Stripe Refunds

Process full and partial refunds for purchases made through our Stripe payment processor right from your team site!

Covered in this Article:

• Designating Access to Process Refunds
• Registration Refunds 
• Online Store Refunds
• Refund Email Receipt
• Processing Fees
• Refund Timeframe & Processing Details
• Need Help?

Designating Access to Process Refunds

➧ Who has access 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 or "All administrative permissions" (must have Manage to initiate a refund)

➧ Does this also grant access 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.

➧ 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. 

Registration Refunds 

Covered in This Section

• Where Registration Refunds are Initiated
• How to Initiate a Registration Refund
• League Fee Refunds
• Status of Refunded Registrations
• Viewing Refunded Registration Transactions

➧ Where Registration Refunds are Initiated

Refunds for registration payments are initiated from the Reports > Financial: Payments > Payment Details screen.

» Note: This report will display all payment options your team has ever configured on your registration forms, not just Stripe, but only registrations paid for using the Stripe payment processor can be refunded from your SwimTopia team site. 

➧ How to Initiate a Registration Refund

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.

» Note: If you already know the Registration#, you can go directly to the Payment History report to locate the payment in question and skip to Step 3. (Use Ctrl/Command F to find the payment faster using the Reg#).

Step 1) Go to your Registration tab and click on the View Registrations button for the form.

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 (or from the Payment History report if you already knew the reg#)

Step 4) Click the Issue Refund button and determine the following:

• The full "Payment Amount" will be displayed but can be edited for a partial refund amount.
• Stripe requires a Refund Reason based on their options. The Default is "Requested by customer" (your customers are your members), and "Duplicate charge" is another option.
• There's an optional "Message to Customer", which will display in the Stripe refund receipt email.
• As noted, 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, you'll see the form updated to reflect the transaction amount refunded to the customer (the family/member).

If you have refunded the full amount, you will no longer see the Issue Refund button.

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.

» 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.

➧ League Fee Refunds

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

➧ Status of Refunded Registrations

Refunding registrations has no effect on the status (Pending, Approved, Paid, Rejected) of the submitted registration forms. If you don't want these refunded families active for the current season:

1. Go to your Registration page
2. Click on the View Registrations button 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".

➧ 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 Overview

➞ Registrations > View Registrations > Amount Paid Column

➞ Registrations > View Registrations > View/Edit > Payments Section

➞ Registrations > View Registrations > Download Registration Data (csv) 

The CSV download will display the refund/credit left-aligned in the Payments column with a Balance Due and Net Paid of 0.

» 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 a Balance Due and Net Paid of 0.

Online Store Refunds 

➧ Who has access to process a refund?

Admins assigned to a Role with Manage Financial permission or a Site Admin designation can issue Stripe refunds for online store orders just as with registration refunds.

➧ Where Online Store refunds are initiated

Refunds for online store purchases are initiated from the Reports > Financial: Payments > View Details screen.

➧ 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: "Reg #1234" designates registration payments and "Order #1234" designates online store purchases.

Step 3) Click the Issue Refund button and determine the following:

• The full "Payment Amount" will be displayed but can be edited for a partial refund amount.
• Stripe requires a Refund Reason based on their options. The Default is "Requested by customer" (your customers are your members), and "Duplicate charge" is another option.
• There's an optional "Message to Customer", which will display in the Stripe refund receipt email.
• As noted, 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 for more details in case you need to adjust the refund amount.

Step 4) After you click to Submit Refund, you'll see the form updated to reflect the transaction amount refunded to the customer (the family/member).

If you have refunded the full amount, you will no longer see the Issue Refund button.

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.

» Note: The refund is not currently tracked on the original order under Merchandise > Orders, but is planned for a future release.

➧ 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 Email Receipt

» Note: The examples below are from registration refunds. The same emails will be generated from online store refunds.

➧ Full Refund Example:

➧ Partial Refund Example:

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.

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, just 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.

➧ Seller Paid Processing Fee - Refund Example

➧ Buyer Paid Processing Fee - 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