You may need to cancel or refund a payment without canceling the invoice if:
A mistake was made when entering the payment;
A client requests to change the amount that was paid;
The payment amount is adjusted due to missed activity occurrences.
Otherwise, you may cancel an invoice and issue a refund at the same time!
In this article:
1. Rules for Canceling/Refunding Online & Offline Payments
Before getting started, make sure you have the right administrator permissions.
🌐 Online Payments
Online payments are processed through your Amilia merchant account, with Paysafe. They are payments made by credit card or eCheck at checkout, payments made in SmartRec using the client's saved payment details, credit card or eCheck details entered in SmartRec by the admin, or payments processed with an integrated terminal. They are labeled as an 'Card payment via SmartRec' in the client's billing.
Refunds must be done on the same credit card or eCheck that was used as payment.
The refund can't exceed more than what was originally paid.
You may cancel an online credit card payment in full, if it occurred the same day. You will not be charged transaction fees (unlike a refund).
You may cancel an eCheck within 24 hours of the payment being made.
You may refund an eCheck directly once the payment is processed. This can take up to 10 business days. There is a $500 limit to eCheck refunds. To increase this limit, please start a chat with our support team.
When you refund a credit card, authorization fees are billed on your next Amilia invoice. Fees from the initial payment are not reimbursed.
The client's account must have a credit memo that is equal or greater than the amount to refund.
🏦 Offline Payments
Offline payments are not processed through your Amilia merchant account. They are payments made in cash, with paper cheques, or card payments accepted using a non-integrated terminal (which uses a separate merchant account).
An offline payment cancellation is the return of a payment to the client by cash, by cheque, or by using a non-integrated payment terminal.
Offline payments are refunded via the Operations menu, not the payment record.
No transaction fees are associated with offline payments since they are processed outside of your Amilia merchant account.
The client's account must have a credit memo that is equal or greater than the amount to refund. However, a credit memo isn't required if you are simply canceling an offline payment.
2. Cancel a Payment Without Canceling the Invoice
An admin may want to cancel a payment if they made a mistake. The option to cancel a payment in full is available for:
Offline payments (at any time)
Online credit card or eCheck payments made the same day (if the payment was processed, you'll need to perform an online refund)
Expand the payment entry and click to Cancel the payment.
Complete the cancellation form (it's slightly different from online to offline payments):
When canceling an online credit card or eCheck payment, the details are shown.
Add notes if necessary and then Cancel payment.
After you cancel the payment, a cancellation entry is created.
The canceled payment is greyed out and reconciled to the cancellation entry. The invoice isn't reconciled to anything, and a balance is now owing.
To resolve the balance, make a new payment or create a credit. Then, reconcile it to the outstanding invoice.
3. Refund a Payment without Canceling the Invoice
A credit memo must be available in the account before you refund a payment. The option to make a full or partial refund is available for:
Offline payments (at any time)
eCheck payments that have been processed (can take up to 10 business days)
📑 Create a Credit if the client has a balance of $0 or greater
If you don't intend on canceling the invoice, you must first create a credit.
Click on Operations>Create credit
Select the credit type (you must create a rebate in the Custom invoice item subtab, if you haven't already).
The credit should equal the amount of the full or partial refund.
Taxes should be included if you want the total amount credited to reflect the value you write.
The Description is visible to the client. The Admin comments are not.
Click on Create credit. This creates a credit memo on the account.
💳 Refund an online payment partially or in full
Once a credit memo is available, you can proceed with the refund. Remember, the online payment must have been fully processed in order to refund it.
Steps to follow to complete the refund form:
Expand the online credit card or eCheck payment entry and click on Refund.
Select the credit memo to use.
The amount to refund can't exceed the total credit, nor the initial payment. Only organizations with AmiliaPayment can refund eChecks in part or in full.
The payment details shows the credit card being refunded.
Add notes if necessary and then Apply refund.
It can take up to 48 hours to process an online payment refund.
In the client's billing, a 'Processing' label is visible on the Refund entry.
When processed, the label will disappear, and the balance will be at $0.
💸 Refund an offline payment partially or in full
Once a credit memo is available, you can proceed with the refund.
In the Operations menu, click on Record a refund.
A new screen appears. Select the credit memo to use for your refund.
Enter the amount to refund. It cannot exceed the amount of the credit memo.
Add notes if necessary. When finished, click on Create refund record.
