Handle a disruption

An instructor falls ill, a room becomes unusable, or the weather stops an outdoor class. This guide takes you from "what is affected" to "who was told what". Work through the steps in order: once a session is cancelled, its participants disappear from its list, so take stock first.

Before you start

• To change or cancel sessions and to cancel participants you need Configuration & settings at Manage in your user rights. Changing or moving a session, and cancelling one without participants, also needs Organisation: Manage or Manage on the calendar's resource.
• Changes and cancellations are possible only until a session starts. After the start you can only mark no-shows.
• go flow does not do these things for you: it never cancels a session because of the weather or low numbers (Min capacity is only a display), it has no action that moves all participants to another session, and it cannot send SMS messages to participants.

1. Find what is affected

1. In the Scheduler, show the affected resources (the avatars in the toolbar) and the days in question in the Day, Week or Agenda view.
2. Each session shows its booked places against its capacity, for example 9/12. The Agenda view lists the participants with the client details you choose under Fields, and their payment state; Print prints the current view.
3. With the Waitlist module, the Waitlisted only button shows just the sessions where clients are waiting.
4. Open each affected session and read its participant list: active bookings, held or reserved places with the time they end, waitlisted clients, and the Payment column (Paid, Unpaid, Waived). Group members are listed under the person who booked their places.
5. Keep this list, printed or written down, until every arrangement is settled. go flow has no "awaiting decision" marker.

2. Decide what happens to each session

Situation	What to do	Existing bookings	What clients see
The session runs, but no more bookings should come in	In the session dialog, under Visibility & bookability, set Bookability to Not bookable and save	Kept	The session stays listed but cannot be booked
The session should disappear from the booking site	Set Visibility to Hidden and save	Kept	Gone from the booking site's calendar; clients already booked still see their own booking
Fewer places can be offered	Lower Slot capacity and save; it cannot go below the places already taken	Kept	Fewer free places
The session moves to another time or calendar	Drag it in the Scheduler (desktop only) and confirm Update appointment?	Kept; reminders follow the new time	The new time — no notice is sent
The session cannot run	Cancel Session in the session dialog and choose the refund under Bulk refund defaults	All cancelled; paid participants refunded as you chose	Cancellation email, and a refund confirmation for each refund
Only some participants can stay	Cancel them one at a time: tick one, Cancel selected	Only that booking is cancelled	Cancellation email

These settings apply to that one session date only. Details: Session visibility & bookability, Scheduler and Cancel or refund.

Do not tick several participants to cancel some of them. With two or more ticked, Cancel selected cancels the whole session and everyone on it.

3. Tell the participants

• When you cancel, each client receives the cancellation email automatically (when the session's Cancellation email switch is on). Write the Reason for the client — what happened and what comes next — because it is printed in that email.
• When you move or change a session without cancelling, nothing is sent. Tick the participants, click Message clients and write an email (see Message clients). If you want to send more than the cancellation email, do it before you cancel: cancelled participants leave the list.
• Messages go out as email only. Clients without an email address receive nothing: add their mobile number as a column with the Columns button and call them.
• A cancellation in the dashboard does not notify a group's organiser or the resource person; tell them yourself.

4. Settle the money

• You choose the refund in the cancel dialog. When you cancel the whole session and someone has paid, the Bulk refund defaults block applies one Refund destination and one Cancellation fee % to everyone who paid; it opens on No refund. See Cancel or refund.
• To refund one participant differently from the rest, cancel them on their own first (tick one, Cancel selected), then cancel the session.
• A place booked to pay at the desk and not paid yet has nothing to refund; cancelling it voids its open order.
• For a goodwill credit, or when a session had already started, credit the client's wallet with Adjust wallet on the Wallets page.

5. Mind the waitlist

• A place freed by a cancelled participant is offered automatically to the next client on the waitlist. Not bookable and Hidden do not stop this. If the session cannot take another person, cancel the waitlisted clients first (tick one, Cancel selected); they receive the cancellation email.
• Cancelling the whole session also cancels everyone on its waitlist, and they receive the cancellation email too.

6. Set out-of-office on a resource

For a standard resource whose appointments clients book online, such as a therapist or a room, open it under Configurations > Resources and use the Out-of-office tab: set Start date and End date, switch out-of-office on, and optionally turn on Display message with a Message of up to 200 characters that clients see instead of free times. For those days the booking site offers no appointment times with that resource.

• Out-of-office does not cancel or move appointments already booked. Handle them one by one: open each appointment and set its Status (see Cancel a single appointment).
• Out-of-office does not affect sessions; for those, use steps 2 to 5.

See Resource details.

7. Outdoor classes and weather

• Decide before the start time. After it, the session can no longer be cancelled in the dashboard.
• For a rained-off class, use Cancel Session, choose the refund under Bulk refund defaults and give a Reason such as "Cancelled because of a storm warning — we have refunded your payment"; or move the class to another time and message the participants.
• The Weather module only shows clients a forecast on the booking site. It does not change or cancel sessions.
• If a class has to stop after it started, it cannot be cancelled any more. Compensate the participants with Adjust wallet and give the cause as its reason.

8. Record what was told to whom

• Emails lists every cancellation email, refund confirmation and Message clients email, with the recipient, Sent by and a status. Open a row to read the text as it was sent. Sent does not prove that the message arrived.
• The Audit log (Analytics > Audit log, needs the Audit log right) has an Appointment cancelled or Participant cancelled entry for each cancellation, with who did it and when; its Details hold the refund destination and fee.
• Each refund has a credit note in Orders, referenced CR- and the original order reference. To record a phone call or an agreement, add a note to the client's order there; go flow has no notes on sessions, participants or clients.
• A moved session keeps its participants and shows the new time in the calendar. What is still awaiting a decision you keep on your own list from step 1.