Outfitter payments and financial settings

Overview

Payments & Financials is a section under My Outfitter in the Mallard Bay dashboard. It holds outfitter-wide controls for guest-facing payments: default payment settings (deposits, balance timing, card statement text), rates (whether guests pay processing fees and your booking tax rate), optional post-booking payments (charges you can offer after a booking), and discount coupons.

This area is about money from guests for trips and bookings. It is not the same as your Mallard Bay subscription or internal platform billing.

You can jump straight to this section with: /my-outfitter#payments-financials.

Prerequisites

• You need access to My Outfitter with permission to open edit modals for these blocks. If you only see read-only summaries and no edit actions, your team member role may not allow changes.
• Coupons depend on a Coupons capability for your account. If Add coupon is locked or opens an upgrade/limit message instead of the form, that feature or its usage limit is not available on your plan.

Step-by-step usage in the dashboard

Open Payments & Financials

1. Go to My Outfitter (/my-outfitter).
2. In the section list, select Payments & Financials, or use the link /my-outfitter#payments-financials.

On this screen, blocks appear in this order: Payment settings, Rates, Post-booking payments, and Coupons.

Payment settings

This block sets outfitter defaults for deposits, when balances are due, and (when available) a custom statement descriptor—the short text guests may see on card statements.

1. Open the section menu on Payment settings and choose Edit Payment Settings.
2. Statement descriptor (optional) If your outfitter has a business name, the form can pre-fill a suggested descriptor (trimmed to fit card-network limits).
   • Turn on Set custom outfitter statement descriptor? to edit Outfitter statement descriptor.
   • Turn it off to stop using custom text. Custom descriptors must be 5–22 characters when enabled. If there is no outfitter name in the system, the custom descriptor controls do not appear in this modal—you cannot set a custom descriptor from this screen in that situation. Update the outfitter business name in My Outfitter → Business Profile first.
3. Deposits Toggle Allow deposits? When deposits are on:
   • Choose Deposit Type: Amount or Percentage.
   • For Amount only, you can use Collect deposit per day and Collect deposit per guest. Percentage deposits do not offer those two options.
   • Set Days before trip starts to only accept full payment. Helper text in the product explains that this controls when installment-style payment plans stop being offered, based on how many days fall between the booking date and the trip start date.
   • Under When should the last payment be charged?, pick one:
     • Before start date — enter Days before balance due (final payment is due that many days before the trip start date).
     • Last day of trip — the final charge aligns with the last day of the trip.
     • Specific date — choose a month and day that repeat each year. Helper text notes this is often used when all balances must be collected before a season starts.
4. Select Update to save.

The collapsed summary shows deposit on/off, Custom statement descriptor (or N/A), and—when deposits are on—the cutoff for payment plans, deposit type and value, balance timing, and any recurring date balance due setting.

The same Payment settings editor is also available inside an individual listing’s Payments section. Use the listing-level version when a specific trip or hunt package needs its own deposit setup, such as a 10% deposit for one 3-day hunt package. The deposit is not configured in the pricing package modal.

Note: Changing the “last payment” option resets fields tied to the other options (for example, switching away from Before start date clears the “days before balance due” value). Save intentionally so you do not drop settings by accident.

Note: Changing Deposit Type between Amount and Percentage clears the other deposit value in the form; re-enter the amount or percentage you want before saving.

Rates

This block summarizes Processing Fee Settings and Tax Rate at the outfitter level.

1. Open Edit Rates.
2. Adjust:
   • Processing Fee Paid By Client — Yes/No for whether the guest pays card processing fees.
   • Tax Rate — Booking Tax Rate (percentage).
3. Save your changes.

The read-only view groups Paid By Client under Processing Fee Settings and Booking Tax Rate under Tax Rate.

Listing-level rates: Individual listings can have their own Rates area in the listing editor (for example tax, and additional fee fields for Mallard Bay administrators). If numbers differ between trips, check both this outfitter section and the listing. Mallard Bay resolves how outfitter and listing values combine at checkout.

Administrator-only fee tables: Tiered booking fees, processing fee percentages/fixed amounts, and ACH processing caps edited by Mallard Bay staff use separate admin tooling (for example Admin Settings on My Outfitter for admins). Those tables are not editable in the outfitter Rates form described here.

Post-booking payments

These are optional add-ons configured for the after-booking period (post-trip / post-booking add-ons in the product).

1. On Post-booking payments, open Edit.
2. In the modal, review existing items, edit them with the shared add-on editor, or use Add custom post-booking payment to create another line item.

The preview lists each item’s status and whether it is tied to listings: either Active on X listing(s) or Not active on listings when none are assigned. Exact guest checkout placement and wording are not fully specified in this codebase—expect these items to appear as optional charges tied to bookings once activated on listings.

Coupons

1. Under Coupons, use Add coupon from the section menu when the feature is available.
2. The modal title is Add Coupon for followed by your outfitter name (or an All outfitters label in admin contexts). Complete the fields in the coupon form and submit.
3. Existing coupons show code, name (or “No name entered” if blank), optional expiration (M/d/yyyy), click-to-copy on the code, and delete.

If coupons are disabled or a plan limit is reached, opening add flows shows an upgrade / limit experience instead of the form.

Common pitfalls

• Outfitter vs listing payment settings — The same payment settings UI exists on individual listings under Listings → open listing → Payments. If one trip behaves differently from another, compare My Outfitter → Payments & Financials with that listing’s payment settings. Mallard Bay applies the final checkout behavior from the saved outfitter and listing settings.
• Custom statement descriptor missing — No outfitter name means the descriptor editor does not render. Add or fix the business name first if you need a custom descriptor from here.
• Percentage deposits — Per day and per guest apply only to amount deposits, not percentages.
• Switching balance rules or deposit type — Changing options can clear related fields; review all fields before Update.
• Coupons — The Coupons heading may appear while Add coupon is still locked by plan or limits.
• Tax and fees — Booking Tax Rate and Processing Fee Paid By Client are broad business settings. Confirm them with your own accounting or legal guidance; the dashboard does not replace professional advice.

Related workflows

• Bookings and payments — Each booking tracks payment status (deposits, balances, extra charges). Settings here shape how new checkout and scheduling behave; older bookings may still reflect earlier configuration.
• Listings — Listings combine pricing, availability, and guest experience. Keep payment settings and rates aligned between outfitter defaults and listing-specific values when you standardize vs customize by trip.
• Reporting — Payment and payout reports elsewhere in the dashboard summarize activity; they do not replace these configuration screens.
• Quick Pay and payment requests — Collecting money via standalone links or payment-request flows lives under other dashboard routes (not inside the Payments & Financials group component). Use those tools when you need off-checkout collection; this article only covers the My Outfitter section above.

For payout schedules, payout destinations, and Stripe Connect onboarding, consult Mallard Bay support or your account onboarding materials; those details are not managed in the Payments & Financials section.