Cancel a booking

When a buyer withdraws, you cancel the booking through the cancellation wizard. It shows what will be reversed, suggests the forfeiture and charges from your cancellation rule, works out what can be refunded, and on confirmation posts everything at once: credit notes for the demands, a journal for the forfeiture and charges, a pending refund payout, and the release of the unit and parking slots.

Before you start

• The booking is Active.
• No receipt or payout on the booking is Pending: clear or cancel it first (Bounce or correct a payment).
• When anything was billed or received, the project's promoter company keeps books, and the GST component is mapped in them.
• If the booking's revenue has already been recognised by a posted revenue run, the books' revenue policy must allow cancelling it as a sales return (your CA sets this on the Revenue policy tab of the books).
• Check the cancellation rule in force (Set the forfeiture rules for cancellations). You can override its suggestion in the wizard.
• Permissions: opening the wizard needs the Edit permission on Bookings; finishing it also needs the Edit permission on Demands and the Create permission on Payments. Of the default roles only the Administrator holds all three: a Sales Manager can go through the steps but is refused at the end, and the Finance Lead and Accountant can't open the wizard. Choosing the refund's paying account also needs the View permission on Projects and on Bank Accounts.

Steps

1. Open the booking and click Cancel booking in the header. The page "Cancel <booking no>" opens on the step Entries reversed. The header shows the applicant, unit, agreed and received amounts, and the rule in force as a badge ("<Project> rule: 10% of agreed total" or "Organization rule: …"). The steps Entries reversed, Forfeiture & charges, Refund and Confirm run across the top. See Cancel booking.
2. On Entries reversed, check there is no red list of blockers. Set Cancellation date (today by default; it decides which rule applies and the date of every entry). Review:
   • Demands to reverse: what happens to each demand under What happens: "Draft: deleted"; "Credit note reverses <voucher no> and closes the bill" for an unpaid demand; or, for a paid one, "Credit note reverses revenue, GST and TDS; <amount> received becomes a credit we owe the buyer (bill CN-<demand no>)".
   • Money received: the cleared receipts, with Received (gross), Against demands and Advances on undemanded rows.
   • Channel-partner commission, when there is one: each commission is marked "can be clawed back" or "stays". Tick Claw back the unpaid commission ("Accrued commissions are cancelled, approved ones reversed; a paid commission stays.") to cancel them with the booking. When nothing was billed or received the step says so ("Nothing was billed or received on this booking: cancelling releases the unit … with no accounting entries, forfeiture or refund."). Click Next.
3. On Forfeiture & charges, read the suggestion ("The <project | organization> rule suggests <x>% of the <base> (<amount>) = <forfeiture>.", or "No cancellation rule is in force; enter the forfeiture directly."). Adjust Forfeiture amount, tick or untick Charge GST at <rate>% on the forfeiture, and check the Other charges rows (Charge, Amount, GST; Add charge adds one). 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) is ticked: the buyer reclaims that TDS from the Income Tax department and you refund the money actually received; untick it to refund the gross and keep the TDS receivable. The Charges journal card adds up the Dr customer ledger. Click Next.
4. On Refund, the text reads "After the reversals and charges the customer ledger shows a credit of <amount>. The refund is created as a Pending payout; …". Check Refund amount (a lower figure leaves a credit on the ledger), and set Refund date and Mode (NEFT by default). From our account is preselected with the project's operative account: refunds are paid from it by default, so pick another account only if the money really leaves from elsewhere (cleared to "Cash", the refund is paid from cash). The Customer ledger card shows Received (gross), Forfeiture and charges, Credit balance, Refund now and Left on the ledger. Click Next.
5. On Confirm, enter the Reason (for example "Buyer withdrew, finance not approved"; the button stays greyed out without one) and any Notes. Check What is posted (Credit notes, Forfeiture & charges, Refund (pending payout), and Commission "clawed back" when ticked), then click Cancel booking. You see "Booking <no> cancelled; refund of <amount> pending." (just "Booking <no> cancelled." with no refund) and the booking page opens with the banner "Cancelled on <date>: <reason>. The unit and parking slots were released. Forfeited <amount>; refund <amount> (refund payout)."

