If a client has paid a prepayment when confirming a booking and later decides to cancel, what happens next depends on the prepayment and cancellation terms you’ve set.

If the Client Cancels Within the Allowed Window

If the client cancels their booking
• within the time frame set out in your terms
• and the prepayment is refundable in that case

then you can refund the prepayment to the client yourself.

It’s important to know that SalonLife doesn’t have a separate, automatic "refund" button.

The reason is simple: every payment a client makes is sent by Stripe, our payment processing partner, straight to the salon’s business bank account right after the card payment goes through. That’s why refunding a client is done manually, outside the system.

How Do You Refund a Prepayment to a Client?

Here are the steps for refunding a prepayment:

• ask the client for their bank account number
• log in to your business’s online banking
• transfer the prepayment amount to the client
• then, on the client’s booking in SalonLife, tick the ''Refund'' button to mark that you’ve manually refunded the prepaid amount to the client. That way, all the figures on the Statistics & Reports page will be correct too.

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TIP!
Where possible, we recommend including the booking date or the client’s name in the reference field of the manual transfer, so it’s easier to identify later.

If the Client Cancels at the Very Last Minute or Doesn’t Show Up

If your prepayment and cancellation terms state that:

• the prepayment isn’t refunded for a too-late cancellation
• or the prepayment serves as compensation for the salon

then you’re entitled to keep the prepayment.

In that case:
• no separate refund is made
• it’s important that the terms are visible and clear to the client before they pay

Make sure your prepayment and cancellation terms are consistent with each other, and keep the wording simple and unambiguous. Process refunds within a reasonable time whenever you can — it helps maintain a good relationship with the client.