A card refund goes back through the order the customer paid on, through your site's payment account (Payrix), and only while that order is inside your refund window, which is 180 days on most sites. When the order is too old, already refunded in full or wasn't paid by card, or is less than a day old and you're on the registration's Cancel tab, there's no card refund to offer. Find what you see below for the reason and the fix.

Applies to: Org admins with the Add Transaction or Edit Enrollment permission · All plans · Card payments made through Payrix

Where: Customers > Account Management > Search > (customer) > Account Overview > Add Transaction, or Enrollments > Edit Enrollment > Cancel

Two places to refund a card

Check which orders can still be refunded

1. Go to Customers > Account Management > Search, search for the customer and click their name to open Account Overview.
2. Click Add Transaction.
3. In Transaction Type, choose Refund/Void - Credit Card.
4. Open the Refund Order list.

What you'll see: every card order on the account that you can still refund, as the order number followed by the amount left to refund in parentheses. Compare them with the order numbers on the customer's registrations and payment plan payments. If no order qualifies, the list shows one of the messages in the next section instead. Click Cancel to leave without adding anything.

If Refund/Void - Credit Card isn't in the Transaction Type list, your admin user is limited to certain transaction types, or your site has no card payment account. Ask an admin who manages users to check the filters on your user, or to issue the refund.

Refund Order says "Refunds can only be processed…"

• "Refunds can only be processed 24 hours after the order has been placed and within 180 days of the order." The message shows your site's number of days. It means no card order on this account can still be refunded. Despite the wording, payments through Payrix don't have to wait 24 hours here. The usual reasons:
  • The order is past your refund window. An order leaves the list one day before the number in the message, so with a 180-day window the last day to refund it is 179 days after the order. Some sites have a 120-day window.
  • It has already been refunded in full, with Add Transaction or on the Cancel tab.
  • The customer didn't pay by card on this account. They paid by check, cash or another offline method, or with account credit, or the payment is on a different account. A card refund can only return a card payment made on the same account, so it can't send money to someone who didn't pay you, such as reimbursing a coach's expenses.
  • The payment went to a payment account that has since been removed from your site.
  To give the money back, pay the customer another way, such as by check, and record it with Add Transaction > Refund - Manual.
• "Refunds can only be processed 24 hours after the order has been placed and within the refund window of the order." The same as above, on a site whose payment accounts have different refund windows.
• "Refunds can only be processed 24 hours after the order has been placed, within the refund window of the order, and for orders related to organizations you have been granted access to." The account has card orders you could refund, but they were paid to an associated organization your admin user isn't set up for. Ask an admin with access to that organization, or one whose role has the Ignore Refund Org Filter permission, to issue the refund.

On the Cancel tab, the first two messages appear after you click Confirm Cancellation, and nothing is canceled. If the card was already refunded with Add Transaction, cancel with Credit and leave the Credit Amount at the registration's cost, so the refund doesn't leave a balance owed. If the order is past the window, cancel with Credit, pay the customer another way and record the Refund - Manual.

The Cancel tab doesn't offer Refund Credit Card

• Refund Type offers only No Refund and Credit. The order is less than about 24 hours old. Wait about a day, or cancel now with Credit, with the Credit Amount set to what you'll refund, and then refund the card from Account Overview with Add Transaction > Refund/Void - Credit Card, which lists the order right away. Refunding the full amount of a payment that hasn't settled voids it, and the account shows Void - Credit Card.
• Refund Type offers only No Refund. The registration and its add-ons cost $0, for example a free registration or a waitlisted registration whose fees were deferred. Any money the family paid is on another order; see the waitlist section below.
• There's no Refund Type, only Credit Amount. The registration's own order wasn't paid by card. It was paid by check, cash or another offline method, paid with account credit, cost $0 when it was placed, or it was moved here with the Transfer tab. A transfer creates a new order with no payment, and what the family paid stays on the original order. To refund a card payment on another order, cancel with a Credit Amount equal to the refund, then refund that order with Add Transaction.
• Available for Refund is less than the family paid. The Cancel tab refunds only the order the registration was bought on. Payment plan installments, and a balance paid after a Partial Pay deposit, are separate card orders. Refund them with Add Transaction.

A waitlisted registration whose fees were deferred

When you accept a waitlisted registration whose fees were deferred, TeamSideline adds the fee to the account as a Misc - Debit ("Balance due for accepted Waitlist Enrollment"). The family pays it as a balance payment, which is an order of its own, so the Cancel tab can't refund it. To cancel the registration and refund that payment:

1. On the registration's Cancel tab, choose No Refund in Refund Type (if only Credit Amount is shown, leave it at 0.00) and click Confirm Cancellation.
2. On Account Overview, click Add Transaction, choose Refund/Void - Credit Card, choose the balance payment's order in Refund Order, enter the amount and click Add.
3. Click Add Transaction again, choose Misc - Credit, enter the same amount and click Add.

What you'll see: "Enrollment cancelled." after step 1, and "Transaction Added." after steps 2 and 3. The Misc - Credit offsets the refund, so the account balance goes back to $0.

Refund errors

When one of these appears, nothing is refunded, and on the Cancel tab nothing is canceled.

• "Refund amount cannot be for more than the original credit card payment or the combined total of multiple refunds cannot be for more than the original credit card payment." The amount is more than what's left of that payment. Refund Order shows what's left; on the Cancel tab, Available for Refund doesn't subtract earlier refunds. Refund what's left, and pay any difference another way, recorded as a Refund - Manual.
• "Error processing refund. This transaction is not yet fully processed and can only be voided at this time. Voids are for full refund amount only. Please enter full amount, or wait for transaction to process to partially refund." The payment hasn't settled yet, usually because it was made today. Enter the full amount paid on that order to void it, or wait a day to refund part of it.
• "Error processing refund. This refund cannot be completed due to the customer's bank declining to process the refund. Please complete the steps to perform a manual refund." The customer's bank refused the refund, for example because the card account was closed. Pay the customer another way and record a Refund - Manual, or leave a credit on the account.
• "Error processing refund. An error occurred while trying to refund this transaction. Please contact support@teamsideline.com for additional assistance." Payrix can't refund this payment as it stands: it's still pending, it failed or was returned, or Payrix can't find it. Contact TeamSideline Support with the order number.
• A message that starts "Error processing refund. invalid_refund:" Payrix refused the refund. Usually Payrix has less left to refund on that payment than you entered, for example because part of it was refunded in the Payrix portal, or the customer's bank refused it. Contact TeamSideline Support with the order number before you pay the customer another way. Support checks the payment in Payrix and tells you whether to record a manual refund or leave a credit on the account.

The other messages on the Cancel tab, such as "Can not refund for $0.", are explained in How to cancel an enrollment and refund the card.

Good to know

• A refund always goes back to the card used for that order. It can't be sent to a different card.
• Every payment is its own order with its own date, so each payment plan installment or balance payment has its own refund window.
• The amount shown for an order in Refund Order includes any processing fee the customer paid on it. Payrix keeps its own fee when you refund; a void carries no fee.
• Refund only in TeamSideline. A refund made directly in the Payrix portal isn't recorded on the TeamSideline order, so the account doesn't show it and refunding the same payment again fails. If that has happened, contact TeamSideline Support.

Related articles

• How to cancel an enrollment and refund the card
• How to issue a partial refund without canceling the enrollment
• How to Void a Transaction (and How a Void Differs from a Refund)
• How to record a manual refund (check or cash) on a customer's account
• How to add a Misc-Credit to a customer's account
• How to refund payment plan installments and other separate payments