title: “Layaway”

Layaway

Audience: gallery Owners and Admins, and the Treasurer (see Who can do what). Everything here is in the admin portal under Artwork Catalog.

A layaway holds a piece for a buyer while they pay for it over time. The piece comes off sale the day the layaway starts: it shows as Sold on your website and is taken off Square. The sale itself, with the commission and the artist’s payout, is recorded when the piece is paid in full.

Starting a layaway

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Artworks tab.
Find the piece. It must be Available.
Click Start layaway on the piece.
Choose the buyer from your patrons, or type their name, email and phone to add them.
Check the Sales tax rate (%). When CCS can read your Square location’s taxes, the rate is filled in for you. Sales tax is worked out once, now, and built into the total.
Check the Deposit (USD). It starts at the smallest deposit allowed, 25% of the total including tax.
Choose Installments: monthly, every two weeks or weekly. The rest of the total is split evenly over those dates, with the last payment on the Final payment date.
Set the Final payment date. It starts at the longest term allowed, 90 days after the start.
If the buyer has signed your layaway terms, attach them under Signed terms (optional) (a PDF or a photo).
Click Start layaway.

The piece now reads Sold - layaway in the Artworks list.

A layaway agreed before you recorded it

Set the Start date to the day it was agreed. The start date cannot be in the future, and the final payment date is counted from it.

The rules

The deposit must be at least 25% of the total including tax.
The final payment date can be at most 90 days after the start.
Only an Available piece can go on layaway, and a piece can be on only one open layaway at a time.
A piece that already has a sale recorded against it cannot go on layaway, even if it reads Available. The message names the sale (its amount and date). If that sale was recorded in error (for example, someone recorded the sale before the buyer agreed to pay over time), reverse it first, then start the layaway: see A sale recorded in error below.
Every amount is kept to the exact cent, and the installments always add up to the total.

The Layaway list

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Layaway tab. Each row shows the piece, the artist, the buyer, the total, what has been paid, the balance, the next payment due and the status.

Use Show to list only Open, Overdue, Completed or Cancelled layaways.
Click a row to see its payment schedule, its payment history and a link to the signed terms.
Click Print for a paper copy of the list as shown.

Overdue

A layaway is Overdue when a payment that was due before today has not been paid. The row shows how much is late. This is shown in CCS only. The buyer is not emailed; contacting them is up to you.

Taking a layaway payment

Take every layaway payment, the deposit included, on the Square Register with your _Layaway Payment item, and attach the customer to the sale.

When the customer on the payment is one of your patrons (matched by email or phone) with exactly one open layaway, CCS records the payment on that layaway by itself. The paid amount and the balance update at once. A payment is only ever recorded once, however many times Square reports it.

CCS never guesses. These payments wait for you instead:

no customer was attached to the sale;
the sale names a customer, but CCS could not read that customer from Square;
the customer does not match the email or phone of a patron with an open layaway;
the customer has two or more open layaways.

A payment waiting for you is shown only on the Layaway tab. It is not an unmatched payment: it is not counted on the Unmatched Payments tab or on the dashboard, it is not listed under Unmatched Payments, and no “unmatched payment” email is sent for it. Instead the Layaway tab shows a red number with how many payments are waiting.

Once you have matched a payment from a Square customer by hand, the next payment from that same Square customer is recorded on that patron’s open layaway by itself, even if the Square customer has no email or phone that matches the patron.

Matching a payment by hand

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Layaway tab.
Under Layaway payments to match, find the payment by its amount and date (the receipt link opens Square’s receipt). The line under it says why CCS did not record it by itself. Payments that came in before CCS kept the reason say “Not matched automatically”.
Choose the layaway it pays.
Click Record payment.

Only open and overdue layaways can be chosen. A cancelled or completed layaway never takes a payment. If there is no open layaway to choose, the section says so: start the layaway from its piece in Artwork Catalog → Artworks first, then come back and choose it. If the list cannot be loaded, the section says so; click Try again.

If the same sale also had other items (for example a custom amount), the payment says “The same sale has other items.” Recording it here records only the layaway part. The other items stay on Financial → Unmatched payments for you to work as usual.

A layaway payment cannot be linked to a piece as a sale from Financial → Unmatched payments; record it on its layaway instead.

A payment taken outside Square

When the buyer pays in cash, by check or some other way that is not on the Square Register, record it yourself:

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Layaway tab.
Click the layaway’s row to open it.
Click Record a payment.
Enter the Amount (USD). It cannot be more than the balance.
Set the Date taken: the day you took the money. It can be today or earlier, but not in the future and not before the layaway started.
Choose the Method: Cash, Check or Other.
If you like, add a Reference (optional), such as the check number, and a Note (optional).
Click Save payment.

