Intro to Penalty & Booking Debt Overdue fees - V2

Summary

This guide explains the different types of penalties that can be applied to customers due to missed payments or booking issues. Penalties may involve fees or facility access restrictions. There are three main types of penalties:

1. No-Show Penalties
   • Applied when a customer misses free class bookings, for example classes included in their membership, and reaches your No-Show Penalty Limit. A missed class stops someone else attending.
2. Late Cancellation Penalties
   • Charged when a customer cancels a class booking (included in their membership) after the cut-off period, which blocks others from joining the class due to the waitlist cutoff configured on the Activity Schedule.
3. Booking Debt Overdue
   • Applied when a customer fails to pay for a block booking by the specified deadline. The fee is automatically added to their penalties.

Note: The cancellation cut-off setting will dictate what happens when a late cancellation fee is applied to a customer account (e.g., Charge fee, Disable booking, etc), whilst the No-show penalty type setting will dictate what happens when a customer doesn't attend a booked (not cancelled) activity.

Viewing Penalties

You can view a customer’s penalties in the Penalties Tab within their profile. The tab shows 20 penalties per page. Penalties are categorised as follows:

• Late Cancellation
  
  
  
   
• No-Show
  
  
  
  If No-show attendance sync is turned on, each no-show penalty also lists the bookings that made it up, under No-shows that made up this penalty:.
  • View booking opens the booking.
  • View on timeline opens the booking on the Facility Calendar. It appears if the venue uses the Facility Calendar and you can open it.
  • A booking that was later marked attended shows Later marked attended, with the date and time.
  The same list appears when you click Remove on the penalty.
  
  🖼️ [Screenshot placeholder]: Penalties tab, an unpaid no-show penalty with its contributing bookings, View booking and View on timeline (Notion "No-show penalties (Activities V2)", demo 1).
  
   
• Booking Debt Overdue
  
  
  
  Click Details on a Booking Debt Overdue penalty to open the unpaid order it relates to.
   

Settling Penalties

To settle penalties, especially for Booking Debt Overdue:

1. Navigate to the Bookings Tab in the customer’s profile.
2. Go to Historic Bookings.
3. Locate unpaid bookings and click on Pay to settle the balance.
   
   

How no-show penalties are counted

No-show penalties apply to Activities V2 class bookings.

• Only free bookings count, for example classes included in a membership. Paid bookings do not create no-shows.
• Bookings and memberships set to ignore penalties do not create no-shows.
• Missed classes are recorded as no-shows overnight, for the previous day. Marking a booking unattended during the day does not create a no-show straight away.
• When a customer's no-shows reach the No-Show Penalty Limit, Flow issues one penalty in that same overnight run, using the oldest no-shows.
• Any extra no-shows are not used. They count towards the customer's next penalty.

For example, with a limit of 3, a customer with four no-shows receives one penalty for the oldest three. The fourth counts towards the next penalty, so two more missed classes are needed before another penalty is issued.

Correcting a no-show: No-show attendance sync

If a customer disputes a no-show and you agree they attended, you can mark the booking as attended. What happens next depends on the No-show attendance sync setting.

• It is a global class booking setting that only OpenPlay can change, and it is off by default. OpenPlay is turning it on for clients as it is rolled out. Contact OpenPlay Support if you would like it turned on.
• It applies to Activities V2 bookings only. Marking an Activities V1 booking attended does not change its no-shows or penalties.

When the setting is off

• Marking a booking attended does not change the customer's no-shows or penalties.
• To clear an unpaid penalty, click Remove on the Penalties tab and choose a reason.

When the setting is on

If the bookings that go back to counting reach the limit again, Flow issues a new penalty straight away.

If you later mark the booking unattended again, it counts as a no-show again after the next overnight run.

Penalties issued before this change (September 2026) are not linked to their bookings. Marking one of those bookings attended does not cancel the penalty, so remove it from the Penalties tab with the reason Customer attended.

🖼️ [Screenshot placeholder]: Penalties tab, a cancelled penalty with the reason Customer attended, one booking marked Later marked attended and the note that the other no-shows still count (Notion "No-show penalties (Activities V2)", demo 5).

Setting Up and Applying Penalties

To enable and apply penalties, you need to configure settings in two modules: System Configuration and Pricing Options.

1. System Configuration

Access System Configuration

1. From the home page, go to the System Configuration module.
   
   
    
2. Navigate to Settings, then select Manage Settings.
   
   

Enable No-Show Penalties

1. In the Class Booking Category, search for No-Show Penalty Limit.
2. Set the number of missed classes that trigger a penalty. Set it to 0 to turn no-show penalties off.
3. Search for No-Show Penalty Type, click Edit, select Charge Fee, and click Save.
   
   
   

Enable Late Cancellation Fees

1. In the Class Booking Category, search for Cancellation Cutoff Action.
2. Click Edit, select Charge Fee, and click Save.
   
   
   

Set Waiting List Cutoff Period

On the activity schedule, you can configure the Waitlist Cutoff Time.

Set Overdue Booking Debt Actions

1. In the Class Booking Category, search for Overdue Booking Debt.
2. Click Edit and select an action for unpaid block bookings:
   • Disable Access: Prevent customers from accessing facilities.
   • Disable Booking: Restrict customers from making further bookings.
     
     
     

2. Pricing Options Configuration

To enforce penalties, configure pricing options for No-Shows and Late Cancellations.

Access Pricing Options

1. From the home page, go to the Pricing Options module.
   
   
    
2. Click on Pricing Options again.
   
   

Configure Late Cancellation Fees

1. Search for cancellation_fee and click on Manage.
   
   
    
2. Navigate to the Pricing Tab to view the Global Default Price (the base fee applied across all settings).
3. To modify the global fee, click Edit.
   
   
    
4. Optionally, override prices for specific Setting Groups or Facilities.
   
   

Configure No-Show Fees

1. Search for no_show_fee and click on Manage.
   
   
    
2. In the Pricing Tab, view or edit the Global Default Price.
   
   
    
3. Similarly, customise fees for specific Setting Groups or Facilities if needed.
   
   

Customer Visibility

• Late Cancellation and No-Show Fees are visible in the customer’s online account under their profile.
  
  
   
• Booking Debt Overdue fees are not displayed in the customer’s online account but are visible internally for administrative purposes.

Troubleshooting

A customer marked unattended today has no no-show yet.
No-shows are recorded overnight. Check the Penalties tab the next day.

A customer has more no-shows than the limit but only one penalty.
That is expected. Each penalty uses exactly the limit, and the extra no-shows count towards the next penalty.

We marked a booking attended but the penalty is still there.
No-show attendance sync may be off, the penalty may have been issued before this change in September 2026, or the booking may be in Activities V1. Remove the penalty from the Penalties tab with the reason Customer attended.

The customer had already paid. Do they get a refund?
Not automatically. The Penalties tab notes that the fee was not refunded. Your team can refund the customer if you choose to.

I do not see the bookings that made up a no-show penalty.
They are only shown when No-show attendance sync is turned on, and only for penalties issued since this change in September 2026.

Completion

You have now successfully configured and managed customer penalties. These settings will ensure penalties are applied automatically, and customers are notified when required.