Permission to Process Refunds

➧ Who has permission to process a refund?

The following designations determine who can access the Stripe Account page (under Settings), payment records (including the Payment History report), and initiate refunds:

• Site Admin (red badge): designated using "Make Admin" in the user's profile
• Role Assignment: with the permission to Read or Manage > Financials ("Manage" required to initiate a refund), or with "All administrative permissions." 

➧ How do I control this access?

See ➞ Adding New Admins to learn how you can grant full or partial admin permissions to specific volunteers to limit who has insight into your team's financial information. 

» Tip: Although we record who initiated the refund, we highly recommend limiting who is designated as a Site Admin and who you assign to a Role with All administrative permissions or the Manage Financials permission. 

➧ Does this also grant permission to our Stripe account settings?

Only individuals listed as the Business Representative or Team Members on your Stripe account can access the Stripe dashboard due to a mobile verification step to access the account. However, on your SwimTopia team site, they can see transactions, change the payout day, and initiate refunds as stated.

See ➞ Stripe Account Access & Management if you need to add/update who can access your Stripe account information.

Processing Fees

There are no additional fees charged to refund payment, but processing fees on the original payment will not be refunded on any payment. (Issue a partial refund if you want to keep the fee.)

This is standard practice and a basic cost to cover the convenience benefit and a variety of features like fraud protection, reporting, and other tools for managing your payments.

For Stripe's fees policy ➞ See Understanding Fees for Refunded Payments article.

» Note: The process is the same for all transactions. Even if your team has the option set for buyers to pay the processing fee, whatever amount the buyer paid, whether or not that included fees, will be refunded in full. The team covers the processing cost, like any vendor that offers credit card payments. If you tend to have many refunds, you can work that cost into your registration fees to recoup the potential loss.

Registration Refunds

Covered in This Section

• Where Registration Refunds are Initiated
• Initiate a Full or Partial Registration Refund
• SwimTopia Per-Athlete Fee
• Conditional Fee Refunds
• League Fee Refunds
• Refunding Does Not Change Registration Status (Parents & Athletes)
• Viewing Refunded Registration Transactions

➧ Where Registration Refunds are Initiated

Refunds for registration payments are initiated from the payment details screen on the Payment History report. 

» Note: This report displays a historical record of any payment option your team has ever configured on your registration forms, but only registrations paid for using the Stripe payment processor can be refunded from your team site. 

Go to Manage Team > Reports > Financial: Payments > View Payment.

➧ Initiate a Full or Partial Registration Refund

» Tip: You will need the Registration# to locate the specific Payment Details if you go directly to the Payment History report. We suggest following the steps below for the most efficient access to the specific payment record. If you know the Registration#, you can go directly to the Payment History report to locate the payment and skip to Step 3. (Use Ctrl/Command F on the report to find the payment faster using the Reg#).

➞ Step 1) Go to your Registration tab and click on the Registrants# for the form.

Are you refunding due to a duplicate registration? - Refund the second (duplicate) one — not the first. The first registration carries the SwimTopia Per-Athlete Fee, charged only once per athlete per billing cycle. If that fee is refunded, we'll need to invoice you to recoup it at season's end."

➞ Step 2) Click the View/Edit link under the registration# you need to refund.

➞ Step 3) Click the View Payment button under the Payments section of the registration form (or from the Payment History report if you already know the reg#)

➞ Step 4) Click the Issue Refund button.

• Refund from Organization: The full amount will display, but can be edited for a partial refund.
• Refund Reason: Stripe requires a selection based on their options. The Default is "Requested by customer" (your customers are your members), and "Duplicate charge" is another option.
• Refund Per-Athlete Fees: You'll have the opportunity to issue a refund for the per-athlete fees (if applicable) and to select which athlete(s) should be refunded. See ➞ the SwimTopia Per-Athlete Fee section for details.
• Net refund to customer: Total amount the customer will receive. Dynamically updates as changes are made.
• Message to Customer: This is optional and will display in the Stripe refund receipt email.
• Refund Timeframe and Fees: Refunds can take 5-10 days, and processing fees will not be refunded to your team (regardless of the seller or buyer pays setting). See ➞ the Processing Fees and Refund Timeframe & Processing Details sections below for more details in case you need to adjust the refund amount.

