IN THIS ARTICLE:
Learn how issue full refunds from the family ledger, and how to edit/adjust associated ledger charges as needed.

• How Refunds are Processed
• Issuing a Full Refund
• Refund Manually to Another Payment Method
• Correcting Charges

This article includes instructions for issuing Full Refunds from the family ledger. Instructions for handling partial refunds from the family ledger (through supported gateways) can be found here.

How Refunds are Processed

In iClassPro, refunds can only be processed back through the same payment method they were recorded with.

For example, if you collect a $50 tuition payment from a customer's autopay information, a refund issued through iClassPro would send the order back through the gateway to reverse that specific transaction-- and add the $50 back to the customer's same autopay account.

Any payments entered into iClassPro with the cash, check, ACH, and external credit card device payment types are not connected to any kind of account-- so refunds issued on these payment types must be done outside of iClassPro via cash or check.

• If refunds are issued for payments taken via a gateway -- the request to refund is sent through the gateway for authorization. If the transaction is too old to issue the refund, you will receive an error message. If you have changed gateway accounts since the payment was taken-- the new gateway will not be able to find a matching transaction and you will also receive an error message. Otherwise, you should receive a "Refund Successful!" message and the full amount of the payment will be returned to your customer.
• At this time, iClassPro supports partial refunds for most transactions. However, eCheck refunds are only supported via alternative refund to cash or check for Payrix (formerly IntegraPay) (partially or in full).
  If you use Payrix (formerly IntegraPay) and need to issue an eCheck refund, the system will default to issuing it as a CASH refund.  You can click the option to "Change" if you wish to refund via physical CHECK instead.
  • See Refund Manually to Another Payment Method.
• We do not recommend refunding customers who paid by credit card using an equivalent cash or check transaction to return the funds. This action is in violation of most merchant agreements, because it is considered to be a method of giving the customer a cash advance that is not detectable by the card company, which generally applies different fees to cash advance transactions. Additionally, if the payment is later rejected or charged back by the customer, your business could still be held liable for the full amount of the original transaction.
• If you do not use one of the supported gateways listed above and need to perform a partial refund, it is best to do so directly through your gateway. You will need to log into your separate online gateway account to do so. Normally, this can be done by issuing a manual specified dollar amount refund back on the card using the transaction ID of the original payment as a reference for the refund. 
  
  To reflect that a partial refund took place in iClassPro after handling the transaction in the gateway, you will need to replace the existing payment with two new separate payments-- one for the refunded amount and one for the amount which you are keeping.
• Before deleting the original payment, be sure to record the Transaction ID's and additional notes from the original payment separately. This information can then be inserted in the Check/Reference field on each of the two new payments to keep accurate records of what took place.
  
  When you enter the two new payments, be careful to choose an option as an external credit card device payment type so that you do not draft additional funds from the customer's actual accounts. Also, be sure to use the original payment date(s) for the payments. Once these two new payments are entered into the system, you will follow the instructions below to show the payment created for the refunded amount as refunded.

Issuing a Full Refund

The first step to issuing a refund is to search for the family or student in iClassPro. 

1. On the family or student, click on the Ledger icon.
2. Click Full Ledger to open the ledger window.
3. Under the family information displayed at the top of the window, there is a drop down menu to select which transactions to view. Change the view from charges to Payments.
4. Find the payment you wish to refund and click the Edit button.
   Note: You can also refund a payment using the red dollar sign from the payments view, but we recommend reviewing the payment information first to ensure that you have the right transaction.
5. Click Refund at the bottom of the window to issue a refund for the full amount of the payment.

From the full ledger window, the payment will still be listed for your records. However, you will notice the amount in the total Applied/Refunded column will match the full amount of the payment. You will also notice, if you change the view at the top left of the window from Payments to Refunds, the information is also listed there and the Balance at the top right of the window will no longer include that payment.

• For help with partial refunds, click here.

Refund Manually to Another Payment Method

iClassPro also allows users to manually choose to refund a previously approved payment to an alternate payment method.

NOTE: If the original Payment Type was CASH, the system will only allow you to refund to CASH.

To refund to an alternate payment method:

• After clicking the option to refund the payment, click “Change” to select an alternative payment method:
  • If the original Payment Type was CHECK/ECHECK/CREDIT CARD/EXTERNAL CREDIT CARD, then the only alternative payment methods allowed are CASH or CHECK.
• After selecting the Refund Type, the header will change to indicates that a refund is being issued to an alternative payment method.
• Click “Issue Refund” to proceed, or “Cancel” to exit the screen without completing the refund process:
  
• The system will display a “Are you sure you wish to refund this payment?” warning. Click “Yes” to accept or “No Thanks!” to exit the screen without completing the refund process:
  
• The refund is recorded on the ledger:
  

In some cases, refunding credit card transactions by cash or check could be against card brand rules, and is not recommended unless refunding back to the original credit card is not an option.

Correcting Charges

If a charge was associated with the payment you just refunded, you will also need to correct the charge to balance the family account.

• See our "How Do I Edit/Correct an Existing Charge?" article for more information about correcting the charges on that family's ledger. 

If the outstanding charge is for the same amount as the payment and you do not need to keep record of a $0 charge, you can simply delete the charge by following these instructions.

If you need to zero out a charge, the best practice is to delete the original charge and then record a new backdated charge in its place for $0. This will preserve all history of the program and charge category for any applied and refunded amounts shown in financial reports.