Client Portal Appointment Cancellations and Payments Management

If you collect payments via the client portal at the time of booking and the client later cancels their appointment through the portal, no automatic refund is triggered. The payment must be refunded manually.

This article explains what happens to the appointment, the Zanda invoice, and the collected online payment, and what steps you need to take.

In this article

• What happens when a client cancels in the portal
• What happens to the Zanda invoice
• What happens to the Stripe payment
• How to process a manual refund
• The cancellation policy and what clients see
• Related articles

What happens when a client cancels in the portal

When a client cancels an upcoming appointment through the client portal:

• The appointment status changes to Cancelled
• A cancellation notification is sent (based on your notification settings)
• The appointment is removed from the client’s upcoming appointments list

The cancellation does not trigger a refund of any payment collected at booking.

What happens to the Zanda invoice

When the appointment is cancelled, Zanda attempts to delete the associated invoice if it is still unpaid.

If the invoice is deleted:
It will no longer appear in the client’s invoice history. No further action is needed.

If the invoice is not deleted:
This usually means an online (Stripe) payment has already been recorded. In this case:

• The invoice remains in Zanda
• The payment is applied
• You will need to record the refund after processing it in Stripe

What happens to the Stripe payment

The Stripe charge is not affected by the cancellation.

• The payment remains captured in Stripe
• You decide whether to issue a refund
• Any refund must be processed manually

How to process a manual refund

Step 1 — Refund in Stripe

1. Go to User menu > Account Settings > Payments > Stripe
2. Click Stripe Dashboard
3. Locate the charge for the cancelled appointment
4. Issue a full or partial refund following Stripe’s process

Step 2 — Record in Zanda (if the invoice still exists)

If the invoice is still visible in the client’s account, follow the steps provided in Refunding An Invoice guide. 

The cancellation policy and what clients see

Clients can only cancel appointments within your configured cancellation policy window (for example, up to 24 hours before the appointment).

If a client tries to cancel outside this window, they will see a message like:

"You cannot cancel this appointment as it is outside the cancellation policy. Please contact [Practice Name] on [phone number] to cancel this booking."

In this case:

• The client cannot cancel via the portal
• The appointment remains active
• You must cancel it manually if needed
• Any refund must still be processed manually in Stripe 

Related articles

• Processing Stripe Payments
• Setting Up Online Payments in the Client Portal
• Client Portal Cancellation Policy Settings