Connect Dodo Payments

Dodo Payments sells to customers in many countries and acts as the merchant of record, so it collects and files sales tax, VAT and GST for you. Core Bookings can take booking payments through Dodo Payments, next to Stripe, FluentCart, PayPal, Polar and Paddle.

Each booking gets its own Dodo checkout for the deposit or the full price. The customer pays on Dodo’s secure page and comes back to their booking page. Dodo Payments needs Core Bookings 1.0.0 or later.

Turn It On

1. Go to Bookings → Settings → Modules. Under Payments and pricing, tick PayPal, Polar, Paddle and Dodo Payments and click Save modules.
2. Open Bookings → Settings → Payment gateways and choose the Dodo Payments tab.
3. Choose Live or Sandbox (test payments) under Environment. Sandbox uses Dodo’s Test Mode, so switch on Test Mode in the Dodo dashboard for the next two steps.
4. In Dodo Payments, create a key under Developer → API keys and paste it into API key.
5. In Dodo Payments, open Developer → Webhooks and add an endpoint with the Webhook address from the tab. Select the events listed below, then copy the endpoint’s signing secret (it starts with whsec_) into Webhook signing secret.
6. Pick a Sales tax option and a Tax category, tick Offer Dodo Payments as a payment method for services and click Save Dodo Payments settings.
7. Open a paid service in Bookings → Services and set Payment method to Dodo Payments checkout.

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Click Check connection under the form to confirm the key works. It names the Dodo business the key belongs to and the mode, without taking a payment. The Webhook address row also shows when the last Dodo webhook reached your site.

Currencies and Tax

Dodo Payments charges in your booking currency, and it supports every currency you can choose in Core Bookings. The checkout is pinned to that currency, so a customer can’t switch to another one.

Dodo charges tax itself, so your Core Bookings tax rates don’t apply to Dodo services. The tab has two tax settings:

• Sales tax: Included in the service price keeps the total the customer saw on the booking form. Added by Dodo Payments at checkout adds the tax on top.
• Tax category: Digital products, Software as a service, E-books or Education and courses. Online sessions and courses usually fit Education and courses.

Dodo Payments is built for digital products and services. Check with Dodo before you use it for in-person appointments.

How a Payment Works

1. The customer books and the time is held for about 32 minutes.
2. Continue to payment opens Dodo’s checkout page. Clicking it again reuses the same checkout.
3. After paying, the customer comes back to their booking page.
4. Dodo’s webhook reports the payment. The booking confirms only when the amount and currency match and the time is still free. Otherwise it goes to payment review.

Core Bookings creates one private product per service in your Dodo account the first time someone books it, named after the service. The product has no fixed price: each checkout passes the amount due for that booking. Leave these products in place. If one is deleted or archived, Core Bookings creates it again on the next checkout.

Dodo’s checkout page doesn’t close when the hold ends. If a customer pays after that, the booking still confirms when the time is free, and goes to payment review when it isn’t.

Refunds

Refund from the appointment, as you would for any other method. A full refund returns the whole payment. A partial refund returns that amount of the booking, tax included. Dodo may review a refund before it goes through, and the booking shows refund pending until it does. A refund you make in the Dodo dashboard is picked up through the webhook.

Limits

• Deposits work, but there’s no Pay remaining balance button. Collect the rest of a deposit booking offline.
• Session packs, gift card sales, memberships and saved cards keep using Stripe or FluentCart.
• There’s no one-click webhook setup for Dodo Payments. Add the endpoint in the Dodo dashboard as described above.
• Turning Dodo off stops new bookings on its services, but payments and refunds it already started still settle.
• Test with Dodo’s Test Mode and a sandbox booking before you take live payments.

For the other gateways, see Connect PayPal, Polar or Paddle. For an overview of every method, see Choose How Customers Pay.