How do cancellation fees work?

The purpose of this article is to help you learn:

How to enable cancellation fees for customers and providers
How cancellation fees are charged to the customer
How the cancellation fees are paid to the provider.
What happens to the customer's cancellation fee if the booking is resumed
What happens to the provider cancellation fee after the booking is resumed

Enabling Cancellation Fees for Customers and Providers

In Bookingkoala, you have full control over when the system should charge cancellation fees to the customer. You can access this setting by going to:

Settings > General > Store Options > General tab > Cancellation section

To charge one or more types of cancelation fees, select "Yes" to the first question, "Do you charge a cancellation fee?"

Next, decide if you would like to charge a single type of fee or multiple fees depending on the circumstance.

Single Cancellation Fee

If you select "single", enter the cancelation amount and type (dollar amount or percentage of the booking total) into the box below.
- If you want the provider to receive a payment from the cancelation fee, click the red Disabled button to switch it to Enabled, then enter the amount or percentage of the fee you would like them to get paid.
- If you would like all cancellation fees to follow these guidelines, check the box next to "Override the service category settings for cancellation fee and apply based on these settings." This means the above fee will be used regardless of whatever cancelation fee settings you have applied to your service categories under Settings > Industries > [Industry Name] > [Form #] > Service Categories.
- Beneath the question "When will your customers be charged a cancellation fee?", decide if you would like the fee to be charged:
  - If they cancel after a specific time of day, such as 2 PM, the day before the job.
  - If they cancel a specific number of hours, such as 3 hours, before the job.
- Check the box next to "Exclude same-day bookings" if you would not like the system to charge a cancellation fee if a same-day booking is canceled in the system.

Multiple Cancellation Fees

If you would like to have multiple cancelation fees, select "Multiple" and then use the blue "Add Fee" button to add as many fees as you'd like.
- A pop-up window will open where you can add each fee. Click the blue Next button to add each fee to the list
- Once each fee has been added, it can be edited or deleted by using the "Options" button.
- If you would like all cancellation fees to follow these guidelines, check the box next to "Override the service category settings for cancellation fee and apply based on these settings." This means the above fee will be used regardless of whatever cancelation fee settings you have applied to your service categories under Settings > Industries > [Industry Name] > [Form #] > Service Categories.
- Check the box next to "Exclude same-day bookings" if you would not like the system to charge a cancellation fee if a same-day booking is canceled in the system.

Cancellation Reasons

Beneath the cancelation fees, you can set up optional reasons for why a customer has canceled their booking. This information is tracked in the Reports section under the Cancellation Reports section.

To set up cancelation reasons, select "Yes" for the question "Would you like to set up reasons for why the booking is being canceled?"4
- Click the blue Manage Reasons button to open the reason manager.
- There are several default reasons in the resulting pop-up that can be edited by selecting "Options" then "Edit" or deleted by selecting "Options" then "Delete".
- You can add your custom cancelation reason by clicking the blue "Add New" button at the bottom of the pop-up.
  - Enter a reason into the topmost field.
  - Select if this reason should show for one-time and/or recurring customers.
  - Select if the reason should show when customers are canceling all recurring appointments and/or canceling a single appointment.
  - Decide if you would like to exclude the cancelation fee and/or cancel after the first appointment fee.
- To change the order of appearance of the cancellation reasons, drag and drop the reasons into a new order and then click the orange Update Priority button.
- Remember to click the green Save button to save any changes you've made to your cancellation reasons.
For the question, "Would you like it to be optional to give a reason for the cancellation?",
- Select "No" to make the customer have to select one or more cancellation reasons when canceling their booking(s).
- Select "Yes" to make leaving a cancellation reason optional.
For the question, "Would you like to have a comment box in the cancellation section?",
- Select "No" if you would not like to include a comment box for the customer to fill out when they are canceling their booking(s).
- Select "Yes" if you would like to include a comment box in the customer cancelation pop-up.
  - If you selected "Yes" to this question, check the boxes next the "One Time" and/or "Recurring" to decide which type of cancellations will have a comment box.
  - There will also be the question, "Would you like it to be optional to leave a comment with the cancellation? "
    - Select "Yes" to make leaving a comment optional for One-time and/or Recurring cancelations.
    - Select "No" to make leaving a comment mandatory for one-time and recurring cancelations.

Setting Up Cancellation Fees by Industry and Service Category

Below the options for setting up cancellation reasons and comments, you can select which industries and service categories you would like to use your cancelation reasons.

Check the box(es) next to each category that should use the pop-up, or select "All" to use the pop-up for all categories within an industry.

Any service categories that are not checked here will use the cancelation settings customized for that specific category by going to Settings > Industries > [Industry Name] > Form [#] > Service Categories.

Cancelation Pop-up for Admin-Only or Both Customers and Admin

The final setting in the Cancellation section controls whether the cancelation pop-up will be displayed for just the admin/staff, or for the customers as well.

For the question "Will the reasons in the pop-up be displayed for the admin only or for customers as well?"
- Select "Only admin/staff" if only admin and staff members should see the cancellation pop-up reasons when canceling bookings.
- Select "Both" if both customers and admin/staff should see the reasons in the cancellation pop-up.

Save

Save your changes by clicking the "Save" button.

Cancellation Fees to the Customer

Cancellations made within the cancellation fee settings are subject to a cancellation fee.

It is possible to skip charging the cancellation fee to the customer when canceling a specific booking by selecting "Don't charge cancellation fee." and clicking "Cancel This Appointment".

By selecting the relevant option after clicking the "Cancel" button, you can also select a different cancellation fee for the booking.

How Cancellation Fees Are Paid to the Provider

If you have enabled to pay the cancellation fee to the provider with 50% of the total cancellation fee charged to the customer, then this percentage amount will be added to the provider's payment.

For example, if the cancellation fee charged to the customer is $150.00, $75.00 will be added to the provider's payment during the payout.

If you do not want to pay the cancellation fee to the provider for a specific booking, you can click “Don't pay the Provider out of the cancellation fee.” and then click “Cancel the appointment”.

Choosing different amounts of cancellation fees to pay to the Provider

While canceling the booking, you can choose to pay a different cancellation fee to the provider by choosing the relevant option after clicking "Cancel".

What happens to the cancellation fee if the booking is resumed?

If you resume a canceled booking, the cancellation charges will not be automatically refunded. Alternatively, you must refund the cancellation charge manually after resuming the booking. To refund the cancellation fee, go to the canceled booking under:

Bookings > Cancellations

Click on the “Edit” button to edit the booking.

Once you have done so, click the "Refund charge" button on the booking form and click "Yes".

If you don't want your customers to receive notifications, check the "Exclude notification from being sent" box.

What happens to the cancellation fee already paid to the provider?

As soon as you click on the "Resume Booking" button after the cancellation fee has been paid to the provider, you will receive a pop-up message stating "You are resuming a booking on which a cancellation fee has been paid." What should be done with the cancellation payment?

The following two options are relevant:

Don't do anything, the provider will keep the payment. (Payment remains with the provider with this option.)
Revert the payment and do not pay the provider. (This option will work only if payment has not been made to the provider in the system yet.)

If the payment has not been made in the system, the cancellation fee will be reverted after resuming the booking.

If the cancellation fee has been made in the system, it will appear under the provider payment section of the admin dashboard. To check the provider cancellation fee, please go to:

Providers > Payments

You can find the cancellation fee for the provider under the "Job Listing" option in the Payments section.

Here you can find the cancellation fees for each provider.