Refunds

Overview

Recording a refund in your WildApricot account does not result in any money being returned to the payer. The transferring of actual funds associated with a refund must be initiated by you from within your payment processor account.

Please use the links below to contact your payment processor directly for assistance:

WildApricot Payments (AffiniPay)

PayPal

Stripe

Authorize.Net

A refund can be full, when a complete payment amount is returned, or partial, when only a partial amount is returned. Therefore, a payment record can be refunded and settled with one or more partial refunds.

You can record a refund either against a payment or to a contact's account. For details on issuing both types of refunds, see below.

Recording a full refund against a payment

Usually, a refund is recorded for a corresponding payment. You can only refund payments that have an open balance (payments that are not fully settled to one or more invoices). 

To issue a full refund against a particular payment, follow these steps:

1. Open the Payment details for the payment in question. 
2. If the payment is already settled, click the Cancel settlement button. 
3. Now that your payment record has an available balance, you can proceed with the refund by clicking the Refund button below the available balance. 
4. On the next screen, you can adjust the details of the refund, and record a payment type.
5. When you are finished entering the refund details, click the Save button. 

The refund will be applied to the payment and the corresponding invoice will become unpaid. If you don't want the invoice to appear unpaid, you can reduce the invoiced amount, void the invoice, or record a credit  to the contact's account, then apply the credit to the invoice.

Recording a partial refund against a payment

If you don't want to refund the entire payment, you can record a partial refund. To record a partial refund against a particular payment, follow these steps:

1. Open the payment record in question, either from a contact's financial transactions list or from the Payments & refunds screen within the Finances module.
2. If the payment is already settled, click the Cancel settlement button.
3. Now that your payment record has an available balance, you can proceed with the refund by clicking the Refund button.
4. On the screen that appears, you can reduce the refund amount to the amount you want to record, and record a custom payment type – the method by which the refund was issued.
5. When you are finished entering the refund details, click the Save button. 

The refund will be applied to the payment and will be fully settled. The payment will become partially settled and the corresponding invoice will become unpaid. If you don't want the invoice to appear unpaid, you can reduce the invoiced amount then settle the partially refunded payment to the reduced invoice.

Issuing refunds to an account instead of a payment

Instead of issuing a refund for a particular payment, you can issue a refund directly to a contact's account without settling the refund to any particular payment. You can, at any time in the future, settle the refund to a payment.

To issue a refund to an account, follow these steps:

1. Hover over the Finances menu and select the Payment & refunds option.
2. From the Payments & refunds screen, click the Add refund button.
   
3. On the Add refund screen, click Select existing contact and then select the contact from the list.
   
4. After you select the contact, fill out the refund details and click the Save button.
   

The refund will reduce the available balance for the contact. The refund will be marked as not settled. To settle the refund, you need to find an unsettled payment for the contact and settle it with the refund.

Manually settling refunds

Refunds recorded against a recorded payment are settled with that payment. However, if you record a refund to a contact's account, you can settle the refund manually.

To manually settle a refund, follow these steps:

1. Find the payment to which you want to settle the refund.
2. Click the Settle button for that payment.
3. In the window that appears, click the Settle button beside the refund.

Now, the payment and refund are both marked as settled.

Adjusting refunds

You can adjust a refund as you would any payment. For settled refunds, you cannot modify the refund amount.

To adjust a refund, follow these steps:

1. Hover over the Finances menu and select the Payments & refunds option.
2. Find the refund within the list and click on it.
3. From the refund details, click the Edit button.
   
4. Adjust the refund details as required. For settled refunds, you cannot modify the refund amount.
5. Click the Save button.

Canceling a refund

You can cancel a refund by deleting it. Any settlements associated with the refund will be automatically canceled.

To cancel a refund, follow these steps:

1. Hover over the Finances menu and select the Payments & refunds option.
2. Find the refund within the list and click on it.
3. From the refund details, click the Delete button.
   
4. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion. Click Yes to proceed with the deletion.