Example

Agreed total ₹1,00,00,000 excluding GST, rule 10% of the agreed total: the forfeiture is ₹10,00,000. The buyer paid ₹19,80,000 in money and a TDS credit of ₹20,000 is recorded against the demand, so ₹20,00,000 gross. With the TDS reversal ticked and no GST or other charges, the charges journal is ₹10,20,000, the credit balance ₹9,80,000, and the suggested refund ₹9,80,000.

What happens next

• Demands: drafts are deleted; unpaid issued demands are cancelled with a credit note; paid or part-paid demands get a credit note that reverses revenue, GST and TDS and turns the money received into a credit bill "CN-<demand no>" owed to the buyer (any unpaid part is written off the bill).
• Forfeiture and charges: one journal dated the cancellation date debits the buyer's ledger against those credits and credits Forfeiture income, each charge, the GST on them and, when reversed, TDS Receivable (for the TDS credits and any receipt TDS). If the charges exceed what was received, the shortfall stays on the buyer's ledger as a bill "FORFEIT-<booking no>" ("The charges exceed what was received by <amount>; that stays open as a receivable bill on the customer ledger.").
• Refund: a Pending payout to the buyer with the purpose "Refund", paid from the project's operative account unless you picked another. Pay it next: Refund a cancelled booking.
• Commission: when clawed back, accrued commissions are cancelled and approved ones reversed.
• The deal: the booking is Cancelled; the unit goes back to Available (an allottee's unit leaves their offer and returns to its earlier status); parking slots are released (an allottee's own parking slot stays Allotted); the termsheet and every installment are Cancelled; the opportunity is Lost with the reason "Booking cancelled: <reason>".
• Workflow rules (seeded, on by default): "Booking cancelled: cancel its estimate (system)" cancels the booked estimate; "Allottee booking cancelled: cancel the offer (system)" cancels an allottee's offer when nothing else is pending on it; "Booking cancelled: finance follow-up (system)" notifies Finance Leads and Sales Managers and gives a Finance Lead the task "Settle refund for cancelled booking <no>" due in 7 days.
• Revenue recognition: when the booking's revenue was recognised and the policy treats the cancellation as a sales return, the next posted revenue run takes the booking to 0% and reverses its revenue and cost of sales; any capitalised brokerage left is released.
• Nothing on a cancelled booking can be changed afterwards. Later corrections are manual journals on the buyer's ledger.

If something goes wrong

• The red list on Entries reversed shows "Receipt <no> is Pending; clear or cancel it first", "Payout <no> is Pending; clear or cancel it first" or "Revenue on this booking is recognised and the revenue policy does not allow cancelling it; the CA can switch the policy to a sales return", and Next stays greyed out: see Booking cannot be cancelled yet (trouble.sales.cancellation-blocked-by-pending-payments).
• "The refund exceeds the customer's credit balance after the charges.", "At most <amount>." under Refund amount, "Nothing was billed or received on this booking; there is nothing to forfeit or refund." or "A commission on this booking has been paid out and cannot be clawed back here.": see Cancel booking: the refund, forfeiture, charges or clawback are refused (trouble.cancellation.refund-or-forfeiture-rejected).
• The wizard shows only an error such as "The project's promoter company has no books yet. Set them up under Books first.": see No books yet (trouble.accounting.no-books-yet).
• "The GST component has no ledger mapping in books <name>": see Has no ledger mapping in books (trouble.accounting.component-not-mapped).
• "The reversal date cannot be before the original voucher date.": the cancellation date is earlier than a demand's date. Pick a later Cancellation date.
• "You do not have permission to do that." when you click Cancel booking, or "No access" when opening the wizard: you lack the Edit permission on Demands, the Create permission on Payments or the Edit permission on Bookings. See No access or no permission (trouble.admin.no-access).

Things to know

• You can click any step in the stepper to jump to it; the final button still checks the reason, the blockers and the refund.
• The Confirm text says the unit and parking slots "become Available"; for an allottee's booking the unit returns to its earlier status and their own parking slot stays Allotted.
• A handed-over booking can still be cancelled; only recognised revenue blocks it.
• A cancelled booking can't be booked again from the same opportunity. Reopening the Lost opportunity works, but a new booking needs a new opportunity (Reopen a lost opportunity).

Related

• Cancel booking
• Booking overview
• Demands & money
• Set the forfeiture rules for cancellations
• Refund a cancelled booking
• Organization