As a best practice, we strongly encourage issuing your clients account credits instead of refunds as much as possible.
Credits keep funds in the business by reducing cash outflow and avoid additional operational costs, like transaction fees when refunding electronic payments. Credits also encourage client loyalty and repeat business.
However, sometimes you'll need to refund part of a client's payment for things like skipped or missed services, or you may need to fully refund a customer for cancelled jobs or overpayments.
Whatever the reason, refunding a client's money in Docket will impact your accounting reports, it'll reopen invoices, and affect how your records appear in QuickBooks.
Keep reading to learn how to successfully manage refunds from beginning to end.
Before You Start
Here are a few things to know before you continue:
- Depending on how your permissions are set up you may not be able to access some or all of these options. Please reach out to your Account Owner if additional access is needed.
- There is no way to delete, void, edit, or undo a refund in Docket!
- Refunds cannot exceed the original payment amount.
- Fiserv only keeps payments data for 13 months. If you want to refund a payment older than that, you'll need to contact them to process it.
- For payments made by money order, cash, or check, creating a refund record in Docket doesn't actually move the funds from your bank to your customer's bank, so you'll need to process the refund through your financial institution.
- Same thing applies for payments made online by credit/debit card or ACH outside of DocketPay.
- For payments made online by credit/debit card or ACH, creating a refund in Docket automatically triggers the refund process in CardPointe and sends the funds back to the customer's original account.
- Refunds for payments taken with your Clover Go card reader are processed in the web app, not the mobile app.
- If the original payment was made online using a credit/debit card or ACH transfer, refunds must use the same method and go back to the customer's original account.
- If the original payment was made via ACH, CardPointe won't allow a partial refund.
- Credit/debit card payments must fully process before you can issue a refund.
- This is because recording a refund in Docket will automatically trigger the refund process in CardPointe.
- If you're using QuickBooks Online (QBO), any refunds created in Docket will automatically sync to your QBO account.
- If you're using QuickBooks Online (QBO), any refunds that you void in Docket will NOT automatically sync to your QBO account.
Refund a Payment
If you need to refund a credit/debit card or ACH payment, you'll only need to record the refund on the invoice in Docket. Doing that triggers a request to Fiserv to process the refund using the client's original payment method.
Once the refund transaction is batched, you’ll see it in your CardPointe account.
If you need to refund a money order or cash/check payment, you'll need to record the refund on the invoice in Docket AND give your client their money back.
Docket cannot assist with the physical refund of money paid via cash or check so you’ll need to follow whatever internal process your business has set up for that. The same applies to credit/debit card and ACH payments made outside of DocketPay.
To mark an invoice as refunded in Docket, just follow the instructions below:
- Open the invoice that needs to be refunded.
- Scroll down to the Payments & Refunds section.
- Click on the "Edit" button next to the section title.
- Click on the "Actions" button at the top.
- Select "Refund [Method] Payment (Full or Partial)" from the menu.
- Adjust the amount to be refunded, if needed for a partial refund.
- Enter your notes into the Refund Reason field.
Please Note: Your clients can see the refunded amount and your refund notes on their Client Dashboard. - Click "OK" to save the refund details to the invoice.
Please Note: There is no way to delete, void, or edit a refund in Docket, so make sure everything is 100% correct before clicking "OK"!
You’ll now see the refund as a new line item under the Payments & Refunds section of the invoice.
If you've recorded a credit/debit card or ACH payment, Docket will send the refund information to Fiserv so they can process the refund electronically.
Your client will receive the refunded amount back to their original payment method within 7-10 business days for credit/debit card payments or 3-5 business days for ACH transactions.
Refund Receipt Notification
If you have the Refund Receipt notification turned on in your account's Client Notifications area, your client will receive a refund receipt once the payment has fully processed.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
These FAQs address common questions and quick clarifications to help you use this feature with confidence.
Can I Refund Less Than The Amount Paid?
Yes, just change the amount to be refunded in the Refund Payment prompt that appears.
Can I Refund More Than The Amount Paid?
No. If you change the amount to be refunded to an amount higher than the payment's total, you'll see an error message.
When Will My Client Get Their Money Back?
That depends on your refund method.
If your client originally used a money order, cash, a check, or digital payment processor outside of DocketPay as their payment method, they will get their money back when you give it to them outside of Docket.
If your client originally used a credit/debit card or an ACH transfer as their payment method, the refund timeline depends on their financial institution.
Generally, they will receive their refund within 7-10 business days for credit/debit card payments or 3-5 business days for ACH transactions.
Please Note: Refunds issued to a credit/debit card or ACH account can only go back to the original card/account.
Does Recording A Refund In Docket Move The Funds To My Customer's Bank Account?
That depends on your client's original payment method.
If your client originally used a money order, cash, a check, or digital payment processor outside of DocketPay as their payment method, you will need to manually refund them outside of Docket using a method you prefer.
Recording a refund in Docket updates your accounting reports and gives you a paper trail to follow in the future, but doesn't actually move the funds from your bank account to your customer's bank account.
If your client originally used a credit/debit card or an ACH transfer as their payment method, recording a refund in Docket will automatically trigger the refund process for you in your CardPointe account so you don't have to do anything additional.
Please Note: Refunds issued to a credit/debit card or ACH account can only go back to the original card/account.
Can I Issue a Partial Refund on an ACH Payment?
No. CardPointe doesn't allow partial refunds on ACH payments.
If you need to refund only part of an ACH payment, you'll need to handle it outside of CardPointe.
We recommend sending the partial refund amount to your customer via check or an external bank transfer.
Once the money has been sent, create a refund in Docket to record it and keep your accounting reports accurate.
How Will Refunds Show In My QuickBooks Online (QBO) Account?
Refunds recorded in Dcoket will sync as a Journal Entry for the client. It includes the refund memo, amount refunded, and linked payment.
Please Note: Invoices that reopen in Docket will also reopen in QBO.
If you have any questions, please reach out to our Support team through the chat widget on the bottom of this page or by sending an email to support@yourdocket.com!