Skip to content
  • There are no suggestions because the search field is empty.

Client Portal Appointment Cancellations and Payments Management

What happens to an invoice and attached online payment when a client cancels their appointment in the portal?

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

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 cancelled appointment no longer appears in the client’s list of upcoming appointments

The cancellation  does not automatically issue 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:

What happens to the Stripe payment

The Stripe charge is not affected by the cancellation.

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 the 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 explaining the appointment is outside the online cancellation policy and asking them to contact the service provider for assistance. 

In this case:

  • The client contacts your practice to arrange the cancellation
  • The appointment remains active until you cancel it manually
  • Any refund must still be processed manually in Stripe 

Important

Invoice deletion in Zanda and Stripe payments are handled separately. It’s expected that a payment may still exist in Stripe even if the invoice has been removed in Zanda. If refunds are part of your workflow, consider regularly reviewing:

  • Cancelled appointments in your Zanda calendar
  • Recent payments in Stripe

Frequently Asked Questions

❓ Can clients delete invoices from the client portal?

Clients can view invoices in the client portal, download them, and pay unpaid invoices when online payments are enabled. Invoice deletion is handled by Zanda during the appointment cancellation process or by users with access to invoice management in the main Zanda app, not by a client delete action in the portal.

❓ Can I keep the unpaid invoice when a client cancels through the portal?

Zanda handles unpaid appointment invoices automatically when a client cancels through the portal. When the cancellation is allowed by your cancellation policy, Zanda attempts to delete the invoice; the client portal settings do not include a separate option to keep that unpaid invoice.

If the invoice has an active payment, active Medicare claim, or linked US claim item, Zanda keeps the invoice because those records prevent invoice deletion. In that case, review the invoice in Zanda and process any Stripe refund manually if needed.

Related articles