How to Know if a Refund Was Processed
When doing a refund on an electronic payment (post transaction > post refund), you may wonder how you can know if that refund processed. Please see this article for steps (and a video) on how to do a refund for credit cards or ACH payments.
Once a transaction (credit card or ACH) is refunded, a crossed-out dollar sign will show up beside the transaction.
If you hover over the icon, it will say if the transaction was either "Fully Refunded," or "Partially Refunded." The refund itself will show above the payment in red, along with the corresponding refund credit (if needed to close the invoice; see this article for more about refund credits).
If the transaction was split between invoices, each part of the transaction will have the crossed-out dollar sign icon.
❗If you don't see crossed-out dollar sign icon beside the credit card or ACH payment transaction, then you did not process a correct refund.
NOTE: Refunds for credit cards take about 1-2 business days to go through. Refunds for ACH can take between 3-5 business days.
Important Notes About Refunds
Important Notes About Refunds
Refunds CANNOT be canceled by Enrollsy! If you need to cancel a refund, we will have to go through the merchant account provider and this process can take weeks to process. We suggest instead of canceling the refund, charge the customer the difference in what was refunded and what was supposed to have been refunded. Then either post a payment for that difference or have the customer make a payment.
Same day transactions must be voided not refunded. Most payments made on the same day can be voided if done before the payment batches. Some credit card payments only take a few hours to batch. If you only have the "void" option, this will cancel the payment.
Credits are NOT the same refunds. Electronic refunds most be posted through the Post Refunds feature under Post Transaction. Credits stay on the account until the next invoice is generated either manually or through auto-pay. Then the credit is added to the invoice.
Refunds do come with an automatic Credit. Find out more here about when to use the automatic credit and when to leave it off.
Pending transactions cannot be voided or refunded. If you see a clock icon beside a credit card or ACH payment, that means the transaction is still pending. It can take anywhere from 1 to 2 business days for a credit card transaction to process, and 2 to 5 business days for ACH transactions to process, depending on the bank.
Transactions processed on a different merchant account cannot be refunded. If you have recently changed merchant accounts (i.e., CardConnect to EnrollsyPay), and you have a payment that was processed on the old merchant account, that payment cannot be refunded on the new merchant account. In this case, you will have to find a different way to refund the customer (through a payment processed on the new merchant account or a paper check).
If your company has more than one merchant account set up at a particular location, a payment processed at one location can only be refunded by Admin Users within that location.
Check Payment Gateway
If your customer says they have not received a refund, make sure that it has been at least 3-5 business days. If it has, you may need to check your payment gateway portal to make sure the refund shows up there.
If it's an ACH, the payment gateway is ACHQ/Speedchex. if the payment is a credit card, the payment gateway is either Till/Nuvei or Card Connect). If you don't know who your payment gateway is, we can tell you.
See this support article for instructions to log into those payment portals.
If the refund shows up in your payment gateway, then it was processed successfully. You can tell the customer the refund was processed and should show up in their account within one business day of the processed date. If the customer still claims to not have received the refund, we suggest asking for a copy of their bank statement so you can verify that they have not received it.
If the refund does not show up as processed in the payment gateway, it may have been declined. The specific reason for a declined refund is often communicated by the payment processor.
If the refund does show as processed and the customer has verified that they have not received it, please let us know via chat.
Why Your Refund Was Declined
If you have attempted to do a Refund and received a decline error, it means that the card issuer is indicating that the cardholder's account cannot accept a Refund. This can be frustrating, but there are a few common reasons for declines that you should be aware of.
First, the card account may have been closed. This could be due to a variety of reasons, such as the cardholder closing the account or the card expiring. In this case, the cardholder's payment method cannot be refunded.
Another common reason for a Refund decline is fraud. If the card issuer suspects fraudulent activity on the account, they may freeze the card to protect the cardholder's funds. Unfortunately, this also means that a Refund cannot be processed.
Some card accounts, such as prepaid cards, may not allow for Refunds to be made. This is typically stated in the terms and conditions of the card, so it's important to check before attempting a Refund.
Lastly, if the payment was charged back, it means that the cardholder disputed the charge and the funds were returned to them. In this case, a Refund cannot be processed as the funds are no longer available.
What to do about it?
If you receive a decline error when attempting a Refund, there are a few options for handling the situation:
Refund the customer via a paper check
Refund the customer on another payment made with a different payment method
It's important to note that if the Customer's payment method was declined for a Refund, you will want to get a new payment method from them for any future payments (if applicable). This will help avoid any further issues with Refunds in the future.
How to Cancel a Refund
If you have submitted a refund and the amount is wrong, or the payment was refunded incorrectly, please know that you must go through the merchant provider (Till/Nuvei for credit cards and ACHQ for ACH payments; unless you are on CardConnect for one or both) to cancel the refund.
For a credit card refund to be canceled by the merchant provider, the refund should not have been processed as a chargeback. See this article about chargebacks for more information.
In some instances, the refund will not be able to be canceled. In that case, or if you would rather skip the cancellation process, you can do the following:
Create a new charge for the customer equal to the refund amount to recover the funds.
Reprocess the customer's payment or have the customer pay the charge again.
NOTE: Canceling a refund normally takes 7 to 10 business days, but can take longer in some situations.
If you wish to proceed with canceling the refund, please provide the following information via chat:
Customer Email Address
Refund Amount
Refund Date
Last 4 digits of card (for credit cards)