There are a number of reasons you might need to refund a payment, such as your customer no longer needs the product or service, or customer expectations were not met. Whatever the reason, this page will show you how to process full or partial refunds for payments made in your AR Automation account.

Processing a Refund

Complete the following steps to process a refund.

1. Go to Customers > Payments.
2. Next to the payment you wish to refund, expand the menu on the right-hand side and click Refund.
3. Configure the following settings for the refund.
   • Refund Number — Enter a number for the refund. If left blank, a number will be generated automatically.
   • Reference Number — Enter a reference number for the refund. (Optional)
   • Date — Select the date for the refund.
   • Description — Enter a description for the refund, such as "Refund for payment #22311111".
   • Amount — Enter the amount to be refunded.
4. Click Save.

The refund can now be viewed by going to Customers > Refunds. It typically takes between 5 and 7 business days for the refund to be processed and for the funds to be sent back to the customer's payment method.

Reconciling Refunds

AR Automation considers your connected accounting/ERP system to be the source of truth, so it's important to manually reconcile any refunds that might occur. Once a refund is processed, you must make any necessary adjustments to your accounting system. For example, you might need to un-apply payments in your accounting system, create credit, or adjust the balance of a paid invoice. Once completed, the new invoice balance will be reflected in your AR Automation account.

Viewing Refunds for a Customer

Refund records can be viewed or downloaded for a specific customer by completing the following steps.

1. Go to Customers > Customer Records and click the customer you wish to view.
2. In the Transactions section, click the down arrow and click Refunds.

You'll see a list of all refunds for that customer. You can click the refund to view the details or download a copy of the refund. You might choose to download a copy to send to the customer for reference.

Syncing Refunds with Sage Intacct

AR Automation automatically syncs refunds processed through your AR account directly to your Intacct account. This means that when a full refund is successfully processed, the corresponding payment in Intacct is reversed. Once the payment in Intacct is reversed, the invoice from the refunded payment will be automatically re-synced with the balance and status being updated accordingly. To update the invoice balance, the system will automatically create an adjustment object in your AR Automation account. You can see this in the Payments tab.

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Note

Partial refunds cannot be synced to Intacct. To sync partial refunds, reconcile the invoice balance manually by making any necessary adjustments to your accounting system.

Reopening Invoice Balance after a Refund with QuickBooks Desktop

To reopen a refunded invoice when using QuickBooks Desktop as your accounting system:

1. Initiate the refund.
2. Navigate to the refunded invoice in AR Automation.
3. Select the three-dot menu for the invoice you want to adjust.
4. Select Adjust Balance.
5. Enter the amount needed to adjust the balance.
6. Reverse the payment in QuickBooks Desktop.

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Note

The steps must be completed in this order.