I guess I'm missing something, because the deposit variable should be a unique one, and should show up on an invoice - same as "pet fee" or "cleaning fee", in my opinion. It should be a straight forward part of any transaction, and the only question would then be how does the refund work. Which, a refund should be automated unless there was a problem. At that point, intervention is necessary anyway, and the necessary work must be put in.
I don't think it should matter what money has gone to what, so long as the math ads up and the invoice is paid.
My trouble comes in when charging a mandatory damage deposit that isn't treated as a mandatory payment in the payment gateway. I'd much rather be responsible for periodically, manually sending deposit refunds, rather than babysitting the development of each incoming transaction, determining whether it's been paid in full or if I need to spend more time asking the guest to pay the separate charge, then determining if it's then okay to send them their Check-in Details. SO MUCH margin for error that way, as opposed to say, simply making Tuesday "deposit refund day".
HomeAway collects these along with rent, and refunds them a few days after unless we contact them with an argument as to why not. They also have a disclaimer to guests, managers and owners alike - that they are not responsible for mediating the circumstances.
In my utopia, we'd set a deposit as "mandatory", Authorize.net would collect it. Then, we'd receive an automated email that states, "Act now, or your refund will be processed". And, voila.
Right now, I'm flummoxed, because we "sent a refund" or a refund email to someone who booked through AirBnB (meaning, we had no control over her transaction). But, our system told her that we emailed her her refund, even though she didn't pay one (and I'm having trouble keeping up with it, because it's treated so separately from the invoice). I think this particular customer didn't even ever pay a deposit. So, that's another issue.
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