No-shows and debts

Set it up

Open Settings → Cancellations & no-shows.

• No-shows → No-show fee: Fixed amount or Percent of service price, and the amount. A percentage is of the price the booking was made at.
• More settings → No-show debt → Enable no-show debt: turns debts on. New shops start with it off, and with a fee of 0.

The Setup guide's Protect against no-shows screen sets the same fee for all services, and turns no-show debt on when the fee is above 0, off when it is 0. See Getting started.

No debt is ever recorded when no-show debt is off, or when the fee works out to 0. You can still mark no-shows then; they count in your statistics and on the customer's record.

Mark a no-show

Open the booking and choose Mark as no-show, or use No-show on the booking's row in the calendar list. Staff can do it in the Staff Portal, which shows the fee first: "The customer will be charged a … no-show fee". A no-show can't be undone.

You can mark a booking that is still Confirmed, once its start time has passed: before that, the customer hasn't missed it yet, so Mark as no-show doesn't show. A booking that was completed automatically can still be marked as a no-show for 7 days after that. See Managing bookings.

How the debt is worked out

1. The fee is your no-show fee: a fixed amount, or the percentage of the booking's price.
2. A deposit or payment the customer made for that booking is kept, and deducted from the fee, so they never lose the deposit and also owe the whole fee.
3. What is left is the debt. When the deposit covers the whole fee, there is no debt.

Worked example. A €60 service takes a 20% deposit, so the customer paid €12 online. Your no-show fee is 50% of the price.

• Fee: 50% of €60 = €30.
• The €12 deposit is kept and deducted: €30 − €12 = €18.
• The customer owes an €18 debt.

With Full payment required on the same service, the customer paid €60. The €30 fee is fully covered, the €60 is kept, and there is no debt. With a fixed fee of €20 and no deposit, the debt is €20.

How the customer pays it

A customer with a debt shows a badge such as "€18 debt" in Customers, and their page says they must prepay on their next booking. To see everyone who owes a fee, choose Owes money above the Customers list.

The next time they book online, they are recognized by their email or phone number (or their account, when signed in to your store). The booking then waits for payment, and they go to Shopify's checkout with an Outstanding balance line for everything they owe, plus the service's own deposit if it takes one. This happens even for a service that takes no payment. Once they pay, the booking is confirmed and the debt shows as Settled, paid with that booking. The line says what the debt is for, such as "Outstanding balance — missed booking on Oct 20". In the calendar's booking window, the payment panel says which old debt that booking's payment collects, or collected.

With no-show debt on, every customer reads "Missed a booking here before? Any unpaid no-show fee is added to this checkout." on the booking form's details step, so the fee never comes as a surprise. It is the same sentence for everyone: the booking form never shows who owes.

If they don't pay before the time hold runs out, the booking is canceled and the debt stays outstanding. See Deposits and payments.

When you or your staff book a customer who owes a debt, the form says how much they owe. The booking waits for that payment; send them the payment link.

Refunding a later booking's deposit never refunds a debt paid in the same checkout.

Forgive a debt, or mark it as paid

You can do this on the customer's page, under Debts, or on the booking. Each debt on the customer's page opens the booking it came from. It is dated by the day of that booking, as the checkout line is, even when you marked it later.

• Forgive fee asks for a reason, then Forgive fee again to confirm. The debt becomes Waived and no longer has to be paid. This can't be undone.
• Mark as paid is for a debt paid to you in person, for example in cash. The debt becomes Settled.

If the debt was already in a booking's checkout that is waiting for payment, that booking follows at once: when nothing else is left to pay, it is confirmed; otherwise the customer gets a new payment link for what is left.

Visits

A customer who owes a debt and books several services in one visit pays it once, as one Outstanding balance line in the visit's checkout.

A no-show is marked per booking, not per visit. Each booking's fee comes from its own price, less its own share of the deposit. For example, if a visit had a €40 manicure with an €8 deposit and a €30 pedicure with a €6 deposit, and the customer missed only the pedicure, a 50% fee gives €15 − €6 = €9 debt; the manicure is not affected.

Late cancellations

With After that set to Customer can cancel, charged your no-show fee under Cancellations, a customer who cancels after your cancellation window is charged the same fee, worked out the same way, with any deposit deducted. The booking is Canceled, not a no-show, and the debt says Late cancellation. This choice needs no-show debt on.

Settings won't save a late cancellation that charges the fee while no-show debt is off: choose another After that option first. Saving the Setup guide with no fee changes it to Customer must contact you for you. See Cancellations and rescheduling.

Blocking

A debt doesn't block a customer: they can book again once they pay it. To stop a customer from booking online at all, block them. See Blocking customers.