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Rentshelf Docs

Deposits

A rental deposit is money held during the rental to cover damage, late returns or missing items. Customers get it back when the product comes back in good condition.

How Rentshelf handles deposits

Section titled “How Rentshelf handles deposits”

Deposits are added to the order total at checkout. They’re charged as part of the Shopify order so they use your normal payment gateway, taxes and refund flow.

When to refund: when the product is returned, refund the deposit line via Shopify’s native refund flow.

Enable deposits globally

Section titled “Enable deposits globally”
  1. Open Rentshelf → Settings.
  2. Check Require a deposit by default.
  3. Set Default deposit percent (e.g. 20 for 20% of rental total).
  4. Click Save.

All new products get this default. Existing products keep their own configuration.

Enable deposits per product

Section titled “Enable deposits per product”

To override the global deposit on a specific product:

  1. Open Rentshelf → Products → [your product].
  2. In the Deposit section:
    • Deposit percent — X% of rental total.
    • Deposit fixed — flat amount (wins over percent if > 0).
  3. Click Save.

How it shows up on the storefront

Section titled “How it shows up on the storefront”

When deposits are enabled, the picker shows an extra row under the total:

Subtotal           $40.00
Insurance          $20.00
---
Total              $60.00
Due today          $72.00   ← total + deposit

The “Due today” amount is what the customer actually pays. When they return the product, you refund the deposit portion.

On the cart line

Section titled “On the cart line”

The deposit is carried as:

  • A visible property: Due today · $72.00
  • An internal property: _rental_deposit · 12.00

Refunding

Section titled “Refunding”

From Shopify admin → Orders → [order] → Refund:

  1. Don’t restock any items (rental products don’t use Shopify inventory).
  2. Enter the deposit amount to refund (e.g. $12.00).
  3. The customer gets the refund via their original payment method.

Tax on deposits

Section titled “Tax on deposits”

Deposits are taxable in Shopify by default, which usually isn’t correct (a refundable deposit isn’t revenue). To make deposits tax-free, use a dedicated “Deposit” Shopify tax override, or keep deposits small enough that the tax impact is negligible.

Tips

Section titled “Tips”
  • Keep it simple — a single flat deposit ($50 across all rentals) is easier to explain than percentage-based deposits.
  • Set expectations — add a trust badge saying “Refundable deposit” so customers know they’ll get it back.
  • Don’t double-charge — a security deposit and insurance both protect against damage. Usually you want one or the other, not both.
Section titled “Related”