Payment timeout affecting confirmed API-imported bookings

API General
1

Hello,

We migrated historical bookings from Acuity by creating them through the
SimplyBook User/Admin API.

For each migrated booking, we called book() and confirmed the booking using
confirmBooking(). These bookings do not necessarily have a SimplyBook payment
transaction because payment was collected previously through Acuity or by
another payment method.

When the Accept Payments feature has a 48-hour payment timeout:

  1. Can an API-created and confirmed booking still be automatically cancelled
    as nopayment_cancel because it has no SimplyBook payment transaction?

  2. Does confirmBooking() fully exempt the booking from the payment timeout,
    or must the booking also have a paid or Pay Later transaction?

  3. Is there a supported API method or flag for marking migrated/admin-created
    bookings as Pay Later or payment-completed, without sending payment or
    cancellation messages to the client?

Thank you.

3

Hi,

If you need just bookings it would be better to disable accept payments at the moment of import and import bookings. This way bookings will not be cancelled by timeout for sure.

Otherwise if you need transactions i would suggest to use API documentation | SimplyBook.me Online Scheduling this method to mark payment as accepted. confirmBooking is deprecated.

4

Thank you. Most of our already imported bookings were created through the
Admin API without an invoice or payment transaction.

  1. If a confirmed booking has no invoice and no payment transaction at all,
    will it be affected when we restore the payment timeout to 48 hours?

  2. Does PUT /admin/invoices/{item}/accept_payment require an existing invoice?

  3. For bookings partially paid in Acuity, can we record only the amount
    received and leave the remaining balance without triggering payment timeout?

  4. Does accept_payment send any receipt or payment notification to the client?

5

1 - no, they will not be affected

2 - it requires order, that will be automatically created, when you make a booking with the payment

3 - Unfortunately it is not possible at the moment.

4 - yes, it sends invoice.

6

Hi,

Thank you for confirming that bookings with no order will not be affected by
the payment timeout.

We performed another read-only audit and found a contradiction that we need
your technical team to clarify before restoring our timeout to 48 hours.

We created historical bookings using the Admin API book() method while the
Accept Payments feature was enabled. We did not initiate payment, create an
invoice, call accept_payment, or request a payment transaction.

However, 11 of these bookings were later automatically cancelled. Their
booking history contains:

nopayment_cancel

All 11 were cancelled together on 26 September 2026.

When we now call getBookingDetails() for those cancelled bookings, all of the
following fields are empty, null or zero:

  • invoice_id
  • invoice
  • deposit_invoice_id
  • deposit_invoice
  • payment status and transaction fields

For example, booking reference 182 has only these history entries:

  • create: 24 September 2026
  • nopayment_cancel: 26 September 2026

It currently has no visible invoice or payment metadata.

We rebuilt the affected bookings after extending the payment timeout to one
year. The replacement bookings also currently show no invoice or payment
metadata and remain active.

Could you please answer these questions explicitly:

  1. When Admin API book() is called while Accept Payments is enabled, can
    SimplyBook automatically create a temporary order or payment cart even if
    no payment or invoice is requested?

  2. When that temporary order times out, is it removed from getBookingDetails(),
    leaving the invoice and payment fields empty after cancellation?

  3. If we restore the timeout to 48 hours now, can our replacement bookings be
    cancelled even though getBookingDetails() currently shows no order, invoice
    or payment metadata?

  4. Does “bookings with no order will not be affected” mean that Accept Payments
    must have been disabled at the exact time the booking was created?

  5. Is there an API method or admin report that shows whether an active booking
    currently has a hidden order/cart or an active payment-timeout countdown?

  6. Is there a supported way to mark these existing migrated bookings as exempt
    from payment timeout without creating an invoice or sending an invoice to
    the client?

We can provide the remaining affected booking references privately if needed.
No customer information should be posted publicly.

Thank you.

7

Hi, could you please provide company login and booking ids?