Square Appointments
Cancellation Policies and No Show Protection
Protect yourself from lost business and revenue.
When you run a service based business, cancellations and no-shows are inevitable. Sometimes they’re unavoidable but other times it can be due to a lack of planning or care. While this can be frustrating, by having a clear cancellation policy in place, it helps both you and your customers.
What is a cancellation policy?
A cancellation policy sets out what will happen if a customer is unable to make the appointment they booked. Usually customers are able to cancel for free (or at minimal cost) if they provide a certain amount of notice. After this, fees are charged.
Benefits of having a cancellation policy
A cancellation policy is a great way to protect yourself from lost business and revenue.
When a cancellation policy is in place, and agreed to by the customer, it demonstrates commitment to the booking.
A cancellation policy will hold your customers accountable and make them aware of the consequences should they decide to cancel at the last minute or not show up at all.
Having clear policies and details about a booking shows professionalism.
Protect against no-shows with a cancellation policy
Protect against no-shows with a customised cancellation policy. With Square Appointments, you can require that clients add their payment card when requesting an appointment with you online. If your client doesn’t show up, or cancels outside of your cancellation window, you can choose to enforce your cancellation policy. You can also send automatic confirmation and reminder messages to your customers to remind them about their upcoming appointments.
Square’s cancellation policy templates
Writing a cancellation policy from scratch can be tough. You need to strike the right balance between firm and fair. You also need to use the right tone. Square Appointments makes it easy by populating a pre-written cancellation policy that inputs your preferred cancellation window and cancellation fee preferences e.g. a fee for each service or a flat fee per appointment. You are also given the option to add to your cancellation policy if required.
Enforcing your cancellation policy
With Square Appointments, if a client requests to cancel or modify an appointment outside of your cancellation window, you’ll be given the option to enforce your cancellation policy. Even if you have a cancellation policy enabled, policy enforcement will be at your discretion. You have two weeks (14 calendar days) to choose to charge your customer. If you do so, they will receive an email notification, including any note you add, informing them of the appointment cancellation and any resulting fee. Your client will also be reminded of your policy if they attempt to cancel outside of your cancellation window.
Block customers
If you have customers that constantly cancel late or don’t show up at all, you can block those customers from being able to book with you online. If a blocked customer tries to book an appointment, Square Appointments will recognise the mobile number saved on their customer profile and block the booking for you.
Setup is quick and easy
Go to your Square Appointments dashboard and select Settings > Calendar & Booking.
Set up your cancellation window by scrolling down to ‘Clients may reschedule or cancel their own appointments’ and set your cut-off window.
Go to Settings > Payments & Cancellations and choose your preferred cancellation policy. Save your settings.
That’s your cancellation policy set up! Your cancellation policy will show in your online booking flow and at the bottom of the confirmation emails your clients receive.
Square Appointments is more than just a scheduling app.
Free online booking website
Create a website you can be proud of for free and without any technical skills. Add a booking feature so customers can book your services any time they want without any effort on your part.
Google calendar sync
Have all the reservations booked on Square Appointments automatically transferred to your Google calendar. See at a glance what time is taken and what is still available.
Multiple location management
Easily keep track of customers, employees and inventory across multiple locations. Always know what and who is in which location at what time. Make changes and updates to any location from your Square dashboard or the app.
Afterpay
Allow customers to pay in instalments with Afterpay. When a client makes a purchase, you get paid up front immediately and your client pays four interest-free instalments over six weeks*.
*Late fees may apply. Eligibility criteria apply. See afterpay.com for more details
Staff Management
Organise your team online. Give staff members their rotas and make any updates quickly and easily. Assign commission levels and keep track of how staff are doing meeting their targets.
Confirmation and reminder messages
Help your customers to remember to show up or cancel by having Square send them automated confirmation and/or reminder messages. These can be sent by email or text message.
All-in-one integrated payment solution
Accepting payments with Square Appointments is as fast, painless and secure as possible, with no extra fees, no long-term contracts and no tricks. Just payment processing you can depend on so that you never miss a sale.
- Whether you’re selling in person, online or on the go, Square can help you process nearly any kind of payment, any way you want.
