Deposits & no-show protection in Square Appointments

Turn on deposits

1. In Square Dashboard open the Appointments settings for payments and cancellations.
2. Choose Require full prepayment: clients prepay fixed-price services to book.
3. Note: clients can’t cancel prepaid appointments themselves; you handle enforcement and refunds (Square).

Card on file instead (no upfront payment)

1. Choose Hold card in case of no-show: clients must add a card to book.
2. Pick the fee type: flat fee per appointment, per service, or a percentage of each service price.
3. Set your cancellation window and policy text.
4. The held card is for that one appointment only and isn’t saved for future charges unless the client ticks Save Card (Square).

Charging a no-show

You can charge the cancellation fee up to 14 days after the appointment (Square).

Paste this as your policy

[Salon name] booking & cancellation policy • A deposit of [X% / $X] is required to book any service. It comes off your total on the day. • Need to move or cancel? Give us at least [48] hours’ notice and your deposit carries over or is refunded. • Cancelling with less than [48] hours’ notice: your deposit is kept. • No-show: your deposit is kept, and future bookings must be prepaid in full. • Running more than [15] minutes late may mean a shorter service or rebooking. • By booking you agree to this policy. Questions? Text us at [number].

Sources: Manage booking cancellations and prepayment policies · Appointments pricing

Templates, not legal advice. Fee levels are examples; pick your own and check local consumer and card-network rules. Platform steps were checked against each vendor’s help pages on 2026-10-16, not run in a live account; menus change.