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

[Yosh3]

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:

1. 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?

2. Are there best practices or recommended workflows to protect my business from no-shows when booking and confirming via email or text?

3. 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!

[Sammie_C]

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!

[Sammie_C · Accepted solution]

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

1. 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.
2. By "manual bookings," do you mean bookings that you have created?