How to handle refunds, write-offs and chargebacks

Money sometimes has to travel backwards: an event is cancelled, a donor gives twice by mistake, or an unpaid balance is never going to arrive. Hubb has a proper route for each, and knowing which one to use keeps your books honest.

Giving a refund

1. In the payment group, open the Receivables tab and find the payment you want to refund. This tab is renamed to suit the group: it’s Pledges on a donation group and Fees on a course.
2. Click the pencil on the left to open the transaction, then choose ‘Tasks’, then ‘Payments’, then ‘Give a Refund’.
3. Enter the amount, the full payment or a partial refund, and a reason for your records, then submit.
4. The card is refunded and the money is deducted from your future income.

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Write-offs, and when to use which

1. A little vocabulary makes this simple. When money is owed, Hubb records a receivable; when money is recorded, it’s a receipt, and a receipt’s method can be card, cash, cheque or write-off.
2. A write-off receipt says: this amount is technically still owed, but we no longer expect to see it. It’s the right tool for an offline balance that’s never coming, and it clears the amount from your chasing list without pretending it was paid.
3. Reducing the receivable is different: it says the money is no longer owed at all, the right choice when you’ve genuinely changed what someone should pay.
4. And a refund is for money you actually received that needs to go back. Three different stories, three different records; your financial reports will thank you for picking the true one.

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Chargebacks

1. A chargeback is when someone disputes a payment with their bank instead of asking you. The disputed amount is deducted from your future income straight away, and the payment processor charges a dispute fee. If you challenge the dispute and lose, there’s a further fee on top, so challenging a small amount can cost more than accepting it. Raise a ticket and we’ll confirm the current fees before you decide.
2. The most common cause is entirely avoidable: an old recurring payment that kept failing and was never cancelled quietly restarts when the bank auto-updates the person’s expired card, and the surprised donor disputes it.
3. The cure is prevention: cancel recurring payments promptly when people ask, and keep an eye on failed payments so nothing stale is left to reawaken.

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Good to know

• If ‘Give a Refund’ doesn’t appear under ‘Tasks’, it isn’t a fault: you don’t hold the refund permission. Payment group permissions are separate from one another, so an administrator can run a payment group without being able to move money. Any existing site administrator can grant it; log out and back in afterwards.
• Full financial analysis, including refunds and write-offs, lives in the Financial Reports in the Reports area of the web office.
• Cancelling the registration itself, and clearing leftover future pledges, is covered in how to change or cancel a booking or donation.
• If you’re ever unsure which route fits, raise a ticket via the contact form below with the details and our UK team will talk it through with you before any money moves.