Deposits and card holds
Record a cash or bank deposit, or take a refundable card hold on your own Stripe, then release or claim it.
You take the deposit your own way. KeyProof records it against the booking so your proof and your deposit sit together. If you want, you can also take a refundable card hold through your own Stripe account.
KeyProof never touches the money
No money moves through KeyProof, and KeyProof takes no cut. When you take a card hold, it runs on your own Stripe account, so the money is between you, the hirer, and your bank. KeyProof only records what happened.
Logging a cash or bank deposit
If you take the deposit in cash or by bank transfer, record the amount on the booking and pick "I'll handle it" for the deposit. When the hire ends you set the outcome: returned in full, partially withheld (for example a scratch or excess mileage), or withheld in full. If you withheld some of it, you record how much. That outcome sits on the booking alongside the rest of the record.
Taking a refundable card hold
A card hold places a temporary hold on the hirer's card. No money is taken; the amount is reserved so it is there if you need it. To use card holds, go to Settings, find Deposits via your Stripe, and connect your Stripe. Once connected, set the deposit on a booking to "KeyProof collects" and the hold is placed during the hirer's check-in. You can disconnect Stripe again at any time.
Releasing or claiming a hold
- Hand back deposit: releases the hold. Nothing is charged and the reserved amount is freed on the hirer's card.
- Claim deposit: charges the amount you enter, up to the held amount, for example the cost of damage.
A hold does not sit there forever. A card authorisation lapses at about seven days, so a hold you have neither released nor claimed by then is no use to you. KeyProof does not let that happen quietly: from five days it warns you in the morning brief, and at six and a half days it cancels the hold on your Stripe rather than letting the card expire it mid-decision. The state is always visible on the booking: held, released, claimed, partly claimed, or expired.
How long your holds have been sitting
Deposits is a view of Money. It opens with three totals: what is on card hold now, what has been released or settled, and what you have recorded all time. Under them, "How long holds have been sitting" ages your live holds from the moment each one landed: under 2 days, 2 to 4 days, and 5 days or more.
Those cuts are the real thresholds, not invented ones. Anything in the 5 days or more row is inside the window where KeyProof is about to release it, so if the car came back damaged that is the row telling you to claim now rather than tomorrow.
Only live holds are counted: a released or claimed hold has no clock left to run. A hold with no recorded date gets its own row rather than being guessed into a bucket, and with fewer than three live holds the numbers are printed as a sentence instead of drawn.
Handing a clean return back on its own
On a clean return KeyProof offers to hand the hold back on the spot. For the ones you tap past, Settings has an auto-release setting: after the time you choose, a clean return gives the hirer their money back without you having to remember.
Auto-release never runs on a hire with a dispute, an open insurance claim, an unresolved fine, or money already withheld. Those always wait for you.
The hirer verification fee
Separate from your deposit, the hirer pays a one-off £4.99 verification fee for the checks on their own booking, shown to them during check-in. It is paid by the hirer, not by you, so the checks cost you nothing per hire.