Booking cancellation, forfeiture and refund

Cancelling a booking undoes the sale: the unit and parking go back on sale, the payment schedule is closed and the opportunity is marked lost. When money has been billed or received, the cancellation also settles the accounts in one go: the demands are reversed by credit notes, the developer keeps a forfeiture (and any extra charges) by the cancellation rule in force, and whatever credit is left on the buyer's ledger is refunded. Forfeiture is the developer's agreed compensation for a withdrawn deal; the rule makes the default consistent across the sales team, while the wizard lets the office adjust each case before anything is posted.

How it works in NirmaanOne

The cancellation rule

Under Settings, Organization, the Booking cancellation rules card (the Edit permission on Organization Settings to change it) holds effective-dated rules, each with:

• a scope: the whole organization, or one project (a project rule overrides the organization's);
• Effective from: the rule in force on the cancellation date is the latest one starting on or before it;
• Forfeiture % and Percent of: Agreed total (excluding GST) or Amount received;
• Charge GST on the forfeiture with a GST rate;
• Default charges: named extra charges, as an amount or a percent, with or without GST.

Every organization starts with one rule: 10% of the agreed total (excluding GST), no GST, no charges, from 1 January 2000. The last organization-level rule cannot be deleted ("Keep at least one organization-level rule; set its percentage to 0 to forfeit nothing"). See Effective-dated rules.

The wizard

Cancel booking on an Active booking opens the four-step Cancel booking wizard (opening it needs the Edit permission on Bookings; finishing it also needs the Edit permission on Demands and the Create permission on Payments; of the seeded roles, only the Administrator holds all three). Every cancellation from the screens goes through it, with or without money.

1. Entries reversed: the Cancellation date (it decides the rule in force and dates the entries), what happens to each demand, the receipts, and any live commission with the option Claw back the unpaid commission. Blockers stop the wizard here: a Pending receipt or payout on the booking ("Receipt <no> is Pending; clear or cancel it first"), an already cancelled booking, or recognised revenue under a policy that does not allow cancelling it.
2. Forfeiture & charges: the suggested Forfeiture amount ("The <project|organization> rule suggests <x>% of the <base> (<base amount>) = <suggested>."), Charge GST at <rate>% on the forfeiture, an Other charges table pre-filled from the rule's default charges, and, when the buyer deducted TDS (TDS credits recorded against the demands, or TDS on older receipts), Reverse the <amount> TDS the buyer deducted (TDS credits and receipts).
3. Refund: the Refund amount (at most the buyer's credit after the charges: "At most <x>."), Refund date, Mode and From our account. A lower figure leaves a credit on the ledger; charges above what was received stay as a receivable bill on the buyer's ledger.
4. Confirm: a Reason (required), notes, and the card What is posted.

With nothing billed or received, steps 2 and 3 stay at zero: "cancelling releases the unit … and parking and marks the opportunity lost, with no accounting entries, forfeiture or refund."

What is posted, in one transaction

1. Demands. Draft demands are deleted. An issued demand with nothing paid is reversed by a credit note that closes its bill. A paid or partly paid demand gets a credit note that reverses its revenue, GST and TDS receivable, settles the unpaid part of the bill, and opens a credit bill CN-<demand no> for the paid part: that is the money the buyer is now owed.
2. Forfeiture and charges. One journal debits the buyer's ledger with forfeiture + its GST + charges + their GST (+ the buyer's TDS, credits and receipt TDS, when reversed) and credits Forfeiture income, the GST output ledgers (split within or across the state like a demand) and, for reversed TDS, TDS Receivable ("TDS deducted by the buyer (TDS credits and receipts), reclaimed by the buyer"). The debit is set against the CN bills first, then against any advances, and any shortfall becomes a new bill FORFEIT-<booking no> the buyer still owes.
3. Refund. The refund is created as a Pending payout with purpose "Refund" to the buyer, dated the refund date, from the chosen account (none means cash). Clear it from Payment, or collect several in a Refunds payout run; clearing settles the open CN bills, so the ledger ends at zero.
4. Commission. The option appears only when a commission can be clawed back. When ticked, Accrued commissions are cancelled and Approved ones reversed. If any commission on the booking has already been paid out, ticking it refuses the whole cancellation: "A commission on this booking has been paid out and cannot be clawed back here." Leave it unticked in that case; the paid commission stays.
5. The booking. Status Cancelled with the date and reason; the unit back to Available with its hold cleared (an allottee's unit leaves their offer and returns to what it was before); parking slots released (an allottee's own parking slot stays Allotted); the termsheet and every schedule row Cancelled; the opportunity Lost with "Booking cancelled: <reason>".

