What is it?
In the event you need to refund a user, you can either perform an online refund through their original invoice and place money back onto their credit card, or if they completed a form, mark their submission as refunded and issue them either an offline refund, or refund them directly through their payment processor. In this article, we're going to discuss the difference between refunding a user directly through an invoice versus through a form. If you wish to skip to the form refund section, click here.
Refunding from an Invoice
Refunding from a Form Submission
Types of refunds
Online Refund - original form of payment was a credit or debit card
Offline Refund - returning money paid with a check, cash, or by directly refunding them through your processor if you can't choose the online option within MemberClicks
How to perform a refund directly through an invoice
Online refunds will debit the funds back onto the user's credit card. To perform an online refund, first find the original paid invoice.
There are two ways of finding the invoice in which payment was initially made: visit the profile that invoices belongs to, or sort for the invoice using the Invoice List.
When visiting the profile that the invoice has been assigned to, select the “Invoices” option.
To instead access the invoice from the Invoice List, visit the Financial tab and click the “Invoices” option. Once here. click on the Invoice ID to enter the invoice. For more information on the Invoice List, click here.
A refund box will then appear. Enter the amount you wish to refund in the Credit box, then click the green Refund Invoice button.
You will then be brought into an open credit memo representing the refund you generated. Select “Settle” at the bottom of this open credit memo.
Choose to confirm it as an Offline Settlement or an Online Settlement, depending on the original form of payment used and/or how that money is being returned.
If the payer originally used a credit or debit card, choose “SETTLE ONLINE.” Doing so will prompt your payment processor to send the money back to the original card, which can take about 48 business hours.
If the payer originally used an offline payment like cash or a check, select “SETTLE OFFLINE.”
How to perform a refund through a form
If you need to partially refund a user due to a change in their form selections, refunding them directly through the invoice may not be your best option, for if you refund a user through an invoice, but don't edit their submission, then their submission balance and invoice balance will not match. To ensure these match, you need to edit their submission in order to generate your credit memo.
To note: Unlike performing a refund directly through an invoice by following the instructions above, you cannot refund a user's credit card by creating a credit memo through editing a submission. You can only mark the invoice as refunded offline in order to balance your MemberClicks transaction report. You will then need to provide them an offline refund, or contact your payment processor directly and trigger a refund through the processor. The reason for this is that as we're generating a credit memo by editing the user's submission and not their original invoice, there is no link to the user's credit card, thus the system can't refund the card directly.
To start this process, navigate to the user's submission that needs to be edited. You can do this by either accessing the form list and clicking on the ID# next to the user's name, or by entering their profile, clicking on the submissions tab, then clicking on their ID#.
Once you click on the ID#, locate and click on the Edit button in the upper right-hand corner of the page. This will allow you to edit the selected submission. Once here, clicks on the name of the user in the gray bar in order to view and edit their submission. This is pictured below.
You will now be able to see and edit the user's submission. Once here, make any needed changes. If a user is cancelling a selection that costs money, such as a lunch option for example, change their selection so that the option that costs money is no longer selected. Once you do this and click the save button at the top of the page, the form will give you the below screenshot.
Click the 'Create a new credit memo' option. You will then see the below image.
- You must first click the green 'Add a line item' button in order to enter the refunded amount, so if you don't see options 2, 3, and 4 on your page, first click this button.
- Enter the amount you want to refund here.
- Enter the description of what the refund is for here.
- Choose the revenue account to which this transaction will be linked.
- Choose your processor.
- Choose the invoice template you want this credit memo to be attached to. The chosen template determines which notifications are sent out in relation to your newly created invoice, so ensure you choose the correct template.
Once done, click the save button to create your new credit memo. Next, navigate to this invoice by either going to Financial->Invoicing->locate and click on the invoice's number, or by navigating to the user's profile, clicking on their Invoices tab, then clicking on the invoice. You'll now be inside of the invoice. Click the Settle button to mark the invoice as refunded.
FAQ
I am getting an error when attempting an online refund, why?
If the member originally made their payment in the last 24 hours , then the charge may not have taken effect in their bank yet. Waiting until the next day and then following the refund procedure should get that refund settled appropriately. Another possible reason is the refund was processed already within your Payment Processor, MC Professional will not let you process the same refund twice.
When will [member] get their money back on their credit or debit card?
The end of the business day is when this process usually happens. They may need to check with their bank if your payment processor and MC Professional says the settlement was approved.
Oh no, I accidentally chose “Offline” when it was an “Online” settlement what do I do?
If this mix-up occurs, you will need to log into your Payment Processor and perform the refund process there. Go to the Financial and Invoices Tab and select Payment Processor to view which one you have and refund the account in the processor accordingly.