Refunds
How to create a refund
You can choose to do a partial or full refund by simply entering the amount that should be refunded.
The refund back to the parent or student can be done via:
Credit Card (that was initially used to make the payment for the Activity Selection)
Cash (if handled directly by the school outside of Clipboard
Credit Balance (to apply for a refund as a credit in Clipboard that can be used in the future)
Refunds can only be processed to a card if the initial transaction on Clipboard was via the card payment option in Activity Selection.
Clipboard only allows for a refund to be selected on the invoice once.
An important consideration for schools when processing refunds is that Stripe charges transaction fees on card payments, which are borne by the School. It is best practice to offer a credit note if guardians/students will be re-selecting Activities to avoid the school being recharged transaction fees.
How to process a full or partial refund
Click Actions (bottom right) and click on Refund
Select the refund destination (Credit Card, Credit Balance or Cash)
Select the full amount if you wish to refund the entire amount
If you wish only to do a partial refund, untick 'Refund the remaining amount' and enter the partial amount you want to refund
Provide a refund reason for the refund and select process refund
Once a refund is 'processed' to a credit card, it cannot be reversed. A credit balance or cash can be reversed; read on below under 'Credit Balances’ for more.
How to refund a further amount
If you need to refund a further amount on the original invoice, you will need to create a credit note to refund the remaining amount. The ‘refund’ option is just a shortcut to the initial refund, where it creates a credit note and refunds in one go.
For example, if a user refunds $10 instead of $100, they will need to create a credit note of $90 and refund the remaining amount.
Go to the original invoice
Select Create (and apply) Credit for the refund amount, which will create a credit note
Go to the newly created credit note and refund the amount by selecting Refund.
Remember to select the correct refund destination and amount; once a refund is ‘processed’, a refund cannot be reversed.
Transactions cannot be refunded to a card if a parent or student has paid in cash. The refund destination options will be limited to either credit balance or cash.
What happens when a parent has paid for an Activity and removes their selection? Will they be refunded straight away?
When a guardian/parent has paid for an Activity and wants to remove their selection, they will be prompted with the following screenshot below.
Refunds do not happen automatically on Clipboard. Once a parent clicks on the Remove Selection and follows through this process; a credit note is automatically generated on Clipboard indicating the school needs to refund the guardian/parent.
It is within the discretion of school/Admin User to determine whether they are eligible for a full refund of the total amount.
Credit Balances
If you have set up Payments for Activity Selection through Clipboard, as in our article, Payments For Activity Selection, you may have also come across the Credit Balances feature.
When a parent or student requests a refund for an invoice, you will have the option to refund them via Credit Card, Cash and Credit Balance as described in the Refund section above.
How to create a refund via a Credit Balance
Check out the steps above in 'How to create a refund'.
How to view and manage Credit Balances
You can view a list of all your Credit Balances by going to the Payments tab in the left-hand side menu and clicking on Credit Balances at the top.
Filter and search Credit Balances
Clipboard will show you a table of all credit balances for students and guardians, which you can then filter by
Guardians or students under 'User Type'.
The Credit Amount, where you can select credit balances that are Zero, or greater than Zero
Or simply search for the Guardian or Student
View Credit Balance Details
Once you find the Credit Balance you were looking for, you can then easily click on the credit balance, view what invoice it is related to and the reason for the credit balance, along with the date when the credit balance was created and the person who created it.
You can also view the credit balances for a specific student and see any increases or decreases in the student's credit balance over time.
Increase or Decrease Credit Balances
You may want to make changes to a specific student's or multiple students' credit balance. A use case for this could be vouchers or other credit programs; this provides you with a simple way to apply these vouchers in Clipboard that parents and students can leverage to pay for all or parts of the activities they select.
You can select one or multiple credit balances by clicking on the checkboxes
Go to Credit Balances
Once you have made your selection, click on the More button
Choose Increase or Decrease Balance
Specify the Increase or Decrease Amount
Add an explanation for the change in balance and hit Confirm
FAQ
When I refund a paid invoice, will the student be automatically removed from the selected Activity?