- Square hardware is built for every business. Quick to set up, reliable during the busiest checkouts and so flexible you can accept all major kinds of payment.
- Security is engineered into our products. We follow industry requirements to monitor your account for suspicious activity and support PCI compliance.
We’re trusted by Australian businesses.
‘That was why I was really keen to get on board with Square – because I knew that they could manage everything for me.’
Phoebe Simmonds
Founder, The BLOW
Blow dry salon, Melbourne
‘Square has made our lives easier and helped us run our business through three locations. It allows us to concentrate on what we are good at, that’s cutting hair.’
Shaun Ash
Co-owner Beef’s Barbers
‘It’s so helpful that each employee has a login and can use their own device to access Square Appointments to accept, decline or change appointments with ease, wherever they are.’
Romain Lambert
Founder, Kawada Hair Studio
‘Square seemed like an obvious choice to me. I love the fact that you can opt for an appointments booking system that is connected to a booking site, so it takes all of the reservation admin work out of staff hands, meaning we don’t require a receptionist.’
Kizzi
Owner, Kenneth Geoffrey’s
Barber, Melbourne
‘Square Appointments allows us to have a precise view of all appointment details, collate staff calendars and create/edit appointments as the owner on behalf of the employees. This leaves almost no room for miscommunication.’
Mikey
Co-owner, Shred Culture Tattoo
Tattoo studio, Byron Bay
‘Square Appointments looks after itself. Once you have your appointment options and durations entered the patients are able to easily book and cancel at any time, day or night.’
Christine
Owner, Cosmetic Injectables
Kingston, ACT
Pick the plan for you
No hidden fees. Change or cancel at any time.
Custom pricing and discounts are available for qualifying businesses in Australia.
Free
The basics to run your own business while staying ahead of schedule.
for a single location.
Processing rate per transaction:
- 1.6%
Top Free Features:
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Custom booking website and social media integrations
- Integrated payments
- Automatic text and email reminders
- Automated contracts
Plus
More advanced features for growing teams that offer top-notch service.
per location.
Processing rate per transaction:
- 1.6%
Top Plus Features:
- Everything in Free
- Customer confirmation texts and emails
- Cancellation policy and fees
- Schedule classes
- Waitlist
- Appointments reports
Premium
A complete plan that meets complex booking and staff management needs.
per location.
Processing rate per transaction:
- 1.6%
Top Premium Features:
- Everything in Plus
- Advanced Access
- Select rostering features from Square Staff
- Resource management
- Custom staff commissions
- Custom contract fields
Cancellation policies and no show protection are available with Square Appointments Plus and Premium. You can get started with a 30-day free trial of Plus or Premium to see if it’s right for you. Start free trial.
1.6% card present rate applies for Square Sellers who sign up on or after 30 May 2024, or who signed up prior to this date and subscribed to Square Appointments Plus or Premium. The rate of 1.9% will apply for all other Square Sellers who signed up prior to this date when using Square Reader, Square Stand or Tap to Pay, as listed in the Square Fee Schedule.
Contact sales for custom pricing
If your business processes over $250K in card sales per year, you may be eligible for custom pricing packages. This would include everything in Premium, a dedicated Account Manager in Australia and discounts on optional business tools, such as Square Online, Square Loyalty and more. Contact sales
For payments taken online, by invoice or keyed in manually, see card-not-present processing rates.
Make the most of Square.
Square brings all your business needs together with an all-in-one solution.
FAQs
Many businesses can benefit from the use of cancellation policies including:
- Beauty salons
- Hair salons
- Healthcare
- Fitness studios
- Tutors
- Auto services
- Transportation services
- Cleaning services
- Home and repair businesses
Yes, with Square Appointments you can choose to set a cancellation fee by service or have a fixed cancellation fee for all appointments.
Yes, with Square Appointments you can choose what cancellation window is best for your business, and your customers.
You have two weeks (14 calendar days) after a missed appointment to charge your customer. This allows you time to contact the customer and determine if there were any extenuating circumstances.
Potentially, but as long as you have a robust cancellation policy in place, you can represent the chargeback.
You can customise email confirmation and reminder messages. We hope to make it possible to customise text messages in the future.