Charges made with Stripe can be refunded from Flex or their status changed to "Refunded." You can also record refunds via credit notes. This article will explain how Stripe refunds from Flex can be issued.
Issue a Refund From Flex
Users with the necessary permissions can initiate a refund of a Stripe charge directly from Flex. There is no need to refund charges from the Stripe Dashboard.
This will work only for charges made with our integration. It doesn't work for synced Stripe charges from Xero or QB.
Permissions
Only Owners, Admins, and Custom roles with permission Billing > Charges > Refund Charge can make refunds. The permission can be seen below. Learn more about custom roles and permissions.
Step-By-Step Guide
1. To find invoices paid via Stripe, use the Payment Method filter and select the desired Stripe payment method (e.g. Stripe card):
2. Click on an invoice to open it. In the Payments section, click on the cogwheel next to the payment and choose Details:
Charges with the status Pending might not have details. This is because a charge has not been created in Stripe yet. You can try again later.
Charges with the status Failed might not have details. This happens when a charge fails before it is created in Stripe.
3. In the dialog that opens, click Send Refund.
Note: The button is shown only to Owners and Custom roles with permission Billing > Charges > Refund.
4. Enter the relevant data in the fields and click on Refund. The Refund will be sent, and the payment status will automatically change to Refunded.
The Stripe refund process takes some time. When it's completed, the charge status in OfficeRnD will automatically change to Refund.
Change an Invoice Status to Refunded
This marks a Charge in OfficeRnD as Refunded but does not initiate a Refund.
Refund the charge in Stripe.
Open the invoice containing the charge in Flex and click on the cogwheel
Choose Change status and select Refunded, or choose Delete. Both actions will mark the charge as Refunded.
Automatic Sync of Stripe Refunds to Flex
It's also possible to automatically sync the refunds made in Stripe to Flex. Note that this is enabled by default. If you want it disabled, please contact support.
Refund a Charge in Stripe.
As soon as the Charge is marked as Refunded in Stripe, it and its invoice will automatically be marked as Refunded in OfficeRnD.
How It Works
In Stripe, refund a charge as you do normally:
In Flex, open the invoice you refunded and look at its status under Payments. Before the refund, the status was Success. After Flex syncs the refund with Stripe, the status will change to Refunded.
Details Applicable to Refunds
If a Stripe Charge has been manually refunded in Flex, the sync will not record the refund twice or cause other duplicates.
When at least 1 Charge in an invoice has been Refunded (as there can be multiple Charges), the invoice also becomes Refunded.
Depending on the bank’s processing times, the refund could be received in 5-10 days.
Partial Refunds
If the Stripe refund for a Charge is partial, the UI will not reflect the refund, but it will be available via the API. This applies to a partial refund of one charge, i.e., the invoice was paid only via one payment.
If the invoice was paid in two charges and you refund only one of them, this will be reflected in the UI—i.e., charge 1 is marked as successful, charge 2 is marked as refunded, and the invoice is marked as refunded, too.
Tips For Tracking
1. If you want to track charges and charge refund events, it's best to do this in Stripe.
2. You can track invoices in OfficeRnD. An invoice with a Stripe refund will have a Refunded status. Use the filters to list the invoices by this status. Open the invoice and check the details of the refund charge. Note that this won’t work with partial refunds from Stripe, as they don't change the invoice status.
Note: Stipe does not allow ACH/SEPA refunds made more than 180 days ago:
https://support.stripe.com/questions/refunds-for-ach-direct-debit-payments
https://docs.stripe.com/payments/sepa-debit. If you try to do this Stripe shows the following error message in their dialogue: