Booking reservation fees, payments and refunds

This article explains how money moves through AesthetiClinic: the booking reservation fee 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.

The fee at booking

With the reservation-fee booking policy, a booking reservation fee secures the slot. Your clinic can instead take full payment or let the patient choose. With A fixed amount, the amount is the treatment's own fee where you have set one, otherwise your clinic default (see Payment at booking). A treatment whose fee is set to 0 has no booking reservation fee; full payment and any separate platform booking fee can still apply. For several treatments in one visit, the fixed fee is the highest effective fee, rather than the sum. With A percentage of the treatments booked, the fee uses the visit prices and your minimum instead; positive per-treatment fee amounts are ignored, while treatments set to 0 are excluded from the reservation-fee calculation. Any remaining balance is settled in clinic at the appointment.

What happens when an appointment is cancelled

Cancelling never moves money by itself. The slot is freed and the diary updates, but the fee stays in your Stripe balance until you refund it.

• When a patient cancels in good time. By default, a patient who cancels with at least three days' notice earns their fee back. For a patient self-cancellation, we send a notice to your clinic's contact email (set in Settings, Clinic), or active owners if no contact email is set, and the Finance page shows a list headed booking reservation fees to return. Refund each one from your Stripe dashboard and it drops off the list once the recorded refunds cover the amount due back.
• Changing that rule. Go to Settings, Clinic, Online booking policy. Change Notice needed to earn it back (days), or untick Return the booking reservation fee when a patient cancels in good time, then press Save booking policy.
• When you cancel for the patient, it is your call whether to refund. Refund it in Stripe if you want to return it.

When a patient does not attend, or cancels later than your notice allows, the fee is kept. Nothing further is ever charged to the patient's card.

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. The patient's Billing tab has a Financial history card combining payments and refunds recorded in AesthetiClinic with imported entries, newest first. Choose All, AesthetiClinic or Previous system to narrow the list. Beneath Previous system, Ledger and Receipts filter the imported entries. See A patient's financial history for the full guide. 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.

Taking the balance in clinic

Open the visit and choose Check out under Payment. Check the amount actually taken before pressing Take. A smaller payment leaves the rest owing unless you record a discount. If checkout offers the shortfall choice, select a discount with its reason, or leave the balance owing. Payments with products and account credit do not offer that discount choice. Any invoice linked to the visit, including a draft, prevents a checkout discount. Leave the balance owing, then correct the invoice.

The confirmation tells you what was recorded. Where a remaining balance or checkout discount is shown, check it before closing the visit. If a warning says the payment is recorded, do not take or record it again. Reload and check the balance first.

Issuing a refund

Refund card payments 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. An early card refund may appear as a reversal, removing the original charge from their statement, so they may see nothing at all rather than a charge followed by a refund. Card refunds commonly take 5 to 10 working days to appear back on the card.

Receipts and payment notifications

Every payment gets your clinic's own numbered receipt under Finance, Receipts. For online booking payments, Stripe may also email the patient its own card receipt. This depends on the payment flow, an available email address and Stripe's receipt settings. Stripe's "you received a payment" notification to you is controlled by your personal notification preferences in your Stripe dashboard.