➞ Step 5) After you click to Submit Refund, the form changes to an updated display depicting the amount refunded (gray row) to the customer (family/member), and the Net totals for each item.

The example above depicts a full refund to the customer of $103.00, where:

• $3.00 Per-Athlete Fee is refunded from SwimTopia to the customer/buyer (example fee)
• $100.00 is refunded to the customer/buyer from the team (Moeskau Blue)
• $3.70 Stripe Transaction Fee paid by the team is not refunded
• Hover over the "?" tooltip for explanations

The Refunds section at the bottom of the screen will document the transaction and who initiated the refund for your checks and balances as needed. If you have refunded the full amount, you will no longer see the Issue Refund button.

» Note: If you do not see a name listed under "Created By," that represents SwimTopia initiating the refund (at your team's request) prior to the functionality being released in the user interface. ("System-Generated" is a refund by SwimTopia for necessary remediation)

➧ SwimTopia Per-Athlete Fee

• When collected, these per-athlete fees are deposited into the SwimTopia Stripe account. Therefore, they will be refunded out of SwimTopia's Stripe account, not the team's.
• The "Net refund to customer" is the total amount the customer will receive, and will dynamically update as changes are made.

» Note: As mentioned above, if you're refunding a duplicate registration, be sure to refund the second (duplicate) registration — not the first. The first registration includes the SwimTopia Per-Athlete Fee, which we only charge once per athlete per billing cycle. That fee needs to remain in place, or we'll need to invoice you to recoup it at the end of the season.

➞ SwimTopia Billing Reconciliation

➧ Conditional Fee Refunds

➧ League Fee Refunds

The league will have to process any league fee refunds from their SwimTopia league site since those payments go directly to their Stripe account.

To make this process easier for your league admin, click on the Order Details link in the Payment History Report to take you to the payment section of the registration.

There you will see a button to Copy Payment Link next to the league payment. This will copy the link that leads directly to the payment record on the league site. Click on this button to copy the link and send this to your league admin. 

➧ Refunding Does Not Change Registration Status (Parents & Athletes)

Refunding registrations does not affect the status (Pending, Approved, Paid, Rejected) of the submitted registration forms, nor does it remove parents and athletes from your roster. If you don't want these refunded families active for the current season:

1. Go to your Registration page
2. Click on the Registrants# for the form
3. Find the name of the family and click on the Reject button

This will remove the family from your roster; they will no longer receive emails, and they will not be able to sign up for meets or volunteer jobs. This will also ensure your reports are accurate, such as "Seasons on Team", "Non-returning Athletes" and "Rookie Athletes."

» Note: If this refund is for a specific athlete and not an entire family, either remove that athlete from the registration form or unaffiliate/delete them from the season in their profile (do not use this option if they are registered on any other form, i.e. clinics) ➞ See Cancellations: Removing Athletes or Rejecting Registrations

➧ Viewing Refunded Registration Transactions

In addition to the Payment Details page where the refund takes place (within the Payment History report), you'll see this refund transaction displayed in the following locations:

➞ Payment History Report Overview

In this view, you are seeing what was paid to, or refunded from the team only.

This example shows $100 was refunded to the buyer/customer from the team's Stripe account, but an additional $3.00 was added to the total from the SwimTopia Stripe account, for the Per-Athlete fee. The breakdown is provided when you view the refund payment. (Per-athlete fees vary based on the team's billing plan. Current pricing for both Premium and Lite tiers can be found here.)

➞ Registrations > Click on the Registrants# > Amount Paid Column

➞ Registrations > Click on the Registrants# > View/Edit > Payments Section

➞ Registrations > Click on the Registrants# > Download Registration Data (csv) 

The CSV download will display the refund/credit left-aligned in the Payments column with the Balance Due and Net Paid details.

