Refund a payment on an Invoice

1. Open the Finance > Invoices DataGrid from the main menu

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2. Update the Filters that are applied at the top of your Invoices DataGrid
   This will make sure your Invoice will be included in the results of the DataGrid, while also limiting the results down so that you can find your Invoice much quicker!

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   1. If you do not yet have a filter in your Invoices DataGrid to only view Invoices that are Paid/Completed, click on the ‘Filters’ drop-down button to the right of the filters bar

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   2. Click on the ‘+ Create New’ option

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   3. Create your new filter using the following settings:
      Status -- Is In -- Completed
      You can also include Invoices with a status of Part Completed if you want to view all Invoices with a payment on them

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   4. Click the ‘Preview’ button to check that your filter works as you expect!

   5. If you would like to save your filter for future use, provide your filter with a name and click on the 'Save' button

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   6. Your DataGrid should now only show Invoices that have been fully paid, and you will have a new filter in your filter bar which you can toggle on/off by clicking on it

       

3. Make sure that the Invoice Reference and Invoice ID are included in searches made from your DataGrid search bar
   Click on the arrow button attached to the right of the DataGrid Search to change which columns are referenced when you search

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4. Use the search bar for find your Invoice
   Searching the Invoice Reference is the most common way to search for Invoices

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5. Review the results in your DataGrid to find the specific Invoice that you will be processing a refund for

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6. Once you have found the Invoice in the Invoices DataGrid, right-click on it to view the context menu options for this Invoice

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7. Click on the ‘View’ context menu option

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8. This will take you to a view of the Invoice

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9. Confirm the contents and the outstanding balance of the Invoice with your customer, to ensure you are looking at the right Invoice for their refund

1. From your view of the Invoice, click the Transactions tab

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2. This will take you to a view of all payment and refund Transactions against this Invoice

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3. From this DataGrid, identify which Transaction requires the refund
   
   

4. If you do not have visibility of the information you need to see about the payment on the Transactions DataGrid, you can adjust the columns included

   1. Remove any columns that you do not need to see in your DataGrid by right-clicking on them and clicking the ‘Remove Column’ option

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   2. To add additional columns into your DataGrid to view more information for each Transaction, click on the ‘Change Columns’ button at the top right of the DataGrid results

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   3. Use the ‘+' button to add new columns in and click on the 'Apply’ button

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   4. You will now see the information you need, within your Transactions DataGrid
      
      

5. Once you have identified which payment Transaction requires a refund, right-click on it to view the context menu options for this Transaction

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6. Click on the ‘Refund’ context menu option

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7. This will open the ‘Refund Payment’ window, review the details in the top half of the page

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8. Scroll down to the Refund section of the window

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9. If you are refunding a Payment Gateway payment (such as a Stripe, WorldPay, or Opayo payment) then you will see an option to ‘Keep the Refund’ local

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   1. If the customer has already had their payment refunded through your payment gateway or through your accounting team, and you simply need to record the refund in your accessplanit platform, check this box to record the refund on your accessplanit platform (locally) only

   2. If the customer has not yet had their money returned and you would like to refund the payment back to them now, leave this box unchecked

   3. It is best practice to select which items from the Invoice the refund relates to, this is so that any Credit Notes generated from this process have a reference to these items

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   4. If you will not be refunding the full amount to the customer, enter the amount to be refunded into the Amount To Refund box

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10. Finally, indicate if a Credit Note needs to be automatically created for this refund

    1. If you are not expecting the customer to pay the amount that is being refunded at a later date, check the 'Create a credit note’ box, this will generate a Credit Note for the refunded amount and allocate this to the Invoice to balance it and show that no payment is due on the Invoice

    2. If you are expecting the customer to pay the amount at a later date (for example their cheque bounced and they will be making payment another way), do not check the 'Create a credit note’ box, this will leave the Invoice with an outstanding balance

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11. Click the ‘Refund’ button to complete the refund

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12. You will be taken back to the Transactions DataGrid where you will be able to see the original payment, the refund, and (if you selected the option) the Credit Note assigned to balance off the outstanding amount on the Invoice

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This error means the payment gateway/bank has declined the refund request. This is usually due to bank-side restrictions (e.g. card expired, refund window passed, card/account closed, or a security rule at the bank). In these cases you will need to either:

• Use Keep Refund Local and issue the refund manually via your payment gateway/banking tool, or

• Ask the customer to contact their bank if you believe the refund should be allowed.

We would advise that you generate the refund through your Payment Gateway, this way you keep a full and accurate audit log in your platform. Alternatively, you can delete the refund transaction and process the refund again, this time without checking the ‘Keep Refund Local’ option.

Refunds are processed through your chosen payment gateway, so the time it takes for the money to reach the customer's account will vary depending on the provider and the customer's bank.

Typically, refunds are completed within 3–10 working days, though some providers or banks may take longer to process them.

Please Note: accessplanit submits the refund request to your payment gateway but has no control over the speed at which the gateway or the customer's bank completes the transaction.