Planned Absence Allowances and Client Cancellations
How to set planned absence allowances, case overrides, and portal cancellation behavior.
Planned absence allowances let a practice define how many no-fee client cancellations are allowed in a calendar year before future client cancellations are treated as billable cancellations.
This is useful when a practice policy allows, for example, six planned absences per year, but charges the full fee after that allowance is used.
How the policy works
When planned absence allowances are enabled, PracticeRunner compares the number of planned absences already used in the calendar year with the allowance for that case.
If a client cancellation is accepted automatically from the portal:
- if the allowance has not been used up, the appointment is marked Planned absence
- if the allowance has already been used, the appointment is marked Canceled by client
Planned absence is treated as a no-fee cancellation status. Canceled by client can keep the session fee, depending on how your practice handles billing.
Practice default
Open Settings -> Portal and turn on Use planned absence allowance.
Set the default number of planned absences per calendar year. This default applies unless a case has its own override.
Case overrides
Planned absence allowances are attached to the case, not the client record. This matters for two-person cases, families, groups, and other cases where more than one client may be part of the same clinical work.
For individual clients, PracticeRunner shows the individual-session policy on the client profile because individual cases are usually managed from the client record. The setting applies only to that client's individual sessions. It does not apply to two-person, family, group, or other cases the client may also be part of.
Use overrides when a case has a different agreement from the practice default, such as:
- eight planned absences per calendar year instead of six
- a higher allowance for twice-weekly sessions
- a different allowance for a two-person or family case
Staff warnings
When staff set an appointment or participant status to Planned absence, PracticeRunner warns if the allowance has already been used for that calendar year.
The warning does not replace clinical judgment. It is a prompt to review the policy before saving the status.
Client portal warnings
When a client requests a cancellation from the portal, PracticeRunner can warn them if the planned absence allowance has already been used.
The warning explains that the cancellation may require payment and that the client may be able to reschedule instead, depending on the practice's portal scheduling settings.
Two-person cases, families, and groups
For couples, other two-person cases, and families, count the planned absence allowance on the case. This keeps the policy tied to the case rather than to one individual member.
For groups and other multi-client cases, clients should not cancel the entire session from the portal. A group member's absence should be handled as participant-level attendance, not as cancellation of the whole group appointment.
Recommended setup
- Open Settings -> Portal.
- Turn on Use planned absence allowance.
- Set the practice default allowance.
- Review whether portal cancellation requests should be allowed.
- Decide whether cancellation requests should be accepted automatically.
- Add case overrides only where the case agreement differs from the practice default.
- Test with a future appointment before relying on automatic cancellation behavior.