Afterwards the seeded workflow rules cancel the booked estimate, cancel an allottee's offer when nothing else holds it, and give a Finance Lead the task "Settle refund for cancelled booking <no>". The booking's banner then reads "Cancelled on <date>: <reason>", "The unit and parking slots were released." and "Forfeited <amount>; refund <amount> (refund payout)".

The figures

• Received gross: cleared receipts on the booking plus the TDS credits recorded against its demands (the buyer's deposits with the Income Tax department settle the demands like money the developer never banked); net is the money that reached the bank, without the TDS credits and without TDS deducted on the receipts themselves; advances are receipts not allocated to a demand.
• Suggested forfeiture = base × rule %, where the base is the consideration excluding GST (every receivable charge on the termsheet) or the gross received; 0 when nothing was billed or received.
• Credit balance = received gross − (forfeiture + GST + charges + their GST + the reversed TDS). The refund may not exceed it ("The refund exceeds the customer's credit balance after the charges.").
• Default refund = (net if the TDS is reversed, else gross) − forfeiture − GST − charges − their GST, never below zero.

Example

Booking BK-2026-27-00007 for unit A-1203: agreed total ₹1,36,94,683.00, of which ₹1,30,28,100.00 is charges excluding GST. The buyer is in Maharashtra, the project in Mumbai. Two demands were issued: DM-2026-27-00012 (plinth, payable ₹26,63,960.00), paid in full by one cleared NEFT receipt of ₹26,63,960.00, and DM-2026-27-00019 (5th slab, payable ₹26,63,960.00), unpaid. The organization's seeded rule applies: 10% of the agreed total (excluding GST), no GST.

• Step 1 shows DM-2026-27-00019 as "Credit note reverses <sales voucher> and closes the bill" and DM-2026-27-00012 as "Credit note reverses revenue, GST and TDS; 26,63,960.00 received becomes a credit we owe the buyer (bill CN-DM-2026-27-00012)". Received (gross) ₹26,63,960.00, all against demands, no advances, no TDS credit and no TDS on the receipt (the booking's demands were issued before 10 October 2026, so the TDS was booked on issue).
• Step 2 suggests a forfeiture of 10% × ₹1,30,28,100.00 = ₹13,02,810.00. The office adds one Other charge, "Administrative charge", ₹25,000.00 with GST ₹4,500.00. The charges journal totals ₹13,32,310.00: Dr the buyer's ledger ₹13,32,310.00 / Cr Forfeiture / Cancellation Income ₹13,27,810.00 (the forfeiture and the administrative charge post to the same ledger, so they merge into one line), Cr CGST ₹2,250.00, Cr SGST ₹2,250.00.
• Step 3 reads "After the reversals and charges the customer ledger shows a credit of 13,31,650.00" (₹26,63,960.00 − ₹13,32,310.00) and proposes a refund of ₹13,31,650.00 by NEFT from the operative account. Customer ledger: Received (gross) ₹26,63,960.00, Forfeiture and charges ₹13,32,310.00, Credit balance ₹13,31,650.00, Refund now ₹13,31,650.00, Left on the ledger ₹0.00.
• Step 4: reason "Buyer withdrew; finance not approved". Cancel booking posts the two credit notes, the journal (its debit set against the ₹26,63,960.00 CN bill) and a Pending refund payout of ₹13,31,650.00, releases A-1203 and P-14, and marks the opportunity Lost. The toast reads "Booking BK-2026-27-00007 cancelled; refund of ₹13,31,650.00 pending."
• When the Finance Lead clears the refund with the bank's UTR, the payout debits the buyer's ledger against the rest of the CN bill and credits the bank; the ledger is at zero.

Had the office refunded only ₹10,00,000.00, the remaining ₹3,31,650.00 would stay as a credit on the buyer's ledger for a manual journal later. Had the charges exceeded the money received, the difference would have stayed as the open bill FORFEIT-BK-2026-27-00007.

Where you see it

• Cancel booking: the four steps.
• Organization settings: the Booking cancellation rules card.
• Booking overview: Cancel booking and the cancelled banner.
• Demand: the credit-noted demands.
• Payment and Payout run: the refund payout and the Refunds run.
• TDS credits: the buyer's deposits the wizard counts as TDS deducted.
• Commission: a clawed-back commission.
• Ledger report: the buyer's ledger after the entries.
• Workflow rules: the three seeded follow-up rules.

Related

• Booking: agreed total, applicants and shares
• Demands, demand runs and the GST split
• Receipts and payouts: allocation, clearing and the UTR
• Channel partner commissions
• Effective-dated rules
• Opportunity stages, lead sources and system activities
• TDS under section 194-IA