Note: this article covers a single activity/booking's status. To change the whole trip's status — e.g., mark a trip Cancelled — see "Understand the Trip Overview Page" in [1. Creating your first trip in Tern].
Experience
All activities will start in a 'planning' status.
On the Booking & Pricing tab, you'll see the Booking details section where you can fill out commission and booking details. Before marking as booked, make sure to select the correct Accreditation from the dropdown. Your default agency credential will be pre-selected, but you can change it here if needed. Once everything looks good, click the "Mark as Booked" button.
The status will then update automatically to 'booked' in the booking details & at the top of your activity.
If you'd like to change the booking date or status, you can do so by selecting 'edit booking' from the same spot
You'll then be able to cancel the booking with the Cancel booking button (or change the booking date). The booking is cancelled as soon as you click it.
Cancelling a booking removes it from your sales totals on your dashboard and in the Your Sales and Agency Sales reports. Those reports count only bookings marked as booked. It also hides the activity from your client, so they no longer see it on their itinerary or authorize its payments.
You can change a cancelled booking back to booked later with Revert to booked. This does not show the activity to your client again. After you revert, open the activity's three-dot menu on the Itinerary tab, select Show to travelers, then republish the trip. See Hiding activities from travelers.
Note on commission: Cancelling a booking does not remove its commission. Expected commission and any commission already logged both stay on the booking.
If no commission was received and none is coming, go to the Commission section, click the three-dot menu, and select Mark as not commissionable. This sets expected commission to zero and clears the Overdue status.
If commission was already logged on the booking, marking it not commissionable does not remove that payment or the agent's payout. The payout can still show as Ready to pay. To remove it, see "A cancelled booking's commission is showing in payouts. How do I remove it?" below.
Activities you have already added
We will maintain the status of your old activities, with the exception of 'completed'.
FAQs
Why can't I delete a booking after a payment has been logged?
Once a payment has been logged on a booking, Tern blocks deletion to protect your financial records. If you try, you'll see a "transactions present" error. This is by design. Don't delete a client payment just to be able to delete the booking. Cancel the booking instead.
Go to the activity's Booking & Pricing tab, click Edit Booking, and change the status to Canceled. The cancelled booking stays in your records for accounting and commission tracking. To stop it counting toward expected commission, go to the Commission section and mark it as not commissionable. If commission was already logged and is showing in payouts, see "A cancelled booking's commission is showing in payouts. How do I remove it?" below.
Does cancelling a booking remove it from my sales reports?
Yes. Sales totals on your dashboard and in the Your Sales and Agency Sales reports count only bookings marked as booked. A cancelled booking stays in your records for accounting and commission tracking. Marking a booking as not commissionable doesn't remove it from sales.
A cancelled booking's commission is showing in payouts. How do I remove it?
A payout becomes Ready to pay once its Eligible for Payout date arrives, whether the booking is booked or cancelled. If a commission payment was logged or imported on the booking, its agent payout stays in payouts until you delete that payment.
Only delete the payment if no commission was actually received for this booking. If the supplier really paid commission on a cancelled booking (for example, a non-refundable booking), the agent may still be owed their share. In that case, leave the payout in place.
To remove it:
Go to Back Office > Bookings and open the cancelled booking.
In the Commission section, find the received payment and click the trash icon.
Confirm when prompted.
Deleting the payment also deletes its agent payouts, so the amount drops out of the agent's upcoming payout right away.
If the trash icon is greyed out, one of these applies:
The supplier statement for this payment is closed or approved. An agency admin reopens the statement, deletes the payment, then closes the statement again.
The payout is already on a payout statement. If the statement is still open, delete the statement first. That returns its payouts to the queue. See Process agent payouts.
Your host agency has already paid out this commission. Contact Tern support.
Note: Changing the Eligible for Payout date to a later date only delays the payout. It comes back as Ready to pay when that date arrives. Marking the booking as not commissionable doesn't remove it either.
For more on removing and re-recording payments, see How to Record Commissions in Tern.
Why can't I delete a cancelled activity?
Activities with payment records - including those created automatically by supplier integrations like Project Expedition - cannot be deleted. This protects your financial data. You do not need to remove these records yourself. Instead, cancel the booking using Edit booking. The cancelled activity will remain in your records for accounting purposes. See How to Delete an Activity From a Trip.
Can I hide a cancelled activity from my client's itinerary?
Yes. When you cancel a booking, Tern hides the activity from travelers automatically. You can also hide or show any activity yourself: click its three-dot menu on the Itinerary tab and choose Hide from travelers or Show to travelers. Hidden activities stay visible to you for record-keeping, payments, and commission tracking. Your client can't authorize payments on a hidden activity. If you change a cancelled booking back to booked, the activity stays hidden until you choose Show to travelers.
I'm getting a "transactions present" error when trying to delete an activity. What should I do?
Activities with payment records cannot be deleted - this is by design to protect your financial data. Don't delete client payment records just to be able to remove the activity. Instead, cancel the booking by going to the activity's Booking & Pricing tab and clicking Edit Booking → change the status to Canceled. The cancelled activity will remain in your records for accounting purposes and will be automatically hidden from your client's itinerary.
How do I change the dates on a booked activity?
Open the activity, go to the Booking & Pricing tab, and click Edit Booking. Update the booking date field and save. This changes the booking record date. To change when the activity appears in the day-by-day itinerary view, edit the activity's start and end dates on the activity detail page instead. These are separate fields — the booking date tracks when the supplier confirmed the booking, while the itinerary dates control the traveler-facing schedule.
What does 'due on arrival' mean on a hotel booking?
Explain that "due on arrival" and "guaranteed" are payment guarantee types set by the hotel supplier, not booking statuses. They indicate how the property secures the reservation and are separate from the booking status (Planning, Booked, Cancelled, etc.).
My cancelled Project Expedition booking still shows a payment due. How do I stop it?
Project Expedition payments are managed by the integration, so you won't see a Paid toggle, Edit Payment, or Log Payment option—those are for payments you handle yourself. Cancelling the booking doesn't clear the payment that's driving the reminders.
To stop them, hide the activity: open its three-dot menu on the Itinerary tab and choose Hide from travelers. The activity stays in your records, but it drops out of the payment schedule and the reminders stop. Republish the trip if a reminder is still showing.
Deleting won't work here—activities with payment records can't be deleted—so hiding is the way to clear it.