In the client's billing, the refund is reconciled with the credit memo:
In your finance reports, the original invoice amount is offset by the credit memo, and the original payment amount is offset by the refund record.
4. Frequently Asked Questions
1) Which permissions are required to cancel and/or refund a payment?
Permissions are required to view the client's billing page and perform certain transactions. Account owners have access to everything by default.
In the Account>Administratrors>Manage Permissions page:
In the Clients group: Client Billing, Manual invoicing & crediting, Refunds, Invoicing, and Failed payments
In the Finance group: Manage reconciliations
2) How do I cancel/refund an eCheck?
If you want to cancel and refund an eCheck payment directly back to the client, you can proceed as you would with a credit card.
You may cancel an eCheck payment up to 24 hours after the transaction occurs, but with some banks it's even less time. If the eCheck is cancelled before this time window, there's no need to refund because the funds were never taken from the client's account.
To refund an eCheck, you must wait until it's fully processed, which can take up to 10 business days.
Organizations with a Paysafe merchant account (i.e, with AmiliaPayment) can do partial or full eCheck refunds. Organizations with Cardconnect can only do full eCheck refunds.
You can only refund the same bank account that was used to pay with eCheck.
If you want to refund an eCheck payment offline (meaning you won't refund directly back to the client's bank acccount):
Using the Operations menu, create a credit and then record a refund to return the funds to the client (using an offline payment method). Your organization must decide whether to record the refund before or after the eCheck is fully processed.
3) Why can I cancel an online credit card payment the same day, but not after?
Online credit card payments can usually be canceled on the same day, before the payment authorization has been batched.
While authorizations happen on a client's credit card at the time of purchase, it's not until processing that the transactions get charged to the bank. 'Batching' is where the merchant provider gathers all of the authorization requests and sends them to be processed.
A payment can be canceled as long as no actual funds have been paid by the card holder's bank. However, if the payment has been batched, then your organization was paid, in which case, a refund is in order.
4) I tried refunding a client on their credit card and it was refused. What now?
A refund may fail if the online credit card payment is older than 12 months, or the credit card no longer exists (lost/stolen/fraud/expired).
If the initial refund was refused, the failed transaction will appear in the Payment Action Center. Click on the blue circular icon to retry. If successful, the refund will appear in the client's billing. If unsuccessful, the transaction will remain in the Payment Action Center. Click on the blue circular icon again to retry one last time.
If this doesn't work, dismiss the notification for the failed transaction, and then return to the client's file. Via the Operations menu in Client Billing, select Record a refund.
5) When should I use the option to 'Record a Refund' in the Operations menu?
The option to 'Record a refund' via the Operations menu should be used when:
You need to refund an eCheck payment offline, meaning not directly back to the bank account that was used to make the eCheck payment.
A client made an account deposit, but wants that money returned.
An online credit card payment is older than 12 months or the card doesn't exist.
Partially refunding an offline payment.
The client must have a credit note or account deposit in their account before you can record a refund.
6) Why do I have to create a custom invoice item if I want to add a credit?
Custom invoice items allows your organization to manually add charges or rebates to a client's invoice and/or billing account. There are many reasons why you may add an extra charge or a discount (late charges, special discount, refund purposes, etc.) We strongly recommend creating manual invoice items which help preserve clarity in the client's file as well as your financial reports.
7) If I choose multiple credit items, what happens if I choose to refund an amount that is less than the totals of each item?
If multiple credit items are selected and the amount being refunded is the less than the cumulative amount of the credits, items will be refunded in order of oldest to newest. Additionally, if you would like to partially refund one credit memo or account deposit, it is recommended to partially refund these items one at a time.
8) What happens if I try to refund more than the total amount?
Since a refund cannot exceed the total amount that can be refunded, you will only be able to record a refund that is lower or equal to the total eligible credit amount.
9) What's the difference between a credit and an account deposit?
An account deposit is specific to storing funds you received (cash advances, bursaries, etc.) for future use. An account deposit type credit can exist in a client's account even if there's an outstanding balance to be paid.
A credit is used to the reduce the current balance on a client's account. It is not a transaction that affects real money. Creating a credit can be used to make corrections to a client's balance. It can be given as a 'gift' to a client towards their next purchase. You may also want to create a credit in order to refund a client if you don't want to cancel the original invoice, as it is required to add a credit before refunding a client if their account balance is at $0.
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