This is the most consequential set of settings in the app: it decides whether a client is asked for money before they've been seen, and whether you can charge them when they don't turn up. It's worth reading in full before you turn any of it on.
Settings → Payments → Payment policy
The three modes
Everything starts with one choice.
| Mode | What happens at booking |
|---|---|
| No policy | Nothing is asked for. No card, no deposit. |
| Card on file | A card is required to book. The client is not charged at booking. |
| Deposit | A deposit is required to book, and it's taken at booking. |
Sizing the deposit
A deposit is either a percentage of the visit or a fixed amount. A percentage of an $800 course is a very different number from a percentage of a $40 add-on, so pick deliberately.
Across a multi-service visit
When a visit has several services, all the services without their own override are pooled and the deposit is sized once against that pooled subtotal. So a fixed $25 deposit charges $25 for the visit, not $25 per service; a 20% deposit applies to the whole pool.
Cancellation and no-show fees
Both can be a percentage of the visit or a fixed amount, and each is switched on independently.
Late cancellation also has a window, in hours. Cancel earlier than the window and it's free. Cancel inside the window and the fee applies.
No-show has no window — it applies when the appointment is marked as a no-show.
The minimum appointment value
Set a minimum and the card / deposit requirement only applies to bookings above it. A $15 brow tidy books with nothing; a $300 course requires the deposit. The disclosure the client sees reflects this — "applies to appointments over $150".
Escalation
Optionally, a booking whose total crosses a threshold can be forced to take a deposit even when your normal mode is No policy or Card on file. Set the threshold and, if you want, a different sizing for the escalated deposit.
Escalation is skipped entirely when your mode is already Deposit, and it never produces a deposit step with nothing due.
Overrides
Policy is resolved in this order, most specific first:
The individual booking
Whoever takes the booking can override the terms for that one appointment. See Book an appointment.
The service
A single service can carry its own policy — "the laser course always takes a deposit, everything else doesn't". Set it on the service.
The location
A location can replace the business policy entirely. It's a whole-policy override, not a per-field merge — the mode and the fee rules are interdependent, so a location either uses its own or inherits the business one.
The business
Your default, under Settings → Payments → Payment policy.
How overrides combine on one visit
When services on one visit disagree, the strictest requirement wins for the visit: no policy < card on file < deposit. One service that requires a deposit pulls the whole visit into a single deposit step.
A service explicitly set to No policy weakens only its own line. It won't rescue the visit if another service still requires a card.
Charging a fee in practice
The two paths behave differently, on purpose.
- The client cancels themselves through their own booking link — the policy is applied automatically. The window is checked, the fee resolved, the card charged.
- The front desk cancels or marks a no-show — the fee is off by default. You see the resolved amount and confirm it explicitly. Clinics usually waive when they're the ones cancelling, or when a regular calls in.
If a deposit was captured, you also choose whether to refund or forfeit it. A forfeited deposit is credited against the fee, so the same cancellation is never penalised twice. Every outcome writes a payment record and an audit entry.
What the client is told
At booking, the client sees a plain-language summary generated from your settings — the deposit required, the free-cancellation window, and the fee amounts. It's also on their manage-booking page. You don't have to write or maintain that copy; changing the policy changes what they're shown.
Prerequisites
Deposits and fees need a connected payment processor — Settings → Payments. Without it there's nothing to capture a card with.
Reporting
- Growth → Reports → Cancellation fees — every fee charged, and the appointment behind it
- Growth → Reports → No-shows — no-show rate by client, service and provider
- Growth → Reports → Prepayments and Deferred revenue — money taken for work not yet done