---
title: Rescheduling, cancelling and no-shows
slug: rescheduling-cancelling-and-no-shows
category: Appointments & Scheduling
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/rescheduling-cancelling-and-no-shows
audiences: business_owner, manager, staff
updated: 2026-09-09
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Rescheduling, cancelling and no-shows
Sidebar: **Calendar** or **Appointments**. Both open the same appointment; the calendar is faster for moving one, the list is faster for finding one.

## Rescheduling

Drag the appointment to its new slot on the calendar, or open it and edit the date and time.

Two things to know:

- **Reminders already sent are not sent again.** Alaga records each reminder once per appointment, so moving a booking after its 24-hour reminder has gone out does not trigger a replacement. Tell the client yourself.
- **Moving is not cancel-and-rebook.** The appointment keeps its history, its notes and its place in any recurring series. Cancelling and creating a new one loses that, so drag rather than recreate.

## Cancelling

Open the appointment and cancel it. The slot is freed immediately and the booking stays on the record with a cancelled status — it is not deleted, so your reports still show it happened.

Whether the client is told depends on your notification settings under **Business Settings → Notifications**. If cancellation emails are off, cancelling is silent and you need to contact them.

## Late-cancellation fees

Set these under **Business Settings → Payment Settings → Booking Policies**. You choose:

- Whether fees are on at all
- A **cancellation window** in hours — cancellations inside this window are late
- The fee: a flat amount, a percentage of the booking, or the daily rate

The window is the number of hours before the appointment starts. A 24-hour window means a 9:00 am Tuesday appointment becomes chargeable from 9:00 am Monday.

Charging the fee is a decision you make, not something Alaga does to your clients automatically. Set the policy, then apply it when you judge it appropriate.

## No-shows

Mark a no-show from the appointment itself. **Alaga does not detect no-shows for you** — nothing is marked automatically, so an appointment nobody attended sits as confirmed until someone changes it.

That matters more than it sounds:

- Your no-show numbers in reporting are only as good as your habit of marking them.
- An appointment left as confirmed still looks like completed business in the day's view.

Get into the habit of clearing the day at closing: complete what happened, no-show what did not.

## What each status means

| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Pending | Booked but not yet confirmed |
| Confirmed | Going ahead |
| In progress | The pet is with you now |
| Completed | Done — this is what feeds revenue |
| Cancelled | Called off, by either side |
| No-show | The client did not arrive and did not tell you |

Only **completed** appointments count as delivered work. If your revenue looks low, the usual cause is a day that was never completed rather than anything wrong with the figures.

## Recurring appointments

Cancelling one appointment in a series affects only that one. To change or end the whole series, use the recurring options on the appointment — see *Recurring and standing appointments*.