ask for card details, and does not present it as verified by the payment processor.

Connect later

1. Return to Payments and deposits and press Receive payments from clients online, or Connect payments.
2. If you started before and stopped, Zelun continues the same account instead of creating another.

At a location set to in-person payment, Clients book and manage their appointments, on the web and in the mobile app, without ever seeing a payment screen. They pay you at the visit. New locations start with no online deposit and no saved-card requirement.

• Turning on deposits without connecting. Deposits need connected payments. Zelun tells you what is missing and lets you keep taking ordinary bookings.
• Mixing up the two payments. Not connecting client payments does not affect your Zelun subscription, and paying for your subscription does not connect client payments.
• Expecting online features without connecting. Online deposits, saved-card guarantees, online gifts and package renewals stay unavailable until you connect.
• Choosing a free offer you do not want. Some accounts see a free plan that depends on online payments. It is optional: you can choose the ordinary paid plan and finish setup without connecting payments.
• Recording a card payment as Cash. Use the card option so your reports and the cash drawer stay right.

Payouts and deposits, checkout and the cash drawer, plans and billing, guided setup and the Getting started checklist are linked below.