Set late-cancellation and no-show fees for a location

Each location has a cancel policy: the fee a client owes when they cancel too close to the appointment, and the fee when they do not show up. You choose each fee yourself, either as a fixed amount or as a percent of the service price. Late-cancel fees can have several tiers, so a cancellation one day before can cost less than one made an hour before.

A fee is taken first from the client's deposit, up to what the deposit covers. If more is owed, it is charged to a card the client left on file at the location, when the location asks for one. If there is neither, the fee is worked out and recorded on the appointment as owed, and no card is charged. Anything left over from a deposit goes back to the client to choose a refund or credit. Set up payouts and deposits first: see the article about payouts and deposits, and the articles on what happens to a deposit and on saved cards. The platform fee and the payment processor's fees apply to what is charged like any other captured payment, and Zelun does not hold the funds.

A fee never blocks the cancellation itself. If the card cannot be charged, the appointment is still recorded as cancelled or as a no-show, and the fee is marked as owed.

1. Decide your fees. Each one is Fixed (cents), an amount typed in cents, or Percent of service price, a whole number from 1 to 100.
2. Decide your tiers. Each tier is a number of hours before the appointment plus its fee. Tiers need different hour values.
3. To charge fees automatically, connect payouts and either turn on a deposit or require a saved card for the location.
4. Branches is in the Setup group of the side menu, and each location's page holds its cancel policy. If you are sent to a Forbidden page, ask the account owner.

Set the policy

1. Open Setup, choose Branches, click the location, and find Cancel policy.
2. Under Late-cancel fee tiers (hours before appointment), fill in each tier: Hours before, the fee type (Fixed (cents) or Percent of service price) and the fee amount. Press Add tier for more, or Remove to delete one. At least one tier must stay.
3. Under No-show fee, choose the fee type and type the amount.
4. Press Save policy. The screen confirms with Policy saved.

The screen does not save and shows an error if a percent is outside 1 to 100, a fixed fee is not a whole number of cents of zero or more, the hours are not a whole number of at least 1, or two tiers share the same hours.

How the system decides

• Late cancel. The system looks at how long before the appointment start the cancellation happens. It picks the tier with the smallest hours value that is still larger than that time. So with a tier at a day and another at two hours, a cancellation one hour before uses the two-hour tier, and one made ten hours before uses the one-day tier. If the cancellation is earlier than every tier, it is on time and costs nothing.
• Percent fees are that percent of the appointment's service price at the time it was booked, rounded to the nearest cent. Fixed fees are the amount as typed, whatever the service costs.
• No-show. An appointment is a no-show only when staff mark it as one. The no-show fee then applies.
• The timing rules are the same whether the client cancels or staff record the cancellation for them. When the business cancels, there is never a fee. See the article on recording who cancelled.
• Until you save a policy, a default applies: a standard free-cancel window with no fee.

Cancel or mark a no-show

1. Open the appointment in the appointment book.
2. For a cancellation, type the Cancel reason, choose who is cancelling under Who is cancelling?, and press Cancel visit. A reason and a choice are required.
3. For a client who did not come, press Mark as no-show. It appears while the appointment is still booked.
4. If the fee is more than zero, it is taken from the deposit and then from a saved card. If the fee is zero, the whole deposit goes back to the client to choose what to do with it.

If the charge fails

1. The appointment is still saved as cancelled or no-show, and it shows Fee owed. The client is sent a link to pay it from their booking page.
2. Open it and press Retry fee capture, or press Paid at the desk if the client paid you directly. When the charge succeeds, the fee is recorded as captured.

If a deposit was kept as the fee, the receipt line reads Deposit kept as late-cancel fee.

• On your booking page and in the confirmation, a note says Free to cancel until a time and date. That time is the start of the appointment minus the widest tier you set.
• Clients cancel from their manage link, or by replying to a message when that applies. They cancel without an account.
• A fee is taken from their deposit, then from a card they left on file. Staff see the result on the appointment. Clients do not see the policy screen.
• If a fee cannot be charged, the client is sent a link to pay it. Clients are not told you can retry it. That is on your side.

• Typing pesos instead of cents in a fixed fee. The amount is entered in cents, so multiply the amount you mean by 100.
• Expecting a fee to be charged with no deposit and no saved card. Without either, the fee is recorded as owed and nothing is charged.
• Using the same hours in two tiers. The policy is refused until each tier has its own hours.
• Forgetting that who cancelled matters. For a cancellation the client asked for, a late one depends only on how close to the start it is. A cancellation by the business never costs a fee.
• Forgetting to retry an owed fee. It stays marked as owed until someone retries it or it is settled.
• Forgetting the invoice (CFDI) for a fee or a deposit. For a business that issues CFDI, a collected fee, a deposit and a refunded deposit each get their own document from the appointment, under Other invoices for this visit. See the CFDI article.
• Marking a no-show by cancelling. Use Mark as no-show. A plain cancellation is judged by timing and does not count as a no-show.

The articles below cover the branch page, payouts and deposits, risk-based deposits, what happens to a deposit, saved cards and recording who cancelled.