Refund a customer

Send back all of it, half of it, or an amount you choose.

A customer cancels late, a travel jab turns out not to be needed, or you charged for three people and only two turned up. Booked can send the money back from two different screens, and which one you start from decides how much control you get.

Two places you can refund from

Both routes send real money back to the card the customer paid with. The difference is the amount you are allowed to choose, and which screen updates afterwards.

Refunds only exist for money taken by card through Booked Payments. If a booking was marked Paid (cash / in person) at the counter there is no charge to reverse, so Booked offers Mark as unpaid instead and you hand the cash back yourself.

Refund the whole payment from the booking

This is the route to use when the appointment is off and the customer is getting everything back. Open Bookings, click the row, and look for the Payment section. It only appears when there is money attached — a plain unpaid booking has no Payment section at all.

1. Check the Method row"Booked Payments — card" means there is a real charge to reverse. "Recorded manually" means it was cash or a card machine, and you will see Mark as unpaid rather than a refund button.
2. Check Amount paidThis is what was actually taken, which may be a deposit rather than the full price. That is the figure that goes back.
3. Press Refund paymentBooked asks "Refund this payment to the customer? The amount, and your processing fee, are returned to them. This can't be undone." The button reads "Refunding…" while it works.
4. Confirm it landedThe section then reads "This payment has been refunded to the customer.", the status pill turns to Refunded, and "Payment refunded." is added to the activity log.

• 1Price is fenced in — once money has been taken you cannot price the booking below the amount paid. Saving anyway fails with "The price can't be less than the £45.00 already paid. Refund the payment first if you need to lower it."
• 2Status, Amount paid and Method — the three facts worth reading before you refund. Amount paid can be smaller than the price if the customer only paid a deposit.
• 3Refund payment — always sends back everything that was taken. There is no amount box here; for part of the money, use the money screen below.

Refund part of a payment

Go to Settings Payments and find the payment under Your money › Transactions. The appointment reference in each row is a link — clicking it opens that booking.

• 1Search — filters as you type across the reference, the customer's name and email, the last four card digits and the amount. You will need it: this table holds only the twelve most recent card payments, with no date range, status filter or export.
• 2Refund — opens the refund dialog. It only appears on a payment that succeeded, is not already fully refunded, and is not under dispute.
• 3Part refunded — some of the money has gone back. The Amount column keeps showing the original charge with the refunded portion in brackets, so you can always see what is left.
• 4Appeal — replaces Refund while the customer's bank is disputing the charge. It scrolls the page down to Chargebacks & disputes; you then press Respond on the case itself. It does not open the response form directly.

Pressing Refund opens the Refund payment dialog.

• 1Available to refund — the ceiling for this refund. On a payment that has already been part-refunded this figure is the remainder, not the original charge.
• 2Full / Half / Custom — Half is half of what is still refundable, rounded to the nearest penny. Refund half of £45.00 twice and the second refund is £11.25, not £22.50.
• 3Custom amount — anything from £0.01 up to the remaining balance. Go over and you get "Enter an amount between £0.01 and £45.00." and nothing is sent.
• 4The confirmation button carries the amount — it reads Refund £15.00, so read it before you click. If something goes wrong you will see "The refund couldn't be completed."

You can come back and refund again as many times as you like until the whole charge has gone. Once nothing is left the row reads Refunded and the button disappears.

What a refund does to the booking record

A refund taken from Settings › Payments runs against the payment, not the appointment. The booking will carry on saying Paid in full until the two are matched up again. Open Bookings and press Sync payments to pull the new state through — it also runs quietly on its own every time you open that screen.

Two things to expect after syncing:

• A full refund flips the booking to Refunded and sets the amount paid to zero.
• A partial refund never does. The appointment keeps showing Paid for the original amount, so the booking and the money screen will disagree on purpose. If that matters to your team, add a staff note on the booking saying what was sent back and why.

A refund also leaves the appointment's own status alone. A refunded booking stays Confirmed and carries on holding its slot in the diary — if the customer is not coming, set the status to Cancelled and save, which frees the time and sends the cancellation email.

What it does to your balance

The money comes off your Booked Payments balance the moment you confirm. Your processing fee for that payment goes back to the customer as well — it is returned to them, not to you, which is the part most people read the wrong way round the first time.

How quickly the customer sees it is out of your hands: the card network and their bank decide when it lands on the statement, and that is usually a few working days rather than instant.

If refunds take your balance below zero, Settings › Payments relabels Available to pay out as Balance to recover, shows the figure in red and hides the Pay out now button. Nothing is broken and there is nothing to pay back by hand — your next takings clear the shortfall and payouts start again on their own.

When Booked will not let you refund

The price guardrail catches people out in the calendar too: in Quick edit, switching a paid appointment to a cheaper service fails with a red banner for the same reason. Refund the payment, then change the service and re-charge if you need to.