Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

Yosh3 — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 13:42:52 GMT

Hello,

I use Square Appointments to manage bookings and require clients to provide a credit card on file for no-show and late cancellation protection.

Here’s my challenge:

When clients book online themselves, the system enforces the “card on file required” rule, so they must add a card to confirm.
However, when I manually create appointments and communicate with clients via email or text message, Square does NOT automatically require clients to add a card, nor does it prompt them to do so.
I’ve learned that I can manually send clients a “Add Card on File” request or send invoices/deposits, but clients can remove their card at any time, leaving me without guaranteed protection.
Unlike online self-booking, there seems to be no automatic enforcement or system flow that forces card collection for manually booked appointments.

My questions for the community and Square staff:

Is there any way to automate or require credit card collection for appointments that I create manually on behalf of clients, with the same protections as when clients book online themselves?
Are there best practices or recommended workflows to protect my business from no-shows when booking and confirming via email or text?
Would it be possible for Square to add a feature where manual bookings trigger an automated card collection prompt to clients?

I want to provide a smooth client experience while safeguarding my business, and I’d love to hear how others handle this or if Square plans to improve this workflow.

Thank you!

Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

Sammie_C — Thu, 29 May 2025 23:00:24 GMT

Hi @Yosh3, welcome to the Square Community! Thank you for reaching out with your questions.

To make sure that I get you the best answers, I went ahead and escalated your questions over to our Appointments team to review them. As soon as I hear back from them, I will reach out here promptly!

Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

Sammie_C — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 21:14:26 GMT

I wanted to check back in, @Yosh3. Our Appointments team had a few clarifying questions on this.

Are you using the web or mobile versions? If you are using web, we do have a toggle to enable no-show protection on the Appointment Edit Screen version.
By "manual bookings," do you mean bookings that you have created?

thread Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) &amp; No-Show Protection in Appointments & Bookings

Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection

thread Re: Manual Booking (by Email or Text) & No-Show Protection in Appointments & Bookings