Your policy tells customers how late they can change or cancel a booking, and what happens if they leave it too late. You set it once, and BeNotely shows your customers the words you chose wherever they look.
Where to find it
Go to Settings and open Policies.
Start from a preset
Pick one to begin:
- Relaxed: changes up to 2 hours before.
- Standard: changes up to 24 hours before. What most businesses run.
- Strict: changes up to 48 hours before.
A preset just fills in the fields below it. Change any field and the card shows Custom. That's fine; it means the policy is yours.
The two windows
Customers can reschedule online until is how many hours before the booking a customer can still move it, from the Manage booking link in their emails and SMS. A move made after your free cancellation window has closed still counts as late: the booking can't be cancelled free afterwards, so a last-minute move is never a way around the fee.
Customers can cancel free until is how many hours before the appointment a customer can still cancel without consequence. A cancellation after this is a late cancellation.
The last choice in that list is No free cancellation. Pick it if your deposits are non-refundable: any cancellation by a customer is then a late cancellation, however far ahead they cancel. A deposit is kept, a card on file can be charged your late cancellation fee, and customers read that the deposit is non-refundable before they pay. Rescheduling still follows your reschedule window, and the deposit moves with the booking. A cancellation you make yourself still gives the deposit back. Picking a number of hours again brings your window back.
The two can be the same, which is the usual choice. They can also differ. Some businesses would rather a customer move a visit than drop it, so they allow rescheduling closer in than cancelling.
After the free cancellation window closes
Choose what a customer can do once the window has passed. With No free cancellation this question reads When a customer wants to cancel, and the second choice is Customers can cancel online.
- Customers need to contact you. Their Manage booking page says the booking can no longer be changed online and asks them to get in touch, with your phone number if you've added one. You cancel the booking. This is the default.
- Customers can still cancel online. Before they confirm, they're told it counts as a late cancellation.
A late cancellation counts in your No-shows & protection report, and when a customer cancels online, the email you get says it's a late cancellation. On the customer's profile the booking shows as Cancelled. If you take a deposit, the deposit is kept automatically. With a card on file, nothing is charged automatically: you can charge the missed-visit fee from the booking, always your decision. If you take payment in person, nothing is charged.
What customers will read
The bottom of the card shows the exact text customers see on your terms page and in the booking terms at checkout. Checkout and the confirmation email show the first line, with a link to the full terms. Change a setting and the words change with it.
Your house rules (lateness, children, parking) are on the same card and appear underneath the policy. If you need customers to explicitly agree, switch on Ask customers to tick agreement before booking: they must tick "I have read and agree" before confirming, and the booking's details then show they agreed to your booking terms.
Every booking keeps its own policy
When a customer books, the policy at that moment is saved with the booking. If you change your settings later, bookings already made keep the deadlines their customers agreed to. The new policy applies to new bookings.
Fees
Fees are the paid half of the policy, and they live on the same card. With a card on file, the Fees section sets what can be charged, as percentages of the booking or as fixed amounts (your choice, one unit for the whole schedule):
- a late cancellation percentage for a cancel inside your free window, with up to two deeper tiers for shorter notice (for example 25% with less than 24 hours' notice, 50% with less than 12, 100% with less than 6). With No free cancellation, the first row reads Cancel at any time and the tiers can start from 72 hours;
- a separate no-show percentage.
The presets fill these in too (Standard is 50% for a late cancel and 100% for a no-show). Customers see the schedule, in dollars for their booking, before they confirm. When you record a no-show or a late cancellation, the dialog suggests the tier the notice landed in; you can charge that, less, or nothing, and never more than the maximum they agreed to.
Until a card on file backs your policy, the Fees section tells you what's needed, with a link to Payments: set up card payments, then choose Card on file as your Booking payment mode. If you take deposits instead, the Fees section says you keep the deposit for a late cancellation or a no-show. See set up deposits and the card on file missed-visit fee.
A service that should be different
Most services should simply follow your policy. For the ones that shouldn't, open the service in Services and find Deposit and fees:
- Follow policy is where every service starts.