The payment shows in the payment history with its method (and the check number, if you gave one), and the amount paid and the balance update at once. It is recorded once, even if the button is clicked twice. A payment that brings the amount paid up to the total completes the layaway, exactly as a Square payment does (see Paid in full below).

Removing a payment recorded by mistake

A payment you recorded with Record a payment can be removed while the layaway is open:

Open the layaway on the Layaway tab.
In the payment history, click Remove next to the payment.
Give a Reason and click Confirm remove.

The payment stops counting toward what has been paid. CCS keeps a record of who removed it, when and why. A payment from Square cannot be removed this way: refund it in Square, and the refund lowers what has been paid.

Changing the schedule

You can agree a new schedule with the buyer after the layaway has started, for example to move the rest of the money to a later date.

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Layaway tab.
Click the layaway’s row to open it.
Click Edit schedule. What has already been paid is listed at the top and cannot be changed.
Change the dates and amounts of the installments still to pay. Click Add installment to add one, or Remove next to one to take it out. The last date is the Final payment date.
The form shows what the installments add up to against what is still owed. When they match exactly, click Save schedule.

The rules still apply: no installment before the layaway started, and the final payment date at most 90 days after the start. The total, the price and the sales tax never change. Next due and Overdue follow the new schedule at once. Every change is recorded with the old and the new schedule and who made it.

Overpaid

If more is paid than the total, the layaway shows Overpaid and how much. Refund the difference in Square.

Refunds

A refund of a layaway payment in Square lowers what has been paid on that layaway. It is counted once. If Square reports the refund as failed, the amount is put back.

Paid in full

The payment that brings the amount paid up to the total completes the layaway by itself:

the sale of the piece is recorded, to the buyer, under the Layaway sale classification, at the piece’s price (the sales tax is the gallery’s, as on any sale);
the commission is worked out at the piece’s own rate: its override if it has one, otherwise the artist’s rate;
the artist (or, for an artist In Memoriam, their payee) gets the usual email that the piece has sold, once;
the artist’s payout is now owed and shows on their statement, ready for your next payout run.

The layaway then shows as Completed. If a completion ever does not finish (the layaway shows nothing owed but is still open), open it on the Layaway tab and click Complete.

A completed layaway cannot be cancelled. To undo the sale, refund it as you would any other sale.

Cancelling a layaway

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Layaway tab.
Click the layaway’s row to open it.
Click Cancel layaway.
Choose Payments refunded or Payments kept, and give a reason.
Click Confirm cancel.

The piece goes back to Available, on your website and in Square. Nothing is paid to the artist. CCS records your choice and reason; it does not move any money, so make any refund in Square yourself. A cancelled layaway takes no more payments: a later payment from the buyer waits under Layaway payments to match.

A sale recorded in error

When a sale was recorded for a piece that is really on layaway (or did not sell at all), reverse the sale. Owners, Admins and Treasurers can do this.

In the sidebar, open Artwork Catalog, then the Artworks tab.
Find the Sold piece and click Buyer. If your gallery does not use the Patrons module, the button is Sale instead.
In Who bought it (or Sale), click Reverse sale on the sale.
Type the Reason. It is required.
Click Reverse sale.

The sale stays in your records, marked Reversed (recorded in error). It never reads Refunded. A payout owed to the artist for it is canceled. The piece goes back to Available, or stays Sold - layaway if a layaway is open on it. The reversal is logged with who, when and the reason.

A sale is not reversed here, and nothing changes, when the artist has already been paid for it (or its check has cleared), when its payout is in a payout run awaiting payment or paid, when it was paid through Square (refund it in Square, then decide it in Financial → Refunds), when it already has a refund, or when it completed a layaway. The message says which.

Who can do what

Owners and Admins start, match payments to, record and remove payments on, change the schedule of, complete and cancel layaways, and see the Layaway tab.
A completed or canceled layaway cannot have its schedule changed or take or lose a payment.
The Treasurer sees the Layaway tab and opens layaways, changes a schedule, records and removes payments, and matches Square payments to layaways. Only an Owner or Admin starts, completes or cancels one: the Treasurer is not offered Complete or Cancel layaway. A payment the Treasurer records that pays a layaway off still completes it by itself.
Every other role gets no Layaway tab and no Start layaway button, and the server refuses them.
Each gallery sees only its own layaways.

If the buyer asks to be forgotten

Erasing a patron keeps the layaway’s amounts (your books still balance) but removes the buyer’s name from it, along with its notes and the signed terms.