When there is a reduction in event charges or the entire event is canceled, you may find that you have received more money from the client than is owed. When this happens, you can issue either a refund or a credit. A refund is when you return money to the client. A credit stores the amount within Elite for the client to use later.
Refunds and credits can be created several different ways:
- Our recommended workflow is to create credits and refunds via an event invoice. This allows you to create documents to share with your client which reflect the credit or refund. We outline this workflow below.
- Credits can be created from unallocated payments. Create an Account Credit from an Overpayment has instructions.
- Both refunds and credits can be created ad-hoc by clicking the plus by the credit or refund card on events or accounts. Ad-hoc credits can be allocated to invoices. Ad-hoc refunds should not be allocated to invoices; ad-hoc refunds should be used for informational purposes only.
Both refunds and credits are easily created from the invoice slider, but first we need to update or create an invoice so that the amount to be refunded/credited is showing as a negative balance.
This refund process handles the bookkeeping in Elite and creates the necessary documents. You will need to process the actual return of money either by refunding the client's credit card in your merchant account portal, issuing a check, or other process.
Update or Create an Invoice in Order to Issue a Refund/Credit
- No Invoice: If there is no invoice on the event, create a deposit invoice (select flat rather than percentage) with a balance of zero. Allocate the payment to the invoice and mark the invoice as sent. See Create an Ad Hoc Deposit Invoice.
- Editable Deposit Invoice: If either the deposit invoice was not marked as sent or your process allows you to mark the deposit invoice as not sent, first make sure that the payment has been allocated to the invoice. Then open the invoice's Edit slider and reverse the deposit. Once the deposit is reversed, mark the invoice as sent. Instructions are available in Reverse a Deposit.
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Not-Editable Deposit Invoice or Final Invoice: If the deposit invoice is marked as sent and your process does not allow you to edit sent invoices, or a final invoice (invoice with charges) was created, first make sure the payment is allocated to the invoice. Then:
- Create a full or partial adjustment for each charge as appropriate. See Event Adjustments for instructions.
- Create a new invoice, selecting all adjustments.
- Mark the invoice as sent.
Now that you have an invoice with a negative balance, you are ready to issue a refund or credit.
- If you need to partially refund a deposit, such as if an event is canceled and you are retaining 50% of the deposit as a cancellation fee, we recommend adding a "Cancellation Fee" inventory item to the event in the amount that you are retaining. Add that item to an invoice and allocate the entire deposit to it. The invoice will have a negative/credit balance and you can proceed to the next steps in this article.
- If you have a refundable deposit, such as a damage deposit, that should be billed to the client as an inventory item. You can then adjust the item either fully or partially to refund it. See the Not-Editable Deposit Invoice or Final Invoice instructions above.
Create the Refund or Credit
On either the Account Details Financials or Event Details Financials Invoices page, click the invoice with the balance you wish to refund or credit. In the invoice's details slider, click either Create Credit or Create Refund.
These buttons will only appear if the invoice has a negative balance.
- In the slider, update information and add a note as needed:
- The account will match the invoice's account and cannot be changed.
- Change the date if needed.
- If you don't wish to credit the entire balance, update the amount.
- If your account has credit types created, select a credit type.
- Add a note. This field can be included on your invoice templates. (Optional)
- The invoice's event is already selected. By leaving this selected, the credit will appear on the event's Financials Payments tab.
- Once all information is correct, click Save.
- The Create Credit slider will close and you will see the Invoice details slider again. The invoice's balance is now zero. Also, the invoice's PDF will no longer match the updated information displayed on the slider. Click the Invoice out of date. Please update this invoice. button to refresh the PDF document. If your invoice template is designed to include credits, you can send this updated document to your client as a credit memo.
If your invoice template is not displaying the credit, please contact us to have it updated.
- To view the credit, go to Account Details Financials or Event Details Financials Payments. Click the credit to open its details slider, where you can view additional details as well as download or send a credit memo.
- In the slider, update information and add a note as needed:
- The account will match the invoice's account and cannot be changed.
- Change the date if needed.
- If you don't wish to refund the entire balance, update the amount.
- If your account has refund types created, select a refund type.
- Add a reference number, such as a check number or credit card confirmation number. (Optional)
- Add a note. This field can be included on your invoice templates. (Optional)
- The invoice's event is already selected. By leaving this selected, the credit will appear on the event's Financials Payments tab.
- The invoice allocation will be prefilled. You only need to update this if you are not refunding the full amount.
- Once all information is correct, click Save.
- The Create Refund slider will close and you will see the Invoice details slider again. The invoice's balance is now zero. Also, the invoice's PDF will no longer match the updated information displayed on the slider. Click the Invoice out of date. Please update this invoice. button to refresh the PDF document. You can send this updated document to your client.
If your invoice template is not displaying the refund, please contact us to have it updated.
- To view the refund, go to Account Details Financials or Event Details Financials Payments. Click the refund to open its details slider, where you can view additional details.
