Deposits & Payments
It's your call. There's no rule that says a tattoo deposit has to be refundable or non-refundable. It comes down to the policy you set. With The Hive you write the refund terms and the software enforces what you chose. It doesn't impose its own rules on you or your clients.
And here's the part that actually matters when a refund question comes up: deposits are taken on card or bank at booking and pay straight into your own account. The Hive never holds your money, so a deposit is never stuck in someone else's account waiting on a platform to decide.
Most tattoo artists make deposits non-refundable, because a deposit exists to protect the hours you block off for a piece. If a client bails last minute, that slot is gone and so is that income. That's a fair reason to hold a deposit.
But "non-refundable" isn't a law, it's a choice. Some artists refund in good faith when someone reschedules with real notice. Some credit the deposit toward the final price. Some only get strict after a client has already flaked. All of those are valid, and all of them are decisions you get to make, not the software.
The Hive is booking and payments software built specifically for tattoo artists and studios. On refunds, it does one thing: it enforces the terms you set. You decide whether a deposit is refundable, forfeited, or applied to the tattoo. The Hive just makes sure that's what actually happens.
A lot of refund headaches aren't really about the policy. They're about where the money physically sits. On platforms that hold funds, a refund means asking someone else to release cash back to your client, and you're waiting on their timeline and their rules.
The Hive works differently. Deposits pay directly to your own account at booking. So:
Because The Hive never holds your money, a refund question is between you and your client, not you, your client, and a middleman.
A flat non-refundable rule treats a loyal client the same as a serial no-show. That can feel harsh to the people who actually show up. The Hive handles no-shows with escalating deposits instead.
That's the real point of a deposit. Not to keep money, but to make sure the people booking your chair actually intend to show.
Refunding a deposit is a payment decision. It's not a hand-off of your client list. On The Hive, your book and your clients stay yours no matter how you handle a given refund. And the same client history that lets The Hive fill a dead or cancelled slot from your whole client history stays your asset, not the platform's.
Whether a tattoo deposit is refundable is entirely the artist's or studio's decision. There's no law forcing it either way. Most artists make deposits non-refundable to protect the time they block off, but the terms are yours to set. With The Hive you write the refund policy and the software enforces the terms you chose.
With The Hive, nobody holds it but you. Deposits are taken on card or bank at booking and pay straight into your own account. The Hive never holds your money, so a deposit is never sitting in a platform's account waiting on someone else's decision to release it.
The Hive handles no-shows with escalating deposits. A first-time client can be treated fairly with a smaller deposit, while someone who keeps missing appointments pays more up front. That gives you a fair middle ground instead of a one-size-fits-all non-refundable policy.
Yes. Your book and your clients stay yours on The Hive. Refunding a deposit is a payment decision, not a hand-off of your client list. You keep the relationship and the history whether you refund or not.
Yes. Many artists apply the deposit to the final cost of the piece rather than refunding it, which is common on multi-session work scheduled around healing windows. Because you set the terms in The Hive, you decide whether a deposit is refundable, forfeited on a no-show, or credited toward the tattoo.
Set your own refund terms, take deposits on card or bank, and keep every dollar in your own account. Take a look, or talk it through.