Refunding payments

Review the following information before refunding payments.

Populate the GL accounts

Tip! This is extremely important. In addition to the referenced accounts in this section, it is important that all Default accounts are correctly defined in iMIS before processing payments and refunds.

The Refund clearing account represents a bridge or clearing account between accounts received (AR) and accounts paid (AP). Use the Refund clearing account for the debit distribution entries in the AP entries in the same manner that you use the clearing account for the credit side of the AR reversal entries.

Double-check that the Refund clearing general ledger account is populated

1. Go to Settings > Finance >Financial entities.
2. Open the Default financial entity.
3. Click the Default accounts tab.
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4. Make sure the Refund clearing account are correctly populated.

Understanding the refund accounts

The GL journal entry generated after the credit card or check refund is recorded will debit (or reverse) the unearned income liability for the amount refunded. iMIS uses the default Unearned Income GL account for the financial entity assigned to the original payment.

The offset account to unearned income depends on whether the refund was issued by check or by credit card:

• Credit card: The credit offset is to the Cash GL Account established for the credit card payment method associated with the refund.
• Check: iMIS assumes that the check was issued (and accounted for) through an accounts payable package.

Since the accounts payable package will credit the cash account for a check refund, you should use the Refund Clearing account when recording the payable/payment through the accounts payable package (or when recording the manual check). The entries to Refund Clearing in accounts payable and in iMIS will offset each other, yielding a net effect of zero.

Credit card and ACH payments processed through the Global Payments or Stripe gateways can be refunded directly from iMIS. Refunds are only processed if the payment has not been reversed or fully refunded.

Do the following to process a refund:

1. Go to Finance > Pay Central > Find payments.
2. Search for the payment.
3. Click the Payment ID to open the Payment detail window.
4. Click Adjust Payment.
5. Leave the Adjustment type set to Refund the payment.



Note: You can manually select the batch if Manual batches is selected for the Batch mode for staff web transactions field located at Settings > Finance > General. If the user is logged in as MANAGER, the batch drop-down will not appear.

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6. Leave Automatically issue the refund via Pay Central enabled. If you are not using the Global Payments gateway, you do not have this option and refunds must be processed through your payment gateway.
7. Enter an Amount to refund. The Amount to refund must be greater than 0 and less than or equal to the original payment amount.

Note: The payment method used to make the original payment is identified in the Payment method field. The Payment method cannot be changed when processing a refund. The payment method is tied to the original payment.

8. (refunds of cash membership dues or subscriptions only) If you are refunding cash membership dues or subscriptions, a warning message may appear, informing you a separate accrual invoice will be created and additional action items may be necessary. Be sure to carefully review the warning message before submitting the refund. The warning message may appear if any of the following are true:
   • The cash dues or subscription has been rebilled since the time of the original payment.
   • The subscription item has been inactivated, deleted, refunded, or partially refunded.
Click for details

The following warning message may appear if you are refunding cash membership dues or subscriptions:

“This will create a separate accrual invoice for the following items, and offset accounts receivable rather than income, because the original renewal invoice no longer exists.”

If the refund is associated with deferred income entries, the following also may appear:

“You will need to manually adjust the deferred income in your accounting software.”



9. Enter any Comments you want to add concerning the refund.
10. Click Submit. After your refund is processed, it will appear in the Original applications panel.
11. Potential additional step:

Important! If the refund results in an outstanding balance, you will see a warning message that says, “The following invoices have a remaining balance. Please ensure you handle them accordingly.” There will be a link to the invoice that may need your attention.



To handle the invoice, you may need to do one of the following:

1. Pay the remaining balance with a new payment method
2. If it is an event invoice, you may cancel the event registration, adjust the event registration, or write it off
3. If it is another type, you may adjust or reverse the order, membership, or fundraising invoice
4. Leave the balance as an open invoice that requires future payment

If you process any type of refund outside of iMIS, the related invoice must be recorded as refunded.