Cancellations, no-shows and refunds

Every event has its own settings in the editor's Cancellations & refunds section. Two things live there, and they are different: the permissions (what a client may change online, and until when) and the refund processing (what happens to money already paid). Your written policy explains the rest in your own words.

What clients may change online

• Clients can cancel online — on, with up to a number of minutes, hours or days before the start. Zero means any time before the start.
• Clients can reschedule online — on, with its own up to window, or up to the booking notice so it follows the notice the event already requires. A reschedule window shorter than the booking notice is refused: a client can't move a session on less notice than a new booking needs.

These two switches only decide what clients may change online. Refunds and fees follow the choice below them.

The booking page shows these as instructions, apart from your policy, under Online changes: a Cancel row and a Reschedule row, each reading like "Up to 1 day before the start time" ("Any time before the start time" for zero), and only for a door that is open. The client's booking link offers exactly those doors and closes each at its window, saying so: "Online cancellation closed 1 day before the start. Contact {your business} to ask about canceling or rescheduling." When neither is on, the page says "Not offered online. Contact {your business} to ask about canceling or rescheduling." — it never suggests that contacting you cancels anything.

Your written policy

Cancellation, no-show & refund policy is a text box for your own words: your notice, your fees, how you treat no-shows, when you refund. With Show this policy on the booking page on, the booking page shows a Cancellation, No-Show & Refund Policy link at the bottom, and the last step reads "By scheduling you accept the Cancellation, No-Show & Refund Policy". Leave the box empty and there is no link and no acceptance line — nothing is generated for you.

Refunds and fees

• Manual — you handle every refund from the Bookings tab, following your written policy. Nothing is computed, nothing is withheld.
• Automatic — for a booking paid online that the client cancels online, the fee from the schedule below is deducted from the refund and the rest goes back to the card by itself. Automatic needs a written policy, so the client has read what will be deducted. Also charge the card processing fee charges the client Stripe's processing fee too, on every automatic refund: each tier's, and an earlier cancellation's while those are refunded automatically (see below).
• Bookings paid with a discount code (shown when the business takes codes): fees apply to the listed price, up to what they paid (the default), to what they paid, or the refund is left to you (the client is told you will contact them about their payment). A fee is only ever kept out of a refund, so it never exceeds what the client paid: listed $150, paid $20, a 25% tier on the listed price keeps $20, refunds nothing, and nothing is owed.

A booking paid offline never carries a fee: there is no refund to take it from, and nothing is ever owed. A no-show is a cancellation you record.

The fee schedule (automatic only)

The schedule shows only under Automatic. Add tiers: Online cancellation within a number of hours or days of the start, a flat fee or a percentage of the price. The tier with the smallest matching window applies. Fees are deducted from the client's refund. A fee that keeps the whole payment refunds nothing: the canceled booking shows the fee withheld, nothing is left to refund, and nobody is told a refund is theirs to issue; Waive fee still gives it back. Manual has no schedule: it stays manual.

An online cancellation of a booking paid online that falls outside every tier carries no fee. Refund automatically when no fee applies decides what happens to its payment:

• Checked (the default for every event) — the payment is refunded automatically as soon as the client cancels, with no cancellation fee (less the card processing fee when you charge it).
• Unchecked — the booking is canceled and the payment stays with you. The client is told you will contact them about their payment, and you hear that the refund is yours to decide. The canceled booking in Bookings offers Refund in full and Partial refund; or apply the payment to another session instead, which avoids a second card processing fee (Stripe keeps its fee on a refund).

Tiers that charge a fee refund the rest automatically either way.

Refunding a booking yourself

Canceling a booking from the Bookings tab never moves money. On a canceled booking paid online the row offers Refund in full and Partial refund — you type the amount, and the rest stays with the business (the row shows it as Amount kept). Before the money moves, a confirmation shows what the client paid (with any discount code), what goes back and to which card, what stays with the business, and the Stripe processing fee, which Stripe keeps on a refund. Refunds are offered on canceled bookings only; to refund a booking that stays on the calendar, use your Stripe Dashboard. Retry refund sends again the amount that failed when Stripe declined. Waive fee on a booking with an amount withheld sends that amount back too.