Refunds and reschedules

Learn how to refund a booking, issue a part-refund, or move it to another date, so you can sort out a customer in seconds and keep your revenue figures honest.

Every refund in Session goes back to the customer's card through Stripe, and the booking keeps a clean record of what was taken and what came back. You can refund the whole amount, a partial amount, or nothing at all - useful for goodwill gestures and no-show penalties alike. For the policy that decides what customers can do themselves, see cancellation and reschedule policy.

How refunds are recorded

Session keeps two figures on every booking so your reports stay accurate:

• Amount paid is the gross amount captured. It never goes down, even after a refund.
• Refund amount is the running total refunded. Every refund adds to it.

Your true takings are amount paid minus refund amount. Because the gross figure stays fixed, you always have a faithful record of what was originally charged, which is what your accountant and your CSV exports rely on.

Refund a booking in full

Cancelling a paid booking refunds the customer automatically.

1. 1
   Open the booking from the bookings page or the session calendar.
2. 2
   Select Cancel booking on the booking details panel.
3. 3
   Leave the refund amount at its prefilled value - the full outstanding amount.
4. 4
   Confirm. Session refunds the card through Stripe and emails the customer to confirm the cancellation.

Cancelling also reverses any voucher or bundle credit and any included-session allowance used on the booking, so the customer gets those back too.

Issue a part-refund

When you only want to give some of the money back - a partial goodwill refund, or a charge for a late cancellation - edit the refund amount in the cancel dialog.

1. 1
   Start the cancel flow as above.
2. 2
   Change the Refund amount to whatever you want to return. The default is the full amount.
3. 3
   Confirm. Session refunds exactly that amount and records it against the booking.

The amount you enter is clamped to a safe range - never more than what's still owed to the customer, and never below zero. The confirmation shows what actually moved, so on a complex booking you see the real refunded figure, not just what you typed.

Give account credit instead of a refund

Instead of returning money to the card, you can give the customer reusable account credit - a code they redeem against a future booking, like a gift voucher. The revenue stays in your business and the customer has a reason to come back.

The default is set by your cancellation policy under "When a booking is cancelled, issue". When it's set to account credit, a customer's own cancellation issues credit automatically. When you cancel from the admin side, the cancel dialog shows a card refund / account credit toggle so you can choose per booking - the amount you enter becomes the credit's value.

1. 1
   Start the cancel flow and set the method to Account credit.
2. 2
   Check the amount - it prefills from your policy's percentage of the net paid, and you can adjust it.
3. 3
   Confirm. Session mints a CR- credit code, emails it to the customer, and records no card refund.

Issuing credit doesn't touch the card charge, so the booking's amount paid and refund amount are unchanged - the value moves to outstanding credit instead. The code appears under Shop → Discounts and the customer redeems it at checkout. Any voucher, bundle or membership credit they used is still restored separately, exactly as with a card refund.

Refund some of the spaces

If a booking has several spaces and the customer only wants to drop one or two, reduce the quantity instead of cancelling the whole thing.

1. 1
   Open the booking and select Edit quantity.
2. 2
   Lower the number of spaces. The refund field prefills with the proportional share of the spaces you removed.
3. 3
   Adjust the refund down to £0 (reduce without refunding) or up to the net paid (goodwill) if you need to, then confirm.

Reducing spaces refunds proportionally to what was actually paid and reverses the matching share of any voucher or bundle credit. Adding spaces is the opposite - it charges for the new spaces at the per-space price.

Move a booking to another date

A reschedule moves the booking to a different session without taking it through a refund.

1. 1
   Open the booking and select the option to change the date.
2. 2
   Pick the new session. Only sessions with room and within booking limits are offered.
3. 3
   Confirm. Session moves the booking and emails the customer the new details.

You can always reschedule as an admin. Whether customers can reschedule themselves - and how late - is set in Settings → Booking policy. See cancellation and reschedule policy for the full set of rules, and customer self-service for what customers do on their side.

Offline and walk-in refunds

If a booking was paid offline - on your own card machine, in cash, or by bank transfer (see offline payments) - there's no Stripe charge to reverse. Session records the refund figure directly against the booking, and you action the actual refund on your terminal or in cash.

When you cancel or reduce spaces on an offline-paid booking as an admin, the refund amount is recorded straight away with no Stripe call. This keeps your reports accurate even though the money moves outside Session.

Refunds on whole-room private hire

A private hire booking prices the whole room as one unit, so there's no per-space price to refund part of. Customers can't change or cancel a private hire themselves - it stays venue-managed. You can still cancel and refund it in full from the admin side like any other booking.

Refund a membership payment

Bookings aren't the only thing you can refund. If a member was charged for a subscription payment they shouldn't have been - a duplicate charge during a switch from another system, say - you can refund that payment from their record without opening Stripe.

1. 1
   Open the customer from the Customers page and find their membership.
2. 2
   Select Refund a payment. Session lists their recent membership charges, most recent first, with how much of each is still refundable.
3. 3
   Pick the charge, set the amount (it prefills with the full refundable balance), and confirm.

The amount is capped at what's left on that payment, so you can't over-refund. Tick Also cancel this membership in the same step if you want to stop future payments too - handy when you're winding down a member who was charged in error.

Common questions

1. Will refunding remove the original payment from my reports? No. The amount paid stays fixed as the gross figure; the refund is added to a separate refund total. Your net takings are the difference, so reports stay accurate.

2. Can I refund more than the customer paid? No. The refund amount is capped at what's still owed to them, so you can never over-refund or move money outside the booking.

3. How do I charge a no-show fee? Cancel the booking and set the refund amount to £0, or to whatever you want to keep back. The space is freed and the customer is notified, but you retain the fee.

4. Does a refund cancel a membership subscription? No. Refunding a payment - whether a booking or a membership charge - only returns money; it never stops future billing on its own. To stop a recurring membership, cancel it (there's an Also cancel this membership tick-box on the membership refund, or a separate Cancel membership button on the customer's record).

5. What happens to vouchers and credits when I refund? Cancelling reverses any voucher, bundle credit, or included session used on the booking, so the customer gets the entitlement back. The cash refund and the credit reversal are handled together.

6. Can staff issue refunds? Yes. Staff can cancel an individual booking and set the refund amount, including partial and £0 refunds. See admins and staff roles for the full permission breakdown.

7. Can I give credit instead of refunding the card? Yes. Set your cancellation policy to issue account credit, or pick Account credit on the cancel dialog per booking. Session mints a reusable CR- code, emails it to the customer, and records no card refund - the revenue stays with you. See refund to card, or give account credit.