» Note: The CSV will only display forms in a Pending/Approved/Paid status, so if you have "Rejected" your refunded registrations, which is standard practice, you can filter by Rejected in the Reports tab > Registration Details / Data Export and download the CSV (see below). 

➞ Reports > Registration Details / Data Export

The CSV export will display the refund/credit left-aligned in the Payments column with the Balance Due and Net Paid details.

Online Store Refunds

➧ Who has access to process a refund?

➧ Where Online Store refunds are initiated

➧ How to Initiate a Refund

This process is very similar to the registration refund process above. In this case, you will need the Order# to locate the specific payment details on the Payments report.

Step 1) When you have the Order#(s), go to the Reports > Financial: Payments report and locate the order# in question (Use Ctrl/Command F to find the payment faster using the Order#).

Step 2) Click the View Details link 

» Note: "Registration: [Team Name] #1234" designates registration payments and "Store Order: [Team Name] #1234" designates online store purchases.

Step 3) Click the Issue Refund button.

• Refund from Organization: The full amount will display, but can be edited for a partial refund.
• Refund Reason: Stripe requires a selection based on their options. The Default is "Requested by customer" (your customers are your members), and "Duplicate charge" is another option.
• Message to Customer: This is optional and will display in the Stripe refund receipt email.
• Refund Timeframe and Fees: Refunds can take 5-10 days, and processing fees will not be refunded to your team. See ➞ the Processing Fees and Refund Timeframe & Processing Details sections for more details.

Step 4) After you click to Submit Refund, the form changes to an updated display depicting the amount refunded (gray row) to the customer (family/member), and the Net totals for each item.

• $10.00 is refunded to the customer/buyer from the team (Moeskau Blue)
• $0.64 Stripe Transaction Fee paid by the team is not refunded
• Hover over the "?" tooltip for explanations

The Refunds section at the bottom of the screen will document the transaction and who initiated the refund for your checks and balances as needed. If you have refunded the full amount, you will no longer see the Issue Refund button.

» Note: The refund is not tracked on the original order under Merchandise > Orders.

➧ Status of Refunded Store Orders

Refunding store orders has no effect on the Status (Open, In Process, Closed) of the order. If you don't want these refunded orders showing up in your Open status and reports:

1. Go to your Merchandise > Orders page
2. Click on the checkbox next to the order#
3. Select Closed from the Update Status menu

➞ See Stripe Integration with the Online Store to learn how Stripe works with our Online Store feature.

Refund E-mail Receipts

➧ Full Refund Example

➧ Partial Refund Example

Refund Timeframe & Processing Details

Once a refund has been issued, it can take 5-10 business days to credit the payer’s account (the timeframe is dependent on the payor's bank or credit card issuer, and other circumstances described below). 

• Refunds cannot be canceled after they’re issued. (We cannot do anything about this restriction, nor can we recharge the credit card, since we do not keep that information on file)
• Refunds use your available Stripe balance - this doesn’t include any pending balance.
• If your available balance doesn’t cover the amount of the refund, Stripe debits the remaining amount from your bank account, which can add to the processing time.
• If Stripe can’t debit the remaining amount from your bank account, your refunds may go into a pending status until you add funds to your Stripe balance.
• Refunds can only be sent back to the original payment method used in a charge. It’s not possible to send a refund to a different destination (i.e. another card or bank account).
• Refunds to expired or canceled cards are handled by the customer’s card issuer and, in most cases, credited to the customer’s replacement card. If no replacement exists, the card issuer usually delivers the refund to the customer using an alternate method (i.e. check or bank account deposit). 

➧ What if a refund fails?

We will display a "Failed" status on the Payment History report.

A refund can fail if the customer’s bank or card issuer has been unable to process it correctly (i.e. a closed bank account or a problem with the card). The bank returns the refunded amount to Stripe and they add it back to your Stripe account balance. This process can take up to 30 days from the post date.

Need Help?

➧ Help with a Refund? ➞ Contact the SwimTopia Customer Happiness Team 

➧ Need to set up a Stripe Account? ➞ See our Quick Start Guide to Enabling Stripe article

➧ Have additional Stripe Questions? ➞ See our Stripe FAQs article