> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://app.docs.circuly.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Setup fees and deposits

> Charge a one-time setup fee or a deposit at checkout when a customer starts a subscription

## Overview

You can charge two one-time amounts when a customer starts a subscription or rental:

* **Setup fee**: a charge you keep, for example to cover preparing the item.
* **Deposit**: money you hold while the customer has the item. You choose whether it's refundable.

Both are charged at checkout, on the same order as the subscription, so the customer sees them in the cart and at checkout before paying.

## Turn a fee on

1. In circuly, go to **Settings > Fees**.
2. Tick **Enable setup fee** or **Enable deposit fee** and enter the amount in your store currency.
3. Click **Save fees**.

The first time you turn a fee on, Shopify asks you to let circuly publish products. Approve it: each fee is added to the cart as a product, and the cart only accepts products that are published to your Online Store.

circuly then creates a **Setup fee** or **Deposit** product in your store. It's hidden from your store search, tagged `circuly-fee`, and doesn't need shipping.

## What the customer sees

When a customer clicks the add to cart button on the circuly product block with a subscription selected:

* one line of each fee is added to the cart, next to the subscription
* the block lists each fee and includes them in **First payment today**

Fees are charged once per order. A second subscription added to the same cart doesn't add the fees again.

In other markets, Shopify converts the fee amount into the local currency, the same way it converts your subscription prices.

## Change the name, tax or translation

The fee products are regular Shopify products. To rename one, change its tax settings or translate it, open it from the link under the amount in **Settings > Fees** and edit it in Shopify. circuly only changes a fee product's price, when you save a new amount, and its status, when you turn the fee on or off.

The setup fee starts as taxable. The deposit starts as not taxable, because it's money you hold rather than a sale.

## Deposit refunds

If **Refundable deposit** is on, circuly refunds the deposit as store credit when the subscription ends normally. For rentals that's when you confirm the return, whether the customer or you cancelled it. For other subscription types it's when the subscription is cancelled. If a customer's order starts more than one subscription, the deposit belongs to the first of them.

## What the customer sees in their account

The subscription details in the customer account list the setup fee and the deposit under the price, and say whether the deposit is refundable and when it comes back. When the customer cancels or returns, the confirmation repeats what happens to their deposit.

## Turn a fee off

Untick the fee and click **Save fees**. The fee product is set to draft, so it stops being added to carts and can't be bought. circuly keeps the product, so turning the fee back on reuses it.

## Limitations

* Fees are only added by the **circuly product block**. A subscription added another way, such as your theme's own **Buy it now** button, is sold without them. To avoid this, turn on **Hide the theme's buy buttons** in the block settings.
* Customers can remove a fee line from their cart before checkout, like any other product.
* If the subscription is removed from the cart, the fee lines stay until the customer removes them.