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Refund a Transaction or a Sale

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Someone wants to drop out of an event? Or cancel their membership? You can issue a refund for any sale — whether it was recorded manually or completed online. This article walks you through the steps.

Where to issue a refund for a transaction or a sale?

From the transaction

You can process the refund directly from the transaction (accessible via the form), with one condition: the refund must cover the full sale amount.

In that case:

  • Navigate to the relevant transaction via: Forms > Memberships/Events... > Manage (Registrants/Members);
  • once on the registrants tab, click the eye icon (👁️‍🗨️) in the Detail column for the relevant transaction (or person).

  • Inside the transaction, you'll see a red button labeled "Refund all". Click it.

Be careful not to confuse it with the gray "Delete all" button — that one deletes the accounting entry instead of marking it as refunded.

There are specific cases where, even for a full refund, processing it from the transaction is not possible (see that section of this article for more details).

Full offline refund

If the purchase was made using an offline payment method (check, cash, wire transfer, etc.), start by navigating to the transaction (see above). Then click the "Refund all" button.

A confirmation window will appear — click "Refund".

You'll be able to fill in the accounting details for the refund in the next step. At the same time, the member will receive a confirmation email.

Enter the refund details, including:

  • the refund date;
  • the payment method;
  • the bank account or petty cash affected;
  • the linked contact (auto-selected if the sale was already linked to a contact in your community).

You can also add a reason for the refund by checking "Free notes" and filling in the text box. This will not be shared with the buyer — it's for your internal tracking only.

When you're done, save.

The associated accounting entries will be generated automatically.

Refunding an online transaction

The process is exactly the same as for an offline refund:

  • Go to the relevant form, on the registrants tab;
  • find the person you want to refund in the participant list and click the Detail icon at the far right of their row (eye icon);
  • once in the transaction, click the Refund all button, then click Refund in the confirmation window.

Please note: The refund can only be processed if your e-wallet has a sufficient balance. If it doesn't, keep in mind that you cannot top up your e-wallet from your bank account — only online sales can fund it. In that case, you'll need to process an offline refund and record it in accounting.

This action will trigger:

  • A fund transfer to the buyer's account;
  • The automatic generation of an accounting entry.

Tracking refunds

In the registrants list

In the registrants list, refunded transactions appear when you select Canceled in the "Filter by status" field.

When you open a refunded transaction, you'll see that another transaction is linked to it. This is the refund transaction, automatically created by the platform to keep a record of the operation.

Both the original transaction and the refund transaction will appear in the Purchases section of the buyer's profile.

Tracking auto-generated accounting entries

These entries are generated when you process the refund directly from the transaction.

The credit note (expense) and payment entries will be created automatically.

If you record the refund manually in accounting (outside of the transaction), you'll need to create these entries yourself (see the next section).

The accounting account affected by the refund will be the revenue account used for the original sale. For example:

  • If the sale generated a revenue entry crediting account 706;
  • then the refund will debit account 706.

For more details on the accounting accounts used, check out this article.

Cases where refunding from the transaction is not possible

Partial refund

You cannot process a partial refund from within the transaction — meaning you cannot refund:

  • Only part of the total amount;
  • Per participant (for example, if the transaction covers 2 people at once).

Instead, we recommend refunding the buyer through the Accounting module, as explained below.

Online installment payments

Refunding transactions that involve installment payments is not currently available at the transaction level. You'll first need to stop the payment schedule (if it's still active), then record the refund manually in Accounting > Book Entry > Expenditure.

Online refund for an offline transaction

If the transaction was completed offline using another payment method (check, cash, card reader, wire transfer, etc.), it cannot be refunded through your Springly e-wallet.

Recording a refund in accounting

If you're in one of the cases where refunding from the transaction is not possible, you can still record the refund manually through accounting.

Go to Accounting > Book Entry > Record a new expenditure.

⚠️ Two things are critical here: the account selected and the linked contact.

Selecting the right accounting account

On the Book Entry page, below the Date and Description fields, you'll find an "Account" field to select an accounting account.

  • Select the "Refund / credit note" account. This is a default account provided by the platform;
  • once selected, a new "Select" field appears, where you can choose a class 7 account: pick the same account that was used for the original transaction being refunded.

You can find this class 7 account from the transaction itself, by clicking View accounting entry:

Then "Show accounting entries":

Even though this is recorded as an "expenditure" entry, the "Refund / credit note" account is specifically designed to offset a class 7 account (normally associated with revenue) — so it's perfectly normal that you won't be able to select a class 6 account in this case.

Linking the entry to the relevant member

Make sure to check the "Link to a person or third party" box (the label may vary depending on your accounting settings, but serves the same purpose). Search for the contact in your community. This will give you accurate tracking in the General ledger or Trial balance.

For example, suppose you need to refund a dinner payment (which was posted to account 706000 - Sale of services). The entry to record would be as follows:

Keep in mind that a manual accounting entry will not have the same effects or automations as a refund processed using the "Refund all" button in a transaction:

  • If the partial refund is processed offline using this method, no credit note will be issued by the platform. You'll need to generate one manually on your end;
  • it won't be possible to link the refund entry to the original transaction. This means your member will still appear in the registrants list for your form. You can still link the entry to a person to keep your accounting up to date via the contact General ledger.

Example:

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