See what missed appointments cost your practice—and how much of that income your current fee policy may recover.
Start with a typical working year rather than your busiest month.
Use diary data if possible. Keep the combined rates at or below 100%.
Enter what your policy charges, then allow for fees that are waived or remain unpaid.
When a late cancellation cannot be refilled, the practice loses revenue while rent, software, insurance, supervision, marketing, and other costs continue. Repeated no-shows can also make income unpredictable and may leave fewer appointments available to people waiting for care.
This calculator separates late cancellations from no-shows because practices often respond differently to each. It then estimates how much a written fee policy may recover and how much income remains lost after waivers and unsuccessful collections.
Review several typical months rather than relying on memory. Count all booked sessions, late cancellations that could not be refilled, and appointments where the client did not attend. Divide each missed category by total bookings to calculate its percentage.
If a cancelled slot is filled from a waitlist, it has not caused the same revenue loss and should not be included as an unpaid cancellation.
The calculator multiplies annual scheduled appointments by the late-cancellation and no-show rates. Those missed appointments are then multiplied by the usual session fee to estimate the gross revenue at risk before any policy fees are collected.
A stated fee and a collected fee are not always the same. Hardship exceptions, first-time waivers, failed payment methods, and unpaid invoices can reduce recovery. The collection-rate field helps create a more realistic estimate.
The result shows the remaining monthly and annual loss and the number of additional paid sessions required to replace it. Use that information to assess reminders, deposits, waitlists, client communication, or policy changes—not as an automatic reason to charge every missed appointment.
Clear explanations for entering your figures and understanding the result.
For this calculator, a late cancellation is a booked appointment cancelled too late for you to offer the time to another client. Use the definition in your own written policy—for example, less than 24 or 48 hours before the appointment.
A cancellation occurs when the client tells you they will not attend. A no-show means the client does not attend and gives no usable notice. Practices often apply different fees to these events, which is why the calculator keeps them separate.
Review a representative period in your diary. Divide late cancellations by total booked sessions and multiply by 100. Repeat for no-shows. For example, 8 late cancellations from 200 bookings is a 4% late-cancellation rate. Do not include appointments that were rescheduled early enough to refill the slot.
This is the percentage of cancellation and no-show fees you expect to collect successfully. A policy can state that a fee is due, but waivers, failed cards, hardship exceptions, and unpaid invoices may reduce what the practice actually receives.
Cancellation fees recover part of the revenue that would otherwise disappear, but they do not create an additional appointment. The calculator therefore shows the original session revenue at risk, the amount recovered through fees, and the remaining net loss.
That is a professional and business-policy decision, not a calculation. Consider your professional body’s rules, insurance or payer contracts, local law, accessibility and hardship, the clarity of your client agreement, and advice from an appropriate professional before changing a policy.
Yes. Reduce the cancellation rate to include only slots that ultimately produce no session income, or treat your refill rate as reducing the number of unpaid cancellations. A slot filled by another paying client is not lost revenue.
No. This calculator only uses general practice estimates, performs the calculation in your browser, and does not ask for client names, appointment records, or contact details.