You can send money back to a customer, or give them a credit to use on another invoice, right from the invoice. Both are for owners and admins.
Refund a payment
- Open the invoice and scroll to Payment History.
- On the payment's row, open the … menu and choose Refund….
- Enter the Amount. You can refund up to what the customer paid, including any card fee they covered. If part of the payment was already refunded, the window shows what's left.
- Pick a Reason: Duplicate charge, Requested by customer, Warranty, Goodwill, Overpayment, Service issue or Other.
- Add a Note if you like, for example what you told the customer or the check number you handed back.
- Leave Email the customer a refund receipt ticked to send them a receipt. The window shows the address it goes to.
- Click Refund and confirm.
How the money goes back
| Paid by | What happens |
|---|---|
| Card | The card is refunded through Stripe. |
| Bank (ACH) | The refund goes through Stripe and takes 5–10 business days. It shows Pending until Stripe confirms it. |
| Cash, check or another method you recorded | Run a Call records that you returned the money. Hand back the cash or write the check yourself. |
A refund never reopens the invoice or puts it back in your unpaid invoices. On a paid invoice, the status reads Partially refunded when part of the money went back, and Refunded when all of it did. A Refunded total appears under the payments, and each refund gets its own number, such as RF-0001.
<!-- shot: Payment History with a refund row and the Refunded total -->Refunds made in Stripe
If you refund a payment in your Stripe Dashboard instead, it shows up on the invoice by itself. You don't need to record it twice. Run a Call doesn't email the customer for these; send the receipt from the invoice if you want to.
Refund receipts
The refund receipt tells the customer how much went back, where it went (for example "your card" or "cash") and when, with the invoice attached. Card and bank refunds add that it can take 5 to 10 business days to show.
- Send it again, or later: on a refunded invoice, click Send refund receipt. On a partly refunded one, it's in the ⋯ (More) menu. The window works like Send receipt: check the address, edit the subject or message, see the preview, then send.
- Change the wording or turn it off: go to Automations, open Getting paid and find Refund receipt. It's on for every company to start with. When it's off, the box in the refund window starts unticked, and you can still tick it for one refund.
Removing a payment
A payment recorded by mistake can still be removed from Payment History, which reopens the invoice. Once a payment has a refund, it can't be removed.
Issue a credit
Use a credit when the customer should get money off a future bill rather than money back.
- At the top of the invoice, open the ⋯ (More) menu and choose Issue credit….
- Enter the Amount (tax included, if any) and pick a Reason.
- If the invoice still has a balance, Apply to this invoice now is ticked, so the credit lowers this invoice's balance straight away. Untick it to keep the whole credit on the customer.
- Tick Includes sales tax if the credit reverses taxed work. Leave it off for a goodwill credit.
- Add a Note if you like, then click Issue credit.
The credit is saved as a credit memo with its own number, such as CM-0001. Nothing is refunded. Whatever isn't applied stays on the customer for any of their open invoices.
<!-- shot: Issue credit window with Amount, Reason and Includes sales tax -->Apply a credit to an invoice
- Open any open invoice for the same customer.
- Open the ⋯ (More) menu and choose Apply credit….
- Pick the credit and the amount to use, then click Apply. The credit counts as a payment; no money moves.
It shows in Payment History as Credit CM-0007 applied and lowers the balance like a payment. If you remove it, the credit opens again and can be used elsewhere.
See a customer's credits
Open the customer, go to the Invoices tab and find the Credits list. Each credit shows whether it's open or applied in full. An open credit can be voided from there.
<!-- shot: Credits list on the customer's Invoices tab -->QuickBooks
Once you've chosen the QuickBooks accounts for refunds and card fees:
- Refunds post as refund receipts.
- Credits post as credit memos.
- Applied credits post as zero-dollar payments that use the credit memo.
See Card fees and refunds in QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Desktop: credits, applied credits and card fees sync. Refunds don't yet. Each one shows under QuickBooks sync as "Enter this refund in QuickBooks Desktop", so enter it there by hand.