# Take a Payment for an Incident (/how-to/incidents/take-a-payment-for-an-incident)



When the customer is paying for damage on the spot — right at the dock, with their booking open on your terminal — take the payment from the incident itself. The charge lands on their booking's payment history and is attached to the incident automatically, without disturbing the booking's balance.

Before you begin [#before-you-begin]

* The incident must already exist ([Create an Incident](/how-to/incidents/create-an-incident)) and have a **linked booking** ([Link Records to an Incident](/how-to/incidents/link-records-to-an-incident)).
* You need the **Incidents** permission. You do *not* need the over-charge permission — damage charges from the incident flow are exempt from the balance cap.

Take a new payment [#take-a-new-payment]

1. Open the incident's detail page and find the **Payments** section.
2. Click **Take payment**.
3. Pick the payment type:
   * **Card** — use a saved card, enter a new card, or send the charge to a card reader. You can also **Authorize Only** to place a hold and capture it later.
   * **Cash**, **Transfer**, or **Other** — record a manual payment.
4. Enter the amount and confirm.

The payment is recorded on the booking, attached to the incident, and marked so it never counts toward the booking balance — a fully-paid booking stays fully paid.

Attach a payment from the booking [#attach-a-payment-from-the-booking]

If the money was already taken on the booking — a deposit hold from check-in, or a charge staff took from the booking page:

1. Click **Attach from booking** in the Payments section.
2. Pick the payment from the list. Holds show a **Hold** badge; payments already attached to another incident won't appear.
3. Click **Attach**.

What happens next [#what-happens-next]

* Attached payments list the amount, method, and date, and show a **Hold (not captured)** badge for authorizations.
* A hold you authorized **from the incident page** settles as damage money when captured — no over-charge permission needed, and the booking balance is untouched. A normal booking hold you merely attached keeps its normal capture behavior (reduces the balance, respects the over-charge cap).
* Refunding an incident charge works through the normal refund flow and also leaves the booking balance alone.
* Detaching (the **×** on a row) removes only the link; the payment stays on the booking.

Tips [#tips]

* **Set the incident's Total damage amount first.** The Payments section then shows collected-versus-damage at a glance, and turns green once the damage is fully recovered.
* **Add a note alongside the charge.** The payment records the money; a note in the incident records *why* — what was damaged and how the amount was decided.
* **Use a hold when the damage cost isn't known yet.** Authorize the estimated amount, then capture the final figure once you've assessed the damage (holds expire after 7 days).