No, refunding the invoice does not automatically remove the student from the selected activity. To remove the selection, you need to delete it in the Activity Selections tab. Alternatively, if the Activity Selection is still open, the student can unselect the activity, which will change the invoice status to 'pending refund' and prompt a refund. It is then up to the Admin User to decide whether to issue the student/guardian a full or partial refund to a Credit Note or to the original payment source, based on funds that the school may have already spent to prepare for the Activity itself.
When I initiate a refund, will it be automatically processed through Stripe, or do I need to complete the refund on the Stripe platform as well?
Once an Admin fills in how much of the invoice to refund and confirms the refund in Clipboard, the refund is processed in Stripe, with the funds going back to the relevant card. The refund process is automatically connected to Stripe. Any changes or actions made within the refund process in Clipboard will be processed in Stripe as well.
Can I create an invoice?
Invoices are only generated when a student or parent selects an Activity Selection and proceeds with payment. You can access these invoices on the Invoices page. It's important to keep in mind that if a student removes their selection, a new invoice will be generated when a Clipboard Admin processes a refund for that invoice.
A student or guardian unselected their Activity Selection, what do I do with the invoice?
Once a student or Guardian removes the Activity Selection, the invoice will appear on the Payments Invoice page as 'pending refund' you will need to follow the steps above for How to process a full or partial refund.
Can I undo a refund to a credit card?
Unfortunately, once a refund has been processed back to a student's or guardian’s credit card, this cannot be undone. You will need to ask them to re-select the Activity Selection.
Where do the funds go, and what is the process for transferring them?
The money is stored with Stripe in the school's own Stripe account. The school has control of transferring the balance from the school’s Stripe dashboard.
What should I do if I mistakenly refunded an invoice to a student or guardian's credit balance or cash when it was supposed to be returned to their credit card?
To correct this error and ensure the refund is properly processed, an admin user can follow these steps to reverse this refund:
1. Go to Payments > Invoices and locate the invoice that was refunded incorrectly.
2. Click on the invoice and then select Actions (bottom right).
3. Choose the Revert Transaction option and confirm by selecting "yes."
4. The invoice will be reverted and displayed as 'pending refund.' To redirect this refund to the correct destination (credit card), follow the steps outlined in the video under this article.
This credit balance or cash invoice and amount will be removed from the student or guardian's profile.
Please note that for this reversal to be successful, the following conditions must be met:
The student or guardian must still have sufficient credit to cover the reversal.
The refund in question should be the only refund transaction on a credit note. It cannot be used to offset automatic credit notes generated during a cart checkout to pay for alternative options. For instance, if a student or parent initially pays for one option in a selection group and later changes it to a different option, this process won't apply.
If a pending refund is not to be issued (partial or full), for example, as the student has already attended some of the Sessions before deselecting the Activity, how do I clear the amount due?
If an Activity was deselected by the guardian/student to cancel their participation, creating a 'pending refund' showing an amount due to the guardian/student, but some or all of the amount is not to be refunded, you can process this by:
Refunding the part that is owed to whichever method is required as per the steps above, moving the status to 'partially refunded'.
Refund the remaining amount that is not to be returned to the guardian as a Credit Balance.
Immediately go to the Credit Balances tab, find the guardian, and reduce the Credit Balance by that amount not to be refunded.
This will show as a fully processed refund, but with the cancelled Credit Balance, the guardian/student will have only received the amount refunded in the first step as required. It's important to reduce the Credit Balance immediately, as otherwise the guardian/student may use it, in which case a subsequent manual invoice would be needed to charge them the amount they still have outstanding.
How do I delete an Unpaid Invoice and Activity Selection that the student will not be using?
If the invoice was raised via Activity Selection and e.g. the card had insufficient funds, and the parent didn’t follow up and re-attempt payment:
Delete the Activity Selection. You can choose to create a Credit Note or not to create one.
If you choose to create a Credit Note, the Admin User can write a note explaining why the Activity Selection is being deleted: ‘Activity Selection deleted—payment rejected due to insufficient funds.’
Either option displays no outstanding monies in Payment Exports.
An Admin User must follow up and email the selector to say their Activity Selections have been deleted, as they will have previously received an email saying they were successful with their Activity Selection.
How do I change a Credit note that has been refunded to Credit Balance but needs to be refunded to Card instead?
Please follow the instructions below. Please note, an invoice can only be refunded to card, if the user has originally paid their invoice on Card.