Deposits, payments and refunds

This article explains how money moves through AesthetiClinic: the deposit taken when a patient books, where your payments are recorded, what happens if an appointment is cancelled, and how to refund when you need to. Card payments run through your own Stripe account, so Stripe is always the final word on payouts and refunds.

Deposits at booking

When a patient books online, the system takes a deposit to secure the slot. The amount is the treatment's own deposit where you have set one, otherwise your clinic default. The balance is settled in clinic at the appointment, the same as a walk-in.

What happens when an appointment is cancelled

Cancelling an appointment does not automatically refund the deposit. The system frees the slot and updates the calendar, but the deposit stays in your Stripe balance. If you would like to return it, refund it yourself in Stripe (see "Issuing a refund" below) and the app updates its own records automatically. Marking a patient as a no-show, or ticking the late-cancellation fee when you cancel, does the opposite: it charges the card on file rather than refunding it.

Where your payments live

The Finance page lists every payment the system has taken, so you can see what came in and reconcile against your bank. For payouts, receipts and refunds, your own Stripe dashboard is the source of truth: you own your Stripe account, and that is where the money actually settles.

Issuing a refund

Refund from your Stripe dashboard, not from within AesthetiClinic. In Stripe, open Payments, choose the payment, and select Refund. The system then reflects the refund automatically, including reversing any loyalty points that the original payment earned, so your records and Stripe stay in step without any extra work.

How refunds show on the patient's statement

There is one quirk worth knowing so you can reassure patients. Refunding a card payment before it settles removes the pending charge from their statement entirely, so they may see nothing at all rather than a charge followed by a refund. Refunds of payments that have already settled take 5 to 10 working days to appear back on the card.

Receipts and payment notifications

Stripe, not AesthetiClinic, controls the emails around payments: the receipt sent to the patient, and the "you received a payment" notification sent to you. Both are switched on in your Stripe dashboard settings, under Customer emails for patient receipts and your personal notification preferences for your own alerts. If a patient says they did not get a receipt, that is the place to check.