No-Show Fee, Late Cancel Fee, and Time of Booking Charges Logic

When you enable billing on an appointment type with Akute Pay, you can add optional no-show and late cancel fees. How these fees work depends on when you charge patients. This guide explains the logic behind each scenario to help you set up fees that match your practice's policies.

When you set up billing for an appointment type, you choose when to charge patients:

• Time of booking: Patient is charged as soon as they book
• Time of appointment: Patient is charged when the appointment is marked Ready or Arrived in Akute
• When marked complete: Patient is charged after the appointment is marked Complete in Akute

You can also add:

• No-show fee: Charged when the appointment is marked No-Show
• Late cancel fee: Charged when the appointment is canceled late (it is up to each practice to define what constitutes a "late cancel" and communicate this with patients)

Recommended Setup by Charge Timing

Charge at Time of Booking

Recommendation: Do not add no-show or late cancel fees, unless your practice's policy is to charge a no-show fee on top of an appointment fee should the patient no-show.

Why: The patient has already paid upfront. Adding penalty fees on top can create confusion and may require manual refunds.

Example:

• Appointment fee: $100 (charged at booking)
• No-show fee: $20
• Patient no-shows → Charged $100 + $20 = $120 total

Since the patient already paid the $100 appointment fee, you'll need to decide whether to refund the original appointment fee, keep both charges, or manually refund based on your practice's policy.

Charge at Time of Appointment

Recommendation: You can add no-show or late cancel fees, but be mindful of not accidentally marking a patient as Ready/Arrived.

Why: The appointment fee is charged when the appointment is marked Ready or Arrived. If a patient no-shows, you won't mark them Ready or Arrived, so the appointment fee won't trigger. However, the no-show fee will still be charged.

Example:

• Appointment fee: $100 (charged at time of appointment)
• No-show fee: $20
• Patient no-shows → You don't mark them Ready or Arrived, so they're only charged the $20 no-show fee

Charge When Marked Complete

Recommendation: This is the cleanest option for using no-show and late cancel fees.

Why: The appointment fee is only charged after the appointment is marked Complete. If a patient no-shows or cancels late, they're charged the penalty fee instead of the appointment fee. This setup avoids double-charging and keeps billing logic straightforward.

Example:

• Appointment fee: $100 (charged when marked Complete)
• No-show fee: $20
• Late cancel fee: $15
• Patient completes appointment → Charged $100
• Patient no-shows → Charged $20
• Patient cancels late → Charged $15

Recommendation Summary