You probably don't want patients cancelling their appointments right before they're supposed to arrive! While you can give your patients the ability to cancel their own appointments, you can also set up some restrictions around how far in advance they can cancel.
Some quick notes on cancellations and payments:
If a patient has paid in full for their online booking in advance, they cannot cancel their own appointment using the cancellation link.
If they have paid a deposit (not the full amount), they will still be able to cancel online.
If a deposit has been made and then the patient has paid the remainder before the appointment (i.e. over the phone), the cancellation link won't work.
Essentially, if there is a fully paid invoice before the appointment occurs (and the invoice is marked as closed in Cliniko), the online cancellation link won't work. You will need to manually cancel the appointment.
Specify the minimum notice for cancellations
Head to Settings, and then General settings:
Scroll down to the "Cancellations" section. Select a time from the menu under Minimum notice for cancellations:
You'll see that there are quite a few times to choose from. Depending on what you choose, it will "lock" the patient from being able to cancel if they try to cancel after the time you've selected.
For example, if you have "No restriction", then it means a patient can cancel their appointment at any time—even one minute before it's supposed to start!
But, if you have 1 day, it means that they can cancel 24 hours prior to the appointment, and not the day of—so if it's 11am right now, a patient will not be able to cancel their 10am appointment tomorrow.
Below is an example of what a patient would experience if they cancelled their appointment before the restriction comes into play:
And then, when cancelled:
However, if the patient tries to cancel and the acceptable "minimum notice" time has passed, they would see this:
Having a restriction in place should (hopefully!) help you avoid last-minute cancellations.
Want to learn more about setting up online bookings and the different ways you can customise your settings? Head over here!