Supporting booth rental and capped fee models

We’ve just released a new feature in SplitSum called Payment Caps, and it opens up a whole new way to use the platform if your business runs on a booth rental or capped fee model.

Payment Caps allow you to set a maximum amount your business will take from a contractor over a defined period. Once that cap is reached, the rest of the payment goes entirely to the contractor. This means less manual tracking, fewer adjustments, and a payment flow that better reflects how booth rental models work in real life.

Who Payment Caps are for

Payment Caps are available to Tier 2 and Tier 3 users and are designed specifically for in person payments. This includes POS and Tap to Pay transactions.

Payment links are not affected by Payment Caps and will never count toward a cap. This is intentional, as in person payments are typically where capped or rental-style arrangements apply.

If your business charges contractors a fixed daily, weekly, or monthly amount rather than a percentage on every transaction, this feature was built with you in mind.

How to add a Payment Cap

Payment Caps can be added when you create a new contractor or at any time by editing an existing one.

To add or edit a cap:

  1. Go to your Contractors list
  2. Click the three dots next to the contractor you want to update
  3. Select Edit
  4. Enter a value in the Cap Amount field

Once you enter a cap amount, a new field called Cap Period will appear. This is where you choose how often the cap resets. The available options are Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.

The cap amount represents how much your business will receive in fees from that contractor during the selected period.

How Payment Caps work in practice

Payment Caps only apply to in person payments. As payments are processed, SplitSum tracks how much your business has received from that contractor within the chosen period.

Up until the cap is reached, payments are split as normal based on your existing setup. Once the cap is met, the contractor receives the remainder of their payments for that period.

If you are using Standard payments, the business remains responsible for card fees. This means that after the cap is reached, the business will typically retain the estimated card fees from each transaction.

If you plan to rely heavily on Payment Caps, you may want to consider using a Direct payment setup instead. With Direct payments, the contractor pays the card fees directly, and no fee calculation is required once the cap is met.

A note on payment types and inventory

When setting up Payment Caps, it is important to consider how your payments are structured.

The amount your business receives can be defined at the contractor level, but it can also be set separately on individual inventory items. This gives you flexibility, especially if different services or products are treated differently within your business.

No matter how your splits are configured, the rule stays the same. The contractor will receive their agreed split up until the cap is reached, and once it is reached, they receive the rest.

Payment links are always excluded from caps and do not contribute toward the cap total.

Is this right for your business?

Payment Caps are a powerful tool, but like any payment setup, they work best when they are aligned with how your business actually operates.

If you are unsure how to configure caps for your specific setup, or you want help deciding between Standard and Direct payments, feel free to get in touch. We are happy to walk you through the options and help you set things up in a way that makes sense for your business.

Payment Caps are all about reducing admin, improving clarity, and making SplitSum more flexible for different business models. If you run a booth rental or capped fee setup, this feature should make your day to day payments much easier to manage.