Cancellation Policies | Help Center

A cancellation policy sets how much notice a family must give before a lesson, and whether a cancelled lesson earns a makeup credit. Manage policies on the Cancellation Policies tab of your billing dashboard. Only owners and admins can create or edit a policy.

Policy Fields

Click Create Policy. Each policy has:

Policy Name - a label for you, such as "24-Hour Cancellation Policy"
Notice Hours - how many hours before the lesson a family must cancel. The default is 24.
Issue Makeup Credit - whether a cancellation with enough notice earns a makeup credit. It is on by default.
Credit Expiry Days - how long a makeup credit stays valid. The default is 90. It shows when credits are on.
Max Active Credits - the most unused credits a student can hold. Leave it blank for no limit.

A new policy is not the default. To make it your studio's rule, open its Actions menu and choose Set as Default. The Actions menu also has Edit, and Delete for a policy that is not the default.

A new studio starts with no policy. While no policy is the default, the tab shows a warning. A family cancellation then earns a makeup credit only when the lesson's billing plan has its own policy.

Which Policy Applies

When a lesson is cancelled, Trio uses the first policy it finds:

The policy on the lesson's billing plan. To set it, open the plan on the Plans tab and choose its Cancellation Policy. "Studio default" uses your default policy.
Your studio's default policy.

If neither exists, no policy applies, and a family cancellation earns no makeup credit.

What a Cancellation Does

When you cancel a lesson, you choose a Reason. The reason decides the outcome, not the person who clicks:

Teacher cancellation - the student gets a makeup credit. This credit always expires after 90 days.
Any other reason, with at least the policy's Notice Hours before the lesson - the student gets a makeup credit when the policy issues credits and the student is under the Max Active Credits limit.
Any other reason, inside the notice window - this is a late cancellation. The family loses the lesson and gets no credit.

The cancel dialog shows what will happen before you confirm. To make an exception, use the Issue makeup credit switch in the dialog: turn it on to give a credit, or off to give none. A credit you give with the switch always expires after 90 days.

These cancellations give no makeup credit:

A lesson that already happened.
A cancellation with This and all future lessons.
A lesson that is waiting for payment (pay to book). Cancelling it voids its invoice.

Makeup Credits

A makeup credit goes to the student's credit balance with an expiry date. Trio reminds the family about a week before a credit expires, and expires unused credits after that date. To use a credit, schedule a one-time lesson for the student and choose the credit under Use Makeup Credit.

Package Plans

On a package plan, the prepaid lessons take the place of makeup credits. The policy's Notice Hours still decide what happens:

With enough notice, the family keeps the prepaid lesson.
Inside the notice window, one prepaid lesson is used, the same as a taught lesson.
A teacher cancellation never uses a prepaid lesson.
With no policy, the family always keeps the prepaid lesson.

The cancel dialog says this before you confirm, for example "One package lesson will be used."

Cancellations and Billing

Billing runs leave out every cancelled lesson, so a per-lesson plan never bills a cancelled lesson and a subscription amount stays the same. Only a package plan uses up a lesson on a late cancellation.

To charge for a no-show on a per-lesson plan, keep the lesson and mark the student absent on the Attendance page. The lesson stays on the calendar and bills as usual.