Fix a No-Show or Late-Cancel Fee in SimplePractice
By George Ruan • October 7, 2026
Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.
Open the appointment, keep its real attendance status, and change the fee on the appointment itself: to $0 to waive it, or to your actual cancellation fee to reduce it. If the client already paid, the fee edit does not return the money; refund the card or leave the amount as credit, whichever the client prefers.
Sections
Why the wrong fee shows up
When an appointment is marked No show or Late canceled, SimplePractice turns it into a client charge. Its appointment-status guide notes that an insurance client can become responsible for the full service fee at that point. So the amount that appears is usually the session rate, not the practice’s cancellation fee. The requests we see most often:
“We don’t charge a fee for this one.” A first missed session of the year, a clinician who was out sick and could not cancel in time, or a plan the practice does not charge late fees to.
“The fee should be lower.” The practice’s fee is a flat amount, or a client on a sliding scale or other arrangement is charged their agreed session rate instead of the standard fee.
“The client says they were charged.” Sometimes they were. Sometimes there is no card on file and they only received an invoice. Check the payment history before promising a refund.
Correct the fee on the appointment
Confirm the decision with the clinician or owner: waive, reduce to a specific amount, or keep. Check the practice’s written cancellation policy and any payer restrictions; some plans and programs, Medicaid in particular, may not allow the client to be charged.
Open the appointment from the calendar. Leave the attendance as what actually happened. To charge a different amount, edit the fee directly on that appointment (see appointment-level billing changes).
To waive it entirely, set the fee to $0, or follow the cancellation-policy guide, which uses the Canceled status to keep the appointment without a charge.
If the appointment was billed as a full session, check every service line, including add-on codes. Zeroing the main code and missing an add-on leaves part of the balance.
Reopen the client’s billing and confirm the balance changed by the amount you expected.
The traps we run into
Editing copay or write-off does not stick. On a canceled appointment that was billed as a full session, changing the client’s responsibility or adding a write-off often does not persist in our experience. Change the fee on the service line instead.
Changing the status back does not restore the old split. If a missed-visit status was a mistake and the session happened, restore Show and then recheck client responsibility; it does not revert by itself.
A missed session must not go to insurance. SimplePractice excludes No show and Late canceled appointments from claims. Practices sometimes worry the note or status change will generate a claim anyway, so check the appointment is not on a claim. If one went out for a session that did not happen, it needs to be voided with the payer.
Fixing the whole client instead of one date. Switching the client’s default billing type to self-pay to handle one missed visit affects every future session. Change only that appointment.
If the fee was already charged
Refund what was actually taken from the card, which can be less than the fee if account credit covered part of it. If the client would rather keep it as credit toward the next session, apply it there instead. When the client has ended treatment, refund it. SimplePractice card refunds work only within 180 days on the original saved card; for older payments, see the refund guide for old payments, and for keeping it on the account, see how to apply a client credit to the next session.
When Bomi handles billing for a practice, a fee charged in error is our correction to make: we fix the appointment and refund the client without the practice having to touch the invoice. We also only charge missed-session fees under a policy the practice has confirmed.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I charge a smaller late-cancel fee in SimplePractice?
Mark the appointment Late canceled, then edit the fee on that appointment to your cancellation amount. Without that edit, the charge is typically the full session rate.
Will a no-show be billed to the client’s insurance?
It should not. SimplePractice keeps No show and Late canceled appointments off claims. If a claim was created for a session that did not happen, have it voided.
The client already paid a fee we are waiving. Now what?
Refund the amount taken from the card, or apply it as credit if the client prefers. The fee edit alone moves no money.
Sources
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Founded by George Ruan, Dax Earl, and Andrey Goder, Bomi helps independent therapists and group practices with insurance billing, credentialing, and payer follow-up. Bomi grew out of Dax’s experience helping his mother with her therapy practice, with a clear purpose: reduce the administrative burden of insurance while keeping practice owners in control.
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