- None asks for no deposit and no card for this service, even when your policy takes one. Use it for consultations and cheap extras where asking for a card would lose the booking.
- Custom lets this service be secured its own way, whatever your business-wide setting: by a deposit (a percent of its price, a fixed amount, or the whole price) or by a card on file (its own fee amounts against your policy's notice tiers). A card-on-file business can ask a deposit on the one service it buys product for; a deposit business can hold a card for a service instead.
A booking with several services adds them up: deposits add to what's due now, card-secured services add to one fee schedule, and a booking that mixes both takes the deposit and keeps the same card on file. The customer sees one amount due now and one schedule in dollars before they confirm. The policy card lists which services have their own rules.
A worked example
A studio wants: free up to 24 hours; 25% with 12 to 24 hours' notice; 50% with 6 to 12 hours; the full price with less than 6 hours or a no-show. On the card that is:
- Customers can cancel free until: 24 hours before
- Cancel with less than 24 hours' notice: 25%
- Less than 12 hours' notice: 50%
- Less than 6 hours' notice: 100%
- No-show: 100%
A customer who cancels 18 hours out lands in the 25% row; 9 hours out, the 50% row; 3 hours out, 100%. Notice is measured from the moment they cancel to the appointment start.
Caveats and tips
- Boundaries. "Less than 12 hours" means exactly that: 11 hours 59 minutes is the 50% row, 12 hours on the dot is still the 25% row.
- Rescheduling closer in than cancelling. Letting people move a visit at 4 hours' notice while cancelling closes at 24 is fine, and often kinder. A move made outside the free cancellation window keeps the late status: the new time can't be cancelled free, and a later cancellation is priced on the notice they gave when they moved. Customers are warned before they move. If a customer phones and you move it for them outside the window, the move dialog asks who's moving it; "The customer asked to move it" keeps the same late status, "We're moving it" doesn't. The first late move is the one that counts: once a booking is marked as moved late, later moves don't ask again (the booking shows "moved outside the free cancellation window"), and a cancellation is priced on the notice given at that first move. The customer's "new time confirmed" email says so at the time, including what it means for their deposit or card.
- No free cancellation and moves. With no free window, a move is never a late move: customers aren't warned when they reschedule, and the move dialog doesn't ask who's moving it. Any cancellation is already a late cancellation, so there's nothing to get around.
- Online or by phone, the money is the same. "Customers can still cancel online" lets them record a late cancellation themselves (they're told it counts as late first) and the charge decision lands on your dashboard; "need to contact you" means they phone and you record it. Pick whichever suits how you work.
- You decide every charge. The dialog suggests the row the notice landed in; you can charge it, charge less, or waive it. You can never charge more than the most the customer agreed to when they booked.
- Deposits are simpler. If you take a deposit rather than a card on file, a late cancel or no-show keeps the deposit and that's the whole fee; the tiers apply to card on file.
- Start gentle. A policy you enforce calmly every time beats a strict one you feel bad about. Standard (24 hours, 50% late, 100% no-show) is where most businesses land.
Do I need payments set up to have a policy?
No. The windows work on their own: once they close, a customer can't move the booking online, every email states the window, and late cancellations are recorded. Payments add the money side.
A customer called to cancel after the window. What do I do?
Cancel the booking from your dashboard. The cancel dialog asks who's cancelling, because the answer decides the money: a customer's late cancel keeps the deposit and offers the fee; a cancellation you make never charges anything.
Can I make deposits non-refundable?
Yes. Set Customers can cancel free until to No free cancellation. When a customer cancels, online or by phone, the deposit is kept and their cancellation email says so. It applies to bookings made after you save it: bookings already made keep the policy their customers agreed to. You can still refund a kept deposit from the booking if you choose to.
Why can't I type any number of hours?
The options (1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours, or No free cancellation) are the ones customers recognise from other businesses. A window like "19 hours" reads as arbitrary; one of these reads as a rule.