Refunds

Giving money back to a payer. It is a two-stage job in Xperios — somebody requests the refund, somebody authorises it — and it is the part of the ledger people most often ask about, usually for one of the two reasons below.

A refund is not a credit

This catches nearly everyone, so it is worth getting straight first.

• A refund gives money back.
• A credit reduces what was charged.

They are separate things, and most situations need both. If you invoiced somebody £75, they paid £75, and you then refund £75, the money is square — but the invoice is still £75 and still outstanding, because nothing has cancelled the charge. Post a credit as well and the invoice comes down to nil.

Which do I need?

Charged by mistake, nothing paid → credit only. Paid, and you are keeping the charge but returning some money (a goodwill payment, say) → refund only. Charged by mistake and they have already paid → credit and refund.

Requesting a refund

A refund is always against a payment, not against an invoice — you are sending back money you actually received.

1. Open the payer's record and go to their ledger.
2. Pick the invoice, and expand its allocated transactions to see the payments against it.
3. Choose the receipt you are refunding and click Refund.
4. Enter the amount — it cannot be more than that payment — and adjust the narrative if you want to. Click Request Refund.

Nothing has been paid out yet. The refund sits pending until it is authorised.

Authorising it

Tasks → Refund Approvals lists the refunds waiting, oldest first. Each one offers:

Refund to Card	Sends it back through your card provider, to the cards that paid the invoice
Accept	Records it as refunded — you have given the money back another way
Reject	Turns the request down

When Refund to Card is not offered

Refund to Card only appears when your provider can actually take it. The most common reason it is missing: the payer did not pay by card. Somebody who paid by BACS, cheque or cash has no card for the money to go back to, so pay them however you received it and use Accept to record that you have.

That is not a fault, and it is the single most frequent refund question.

When the provider will not take it

If Refund to Card is there but the refund does not go through, the reason is usually at the provider rather than in Xperios:

• Not enough money in your provider account. A refund is paid out of your balance with them. The refund stays pending until there is enough.
• The bank declines it. Cards expire and accounts close, so an older payment may have nowhere to go back to.
• The provider's own check. A message about the original card transactions, less any previous refunds, being less than the refund you are attempting is that check — it means nothing was paid by card on that invoice. It usually happens after a transfer, where the money was taken against the booking the payer originally made rather than the one they ended up on. It is a safeguard against unintended refunds, not an error on the account.

In each case the refund stays pending rather than failing outright, and asking for it again will not change the outcome. A refund can also end up part paid — some of it back to one card, the rest declined on another — which leaves it pending too.

Undoing one

• While it is pending: Reject it in Refund Approvals, or reject or delete it from the payer's ledger. Nothing has left your account.
• Once it has been paid out: it cannot be recalled from Xperios. If the charge should stand after all, post a positive adjustment for the amount — that re-creates the debt, which the payer can then pay.

Refunds Xperios raises for you

Where Auto Generate Refunds is on in System Configuration, a credit that leaves a payer having paid more than they now owe raises a refund by itself. You will see it noted when the credit is authorised, and it waits under Refund Approvals like any other.

See also

• Debtors — the ledger, posting, and what the payer was told about a payment
• Finance settings — Auto Generate Refunds, credits requiring authorisation, and the write-off limit