This article is about you, the studio, cancelling an event or workshop that you created in Courses & events. It isn't about classes, which you cancel with Cancel class in the class schedule, or courses (see Courses: how to cancel a course early and notify participants). If a client wants to cancel their own registration, see Setting Up Cancellation Policies and Make-Up Sessions.
An event has one start and end date and no separate sessions. You can either cancel the whole event before it starts, or cancel individual orders. Use this article when you need to call off a workshop, retreat or masterclass and refund everyone who registered, or when the Cancel event button is missing.
How do I cancel an event before it starts?
In Courses & events, open the event.
Click Cancel event.
The Do you want to cancel this event? dialog shows an overview of the event's orders.
In Additional information for participants (email), write why the event is cancelled. The default text is "Sorry, the event has been cancelled." If your studio sends SMS notifications, you may also see a field for the SMS text.
If some clients paid by bank transfer, the dialog lists them with a link to each order. Check I'll send the money back.
Click Yes, cancel.
Zenamu cancels all active orders of the event, refunds paid orders in full without a cancellation fee, and emails your text to the participants. If nobody has registered yet, the event is simply cancelled.
What happens to payments when I cancel an event?
When you cancel a whole event with Cancel event, each paid order is refunded in full according to how the client paid:
Card: refunded automatically to the client's card.
PayPal: refunded automatically to the client's PayPal account.
Credits or entries: returned automatically to the client's balance.
Gift voucher: the part of the price paid with a voucher goes back to the voucher.
Bank transfer: Zenamu can't send money from your bank account. Send the money back to the client yourself. If the order in Orders shows Awaiting refund, click Confirm refund once you've sent it.
In person: Zenamu marks the order as refunded. Give the money back to the client yourself. The dialog doesn't remind you about these orders.
Unpaid orders: they're cancelled and there's nothing to refund.
For more about order statuses after a refund, see How refunds work and order statuses.
Why is the Cancel event button missing?
The event has already started. The Cancel event button disappears at the event's start time, and Zenamu doesn't let you cancel a whole event after that. For an event over several days, that's the start of the first day. Cancel the individual orders instead (see the next section).
The event is already cancelled.
A partner studio shared the event with you. Only the studio that created a shared event can cancel or edit it. In your admin, the button is inactive with the note "This event is managed by the partner studio. Only the studio that created it can cancel or edit it."
How do I cancel an event that has already started?
Once an event has started, you can't cancel it as a whole, but you can cancel every registration one by one. Clients can no longer register for an event that has started.
To explain the situation to everyone at once, click Send bulk message in the event detail first.
Open Participants.
For each participant, click Cancel order.
In Note, you can write the reason for the cancellation. Zenamu emails the client that their order was cancelled and includes your note.
For a paid order, the dialog offers only a full refund. The refund works the same way as described above for each payment method. For an unpaid order, choose Cancel booking.
Click Cancel order.
The event itself isn't marked as cancelled, because it has already started. To remove it from the public schedule, click Edit in the event detail and uncheck Show on public schedule. For an event that has started, visibility is the only thing you can still change.
Is a cancelled event still visible on the public schedule?
No, not by default. When you cancel an event with Cancel event, Zenamu hides it from the public schedule. If you want clients to see that the event is cancelled, open the cancelled event and check Show on public schedule. You can uncheck it again at any time.
Can clients cancel their own event registration?
Yes, if the event has Allow self-cancellation turned on. That's a separate setting from the studio cancelling the event. See Setting Up Cancellation Policies and Make-Up Sessions.
Note: Events can also be cancelled automatically when not enough people register. That's a different feature, see Automatic cancellation for low occupancy.