Booking policies
Your cancellation rules, enforced automatically.
Pick a starting point, set your cutoff hours, and choose a fee. The booking page and the client portal both follow your rules. When a client cancels or no-shows too late, the fee lands on their appointment. You collect it at the next visit, waive it, or credit their account.
For the salon that lost a chair last week to a 9am cancellation at 8:50. Set the rules once and let the page hold the line.
Booking policy
Live preview belowStart from a preset
What the client sees on the booking page
Cancel free up to 24 hours before. No-shows incur a $25 fee.
Demo. Click a preset or edit the numbers.
Live preview01/
Start from a preset, then tune the numbers.
Pick Flexible, Fair, Moderate, or Firm as a starting point. Each one sets a sensible default for your cancel cutoff, reschedule cutoff, late-cancel fee, and no-show fee. Change any number and save. The new rules apply to every booking from that point forward.
Presets
Click to select
Every number is editable after you pick a preset. Presets are a starting point, not a ceiling.
Flexible: low stakes, no fees.
Short cutoffs, no fees at all. The shape most salons start with while they read the room.
Fair: one fee, for real no-shows.
Moderate cutoffs, no-show fee only. A good middle ground for repeat-client salons where the relationship matters more than the fine print.
Moderate: tighter cutoffs, both fees.
A late-cancel fee and a no-show fee. Fits a busy chair-rental operation where empty slots are real money.
Firm: the shape medspas use.
Tight cutoffs, both fees set to a meaningful amount. Common for high-cost services where a no-show is an hour of lost revenue.
02/
Cancel and reschedule cutoffs are separate.
Set the cancel cutoff in hours before the appointment. Set the reschedule cutoff separately. Many salons keep the reschedule window shorter than the cancel window: a reschedule keeps the visit on the books, so you might give more flexibility there. Both numbers live in your business settings.
Cutoff windows
Cancel
Reschedule
Client portal shows
Cancel or reschedule free. No fee applies.
Cancel and reschedule cutoffs are independent. A 48-hour cancel rule with a 24-hour reschedule rule keeps the visit alive even when the client changes their mind late.
03/
Inside the cutoff, the page tells the client clearly.
When a client tries to cancel or reschedule past your cutoff, they see the exact fee before they confirm. The reschedule button shows why it's blocked and offers Cancel instead, so they're never stuck. No fine print. No surprise charges after the fact.
Client portal
Scalp treatment
Thu 19 Jun · 11:00am · Mia
A late-cancel fee of $20 applies. You're inside the 48-hour window.
Scalp treatment
$80
Late-cancel fee
$20
The exact fee and the reason appear before the client confirms. No surprises after the fact.
The fee amount shows before they tap.
The cancel dialog says "A late-cancel fee of $X applies" with the real number. The client sees it in full before they confirm.
Reschedule block gives them a way out.
The block explains why, how late they are, and then offers Cancel instead. The visit doesn't freeze with no next step.
Every surface runs the same rules.
Client portal, booking page, and the cancel link in the confirmation email all check the same cutoff against the appointment time.
The confirmation email spells out your policy.
When the booking is confirmed, the email shows: cancel by X hours, reschedule by Y hours, late fee $Z. The client sees your rules the moment they book.
04/
Set fees as a flat amount or a percentage.
A flat fee works when your services are similar in price. A percentage works when your menu runs from a $30 brow tint to a $400 colour correction: the fee scales with the actual loss. Pick the shape on the policy form. The math runs on the service price at the time of booking.
Fee composer
Example: $120 service
Balayage
$120
No-show fee
$25
Outstanding balance
$25
Flat fits a similar-price menu. Percent fits a wide service range: a 25% fee is $8 on a $30 brow tint and $100 on a $400 colour correction.
05/
Fees as money owed, collected at the next visit.
When a fee triggers, it shows up on the appointment as an amount owed. You see it on the appointment detail. The client sees it at checkout on their next visit. You decide whether to collect, waive, or credit it back to their account.
Sienna K.
Brow lamination · Tue 10 Jun, 2pm
Brow lamination
$65
No-show fee: $25 outstanding
Collects at next visit checkout.
How it collects
Balance appears on next visit checkout. Salon decides: collect, waive, or apply as in-store credit.
Auto-charging the card lands later.
Once online payments ship, you can turn on auto-charge: the fee goes straight to the saved card instead of waiting for the next visit. That will be a per-salon opt-in, not the default.
The receipt itemizes it.
When you collect the fee at the next visit, the receipt lists the service and the carried fee separately.
Collected fees count as revenue.
Late-cancel and no-show fees you collect show up in the P&L. Waived fees do not. The audit trail on the appointment shows the difference.
Waive in one click.
A regular client got sick? Open the appointment, hit Waive on the outstanding balance. The record shows who waived it and when.
06/
What a real policy change looks like.
A 24-hour cutoff with a 50% no-show fee is the difference between an empty chair and a covered one. The strongest thing salons report after switching to a Firm preset: clients who would have no-showed either actually show up or rebook instead. Either outcome puts money on the books.
Auto-charge
Today
No-show detected
Fee recorded as outstanding balance
Staff sees it on next checkout
Collected manually
With Stripe Connect
No-show detected
Fee auto-charged to saved card
Receipt emailed to client
Revenue in next Stripe payout
Today, the fee is recorded as money owed and collected at the next visit. Once online payments ship, the same trigger can auto-charge the saved card instead. The auto-charge is opt-in, not the default.
Common questions
Honest answers, including the ones we don't love.
What happens if I change the policy mid-week?
New bookings get the new policy. Bookings already on the calendar keep the policy that was in place when they booked, which is what the confirmation email told the client. The appointment records which version of the policy applied.
Can I have different policies per service?
Today the policy is business-wide. Per-service overrides are on the post-launch list (a different no-show shape for a microblading consult versus a haircut makes real sense). For now, the right tool for a high-stakes service is a higher deposit at booking.
Does the fee charge the card automatically?
Not yet. The fee is recorded as money owed on the appointment and collected at the next visit. You can also waive it or apply it as in-store credit. Auto-charging a card on file comes once online payments ship, and it will be a per-salon opt-in toggle, not the default.
What if the no-show wasn't the client's fault?
Open the appointment, hit Waive on the outstanding balance, and optionally write a reason. The record keeps who waived it and when. You can also apply it as in-store credit on the same screen if you'd rather keep the relationship than wipe the slate.
Can a client cancel outside the cutoff for free?
Yes. Outside the cutoff window, cancellation is free and the slot opens up right away. When it does, the waitlist scan runs automatically and emails the first match whose dates and service fit.
Pairs well with
Fourteen days. No card.
Try Flowesce on a real Saturday.
No card required, no auto-charge at the end. If Flowesce isn't for you, export everything in one click and walk.