Manage booking cancellations and prepayment policies
About cancellation and prepayment policies
Setting a customised cancellation policy, such as requesting that clients add their payment card when requesting an appointment, helps protect against no-shows. If your client doesn’t show up or cancels outside of your cancellation window, you can choose to enforce your cancellation policy. Prepayment policies also help manage your cash flow by requiring that customers prepay for fixed-priced services when they book online.
Before you begin
You can charge a cancellation fee up to 14 days after the appointment.
There isn’t a way to charge a percentage-based no-show protection fee across all of your services.
When enabling no-show protection, cards are only held for a single appointment and not saved on file for future charges.
Clients have the option to cancel an appointment at any time while the appointment is still pending.
Step 1: Set a prepayment policy
You can select from three payment options for booking online:
No requirement to book: The default booking option. Clients won’t see your cancellation policy during booking or in their appointment notifications.
Require full prepayment: This policy requires clients to prepay for fixed price services to book. Clients can’t cancel prepaid appointments on their own, you will be responsible for enforcement and refunds where necessary.
Hold card in case of in-show: Clients are required to add a payment card to complete their booking, which can be charged if your client violates your cancellation policy. If you want to save your client’s card on file for future payments, they can select Save card when booking the appointment.
Learn more about Square Appointments pricing.
- From your Square Dashboard go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
- Under Payments, select the relevant payment policy:
- No requirements to book
- Require full prepayment
- Hold card for no-show protection.
- Click Next.
- Configure the settings depending on the chosen policy, then click Save.
You can also accept customer prepayment when you create an appointment from your calendar if you have your customer’s card on file.
Step 2: Set a cancellation policy
You can customise your cancellation cut-off time, your cancellation policy, and decide if clients can reschedule or cancel online. To do so:
From your Square Dashboard, go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
Under Cancellation Policy click Edit to set a cut-off window. You may select between one hour to two weeks or none.
Click Save.
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.
Step 3: Set a no-show payment policy
If your prepayment policy includes holding a card for no-shows, this card can be charged if your client violates your cancellation policy. You’ll have three fee options with no-show protection: to charge a flat fee per appointment, per service or as a percentage of each service price.
Option 1: Set a flat cancellation fee per appointment
- From your Square Dashboard go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
- Under Payments, select Hold card for no-show protection > Next.
- Under Payments, select Hold card in case of no-show > Next.
- Click the Fee type drop-down menu and select Flat fee per appointment.
- Enter the fee amount.
- Click Save.
Option 2: Set a flat cancellation fee per service
A cancellation fee amount must be entered for each service in your catalogue or you won’t be able to charge a cancellation fee.
- From your Square Dashboard go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
- Under Payments, select Hold card for no-show protection > select Next.
- Select Flat fee per service.
- Choose services > select Done.
- Add a Fee amount.
- Select Save.
There isn’t a way to charge a percentage based no-show protection fee across all of your services.
Option 3: Set a fee for a percentage of each service price
- From your Square Dashboard go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
- Under Payments, select Hold card for no-show protection > select Next.
- Select Percentage of each service price.
- Choose services > select Done.
- Add a Percentage.
- Select Save.
- Open your Square Appointments POS app.
- Tap ≡ More > Settings > Appointments > Payments & cancellations.
- Select Hold card for no No-show protection.
- Select Percentage of each service price.
- Tap Save.
- Follow the Square Dashboard instructions above to choose the fee for a percentage of each service price.
Delete a no-show fee
You can delete or remove a no-show fee at any time from your Square Dashboard. To do so:
From your Square Dashboard, go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & cancellations.
Under Payments, select **Hold card for no-show protection** > select **Next**.
Choose the fee type you want to delete > select the bin icon.
Select **Delete** > Select **Save**.
Manage cancelled appointments and customer prepayments
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.
Policy enforcement and refunds for cancelled services are at your discretion. 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.
Cancelled appointments are labelled in grey and appointments marked no-show are labelled in red in the client’s record.
When your customers prepay for services from your online booking site, the payments will appear in your Square balance and be transferred to your linked bank account.
If you allow customers to cancel or reschedule appointments online and you accept appointments, clients will only be allowed to cancel or reschedule before appointments are accepted.
If you allow customers to cancel or reschedule themselves online, they will be able to cancel or reschedule a prepaid appointments themselves. However if you also accept or decline appointment requests, after the appointment is accepted, clients won’t be able to cancel or reschedule prepaid appointments online but will have to contact you directly to do so.
Any changes made to a prepaid appointment after it is booked will not be reflected in your reports and will require a manual refund if needed.
If you decline an appointment, a refund will be automatically issued back to the original payment card and your customer will be notified. You can decline an appointment at any time. Refunds for cancellations exceeding 60 days from the date of booking must be issued outside of Square.