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Hold a Card to Charge Cancellation Fees with Square Appointments

Protect against no-shows with a customized cancellation policy. You can require that clients add their payment card when requesting an appointment with you online. If your client doesn’t show up or cancels outside of your cancellation window, you can choose to enforce your cancellation policy.

Select a payment policy

  1. Go to the Payments & Cancellations section on your online Square Dashboard.

  2. Click the payment policy.

  3. Select the relevant payment policy (see policies in detail below):

    • No requirements to book: Clients can book appointments without payment requirements.

    • Require full prepayment: Require clients to prepay for ‘fixed price’ services to book.

    • Hold card for no-show protection: Require clients to enter card information to book.

  4. Click Next.

  5. Configure the relevant settings depending on the chosen policy, then click Save.

Require full prepayment

This policy requires clients to prepay for ‘fixed price’ services to book. Clients cannot cancel prepaid appointments on their own, you will be responsible for enforcement and refunds where necessary.

Note: Different processing fee rates apply to prepaid appointments. 

Hold card for no-show protection

When you enable this policy, your clients will be required to add a payment card to complete their booking. This card can be charged if your client violates your cancellation policy. If you want to save your client’s card on file for future payments, you will need to ask them to select Save Card when booking the appointment.

Important to note

  • When enabling no-show protection, cards are held for a single appointment only and not saved on file for future charges.

  • You can charge a cancellation fee up to 14 days after the appointment.

  • There is a $500 limit if you set your cancellation fee per appointment.

  • At the moment, there isn’t a way to charge a percentage-based No-Show Protection fee across all of your services.

  • You can also enable No-Show Protection when creating an appointment from your calendar on Appointments Dashboard. You can use your client’s card on file or manually input a card. Note: This feature is not yet available in the Square Appointments POS app.

  • Clients have the option to cancel an appointment at any time while the appointment is still pending.

You’ll have two fee options with No-Show Protection; to either charge a flat fee per appointment or per service.

Flat fee per appointment

Enable No-Show Protection from the online Square Dashboard

  1. From your Appointments Dashboard, click Settings > Payments & Cancellations.
  2. Under ‘Payments,’ select Hold card for no-show protection. Click Next.
  3. Set a flat cancellation fee per individual service or per appointment. Note: When No-Show Protection is enabled for individual services, the cancellation fee will default to $0 for services.
  4. Click Save.

Optional: For your online booking settings, you can also toggle Require a card on file for future payments on/off, depending on your preference.

Enable No-Show Protection from the Square Appointments POS app

  1. Tap > tap Settings.
  2. Tap Appointments > Payments & Cancellations.
  3. Tap Hold Card for No-Show Protection.

Enable No-Show Protection on Appointments and Square Register

  1. Tap on the down arrow and navigate to Online Booking.
  2. Tap Square Booking Site > Accept Online Payments.
  3. Tap Hold Card for No-Show Protection.

Flat fee per service

A cancellation fee amount must be entered for each service in your catalog or you won’t be able to charge a cancellation fee.

Services Created In-App

From the Square Appointments POS app:

  1. Tap > tap Items & Services.
  2. Enter passcode.
  3. Tap Create Service.
  4. Fill out the service details and tap Cancellation Fee. Enter the amount and tap Save.

Note: At the moment, there isn’t a way to charge a percentage based No-Show Protection fee across all of your services.

Services Created Online

If you create a service from your Appointments dashboard, you’ll see the option to enter the per-service Cancellation Fee. For items created on the Appointments dashboard, the per-service fee will default to $0. To update, just enter in the amount to charge your customers from the Services tab in the event they cancel or reschedule outside of the allotted window.

At this point, clients will need to enter payment details in order to complete booking their appointment. Their billing information will be held solely for No-Show Protection and will not be saved for payment or future bookings.

Note: Clients will not be allowed to use a prepaid debit card as their payment method, even if the prepaid debit card is saved as Card on File. You can override this block by using a prepaid debit card as the no-show payment card when you book an appointment on the Appointments Dashboard.

Cancellation Policy Setup

Customize your cancellation cut-off time, your cancellation policy, and decide if clients can reschedule or cancel online. To do so:

  1. From your online Square Dashboard, go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations.

  2. Scroll down to Cancellation Policy and click Edit to set a cut-off window. You may select between one hour to two weeks or none.

  3. Click Save.

  4. Toggle on Clients may reschedule or cancel their own appointments before the cut-off time if you’d like to allow clients to reschedule or cancel online before the cut-off.

Note: Regardless of the cut-off time, if you do not automatically accept appointment requests, a client may cancel a request at any time before it is accepted. Your cancellation policy will show in your online booking flow and at the bottom of the confirmation emails your clients receive.

Cancelling Appointments and No-shows

If a client requests to cancel or modify an appointment outside of your cancellation cut-off window, you’ll be given the option to enforce your cancellation policy.

Even if you have a cancellation policy enabled, policy enforcement will be at your discretion. You have two weeks (14 calendar days) to choose to charge your client. If you do so, they will receive an email notification, including any note you add, informing them of the appointment cancellation and any resulting fee. Your client will also be reminded of your policy if they attempt to cancel outside of your cancellation window.

Payment cards are charged when you choose to enforce your cancellation policy. Should the card be declined, you’ll need to contact your client for a new payment method.

Different processing fee rates apply to no-show transactions. Funds will be transferred to your linked bank account according to your deposit schedule.

Note: Cancelled appointments are labelled in grey and appointments marked no-show are labelled in red in the client’s record.