Refunds and the refund ladder

Refunds in JustBook are built around the deposit. When a customer cancels, how much of their deposit they get back is decided by a refund ladder you set: the more notice they give, the higher their refund. You can also issue a manual refund on any paid appointment from the admin side.

The refund ladder lives in Settings → Booking Settings → Cancellation Policy. It only applies when you require a deposit.

How the refund ladder works

A ladder is a list of rules. Each rule says: cancel at least this many hours before the appointment, and get back this percentage of the deposit. When a customer cancels, JustBook finds the highest tier they qualify for and refunds that percentage of the deposit. Cancel with less notice than your lowest rule and the customer gets nothing back.

Refunds are always a percentage of the deposit, never the full booking total.

Example

With these rules:

• Cancel 48 hours or more before → refund 100%
• Cancel 24–48 hours before → refund 50%
• Cancel less than 24 hours before → no refund

A customer with a AED 40 deposit who cancels three days ahead gets the full AED 40 back. Cancelling the day before gets them AED 20. Cancelling that morning gets them nothing.

Set up your refund ladder

1. Open Settings → Booking Settings.
2. Make sure Require deposit for bookings is on in the Deposit card — the refund rules are disabled without a deposit.
3. In the Cancellation Policy card, select Add Rule.
4. For each rule, set:
   • The minimum hours before the appointment the cancellation must happen.
   • The percentage of the deposit to refund at that tier (0–100%).
5. Add as many tiers as you need. As you build them, a plain-English preview shows exactly how the ladder reads to a customer.
6. Optionally add a Policy Description — free text shown to customers during booking so they know your terms up front.
7. Select Save Settings.

Each rule must use a different hours before value, and refund percentages must be between 0 and 100.

Restore a package session on cancellation

If an appointment was paid with a package, you can return that session to the customer when they cancel. Turn on Restore package session on cancellation in the Cancellation Policy card.

The session is only returned when the cancellation still earns a refund under your ladder — if the customer cancels in a 0% tier, the session is forfeited along with the deposit.

How a customer cancellation runs

When a customer cancels their own appointment from their bookings page:

1. JustBook applies your refund ladder to the notice they gave and shows them the refund they’ll receive before they confirm.
2. On confirmation, the refund goes back to their card through Stripe.
3. Any loyalty points they redeemed on the appointment are returned, and — if enabled — a package session is restored.

The customer sees the refund percentage and amount on their cancellation confirmation. If they cancelled with too little notice to earn a refund, they’re told no refund applies per the policy.

Overriding the policy for one appointment

When a team member cancels an appointment or marks a no-show from the admin side, the ladder (or your no-show keep percentage) is applied automatically. A team member with the Refund Overrides permission (or a one-time override code) can instead set custom amounts for that one appointment — refund more or less, or keep a different share. A reason is always required and is recorded on the appointment, so every deviation from your policy leaves a trail.

Issue a manual refund from an appointment

You can refund a paid appointment directly, regardless of the ladder — useful for goodwill, a mistake, or a cancellation you handled in person.

1. Open the appointment.
2. Select Refund.
3. Choose what to refund:
   • By default, the full refundable amount is selected (deposit, balance, and tip where they were paid by card).
   • Turn on Custom / partial amount to refund a specific figure up to the maximum shown.
   • If a tip was paid, use Include tip to decide whether it’s refunded.
   • If a package was used, use Restore package use to return the session to the customer.
4. Optionally add a Reason.
5. Select Confirm Refund.

Any loyalty points the customer redeemed are returned at the same percentage as the cash refund — a 50% refund window returns half the points, a full refund returns them all, a no-refund cancellation returns none. Points are treated like any other tender. You’ll see the points count confirmed after the refund.

How refunds are calculated and paid

• Refunds read the amount that was actually charged. JustBook refunds against the real payment on the record — it does not re-run your pricing or policy to recompute the figure. This is why a manual refund can’t exceed what was collected, and why a customer’s refund reflects what they truly paid, including any loyalty discount that was already applied.
• Card refunds go through Stripe to the customer’s original payment method. Stripe typically takes 5–7 business days to return the money to the customer’s account.
• Refunds only apply to money that was actually collected. A booking abandoned before payment, or a deposit that was never charged, has nothing to refund.

Related

• Take deposits for bookings — the deposit is what the refund ladder acts on.
• Connect Stripe to take payments — card refunds require a connected Stripe account.