Cancel a booking and refund the client

Goal

Cancel a booking that will not go ahead, see what your cancellation policy says the client is owed, and return the money by the right route.

Prerequisites

• Your role can edit bookings. Issuing a refund also needs the right to edit payments, which owners and admins have by default.
• The booking is not completed or already canceled.
• For a refund, the booking has a recorded payment. A refund to a card works only for a payment taken through Stripe.
• You have a cancellation reason. The dialog will not let you cancel without one.

Steps

1. Open the booking from Bookings, select More booking actions, then choose Cancel Booking.
2. In Cancel this booking?, check the confirmation code, date and route.
3. Read the Refund Policy box. It shows the refund your policy allows, for example "50% refund eligible", and Paid so far.
4. Type the Cancellation reason (optional). The label says optional, but the Cancel Booking button stays disabled until the box has text.
5. If the client should get money back and you hold the payments right, tick Issue refund and check the Refund amount. It cannot be above what the policy allows. This refunds to the client's card, so it works only when the booking has a Stripe card payment.
6. Read the note above the reason. Confirming tells the awarded partners and the assigned drivers that the job is canceled, and it includes your reason. The client also receives a cancellation email when the booking has a client email address.
7. Select Cancel Booking. A Booking Canceled message confirms it.
8. To refund later, or when the payment was not taken through Stripe, open the Commercial tab, open Refunds, and select Issue Refund. Choose a Refund Method, add a reason, and select Issue Refund again.

Expected result

The booking shows as canceled and stays in your records. A card refund goes back to the client's card through Stripe. A manual refund is recorded on the booking, and you return the money yourself outside 4fleet.

Troubleshooting

• If there is no Issue refund option, you cannot edit payments, the booking has no price, or the policy allows no refund.
• If the box says the cancellation policy could not be loaded, refunds are unavailable until it loads. Reload the dialog.
• If you ticked Issue refund but the client did not pay through Stripe, the booking is still canceled and no refund is sent. The dialog does not warn you, but a notification titled "Refund not issued" is raised. Use Issue Refund on the Commercial tab and choose Record manual refund.
• Refund to card (Stripe) needs a Stripe payment on the booking. Without one, the dialog tells you to choose Record manual refund, which only logs a refund made outside Stripe.
• If a refund fails and the message says retrying is safe, try the same refund again. It will not be paid twice.
• If an invoice was already issued, a credit note may also be needed. Check the invoice from the Commercial tab.
• If the dialog warns that the booking still bills jobs on another booking, canceling it does not void its invoice, because those jobs are still owed.