Manage booking cancellations and prepayment policies
About cancellation and prepayment policies
Setting a customized 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 is a $500 limit if you set your cancellation fee per 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 a card for no-show protection: 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 customize 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 two fee options with no-show protection: to either charge a flat fee per appointment or per service.
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 dropdown 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 catalog or you won’t be able to charge a cancellation fee.
- From Square Dashboard click Items & Orders > Items.
- Select Service Library.
- Click Create Service and add the service details. Within the Price section, fill out the Cancellation fee information to require customers to add a payment card when booking their appointment.
- Fill out the rest of the service details and click Save.
- From Square Dashboard, go to Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations.
- Under Payments, select Hold card in case of no-show > Next.
- Click the Fee type dropdown menu and select Flat fee per service.
- Click Save.
- Open your Square Appointments POS app.
- Tap ≡ More > Settings > Appointments > Payments & Cancellations.
- Select Hold Card no No-Show Protection.
- Select Fee for each service.
- Tap the back arrow to save.
- Tap ≡ More > Items & Services > All Services.
- Select an existing service or create a new service.
- Enter an amount in the Cancellation Fee field.
- Tap Save.
There isn’t a way to charge a percentage based No-Show Protection fee across all of your services.
Manage canceled 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 canceled 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.
Canceled appointments are labeled in gray and appointments marked no-show are labeled in red in the client’s record.
When your customers prepay for services from your online booking site, the payments will appear in your balance and be transferred to your linked bank account.
If a customer needs to cancel or reschedule a prepaid appointment, they must 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 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.