A refund sends money back to where it came from, card, cash or account credit, and leaves a credit note so the books add up. It's final in ClinyPal, so the check is before the click.
Refund, void or write off
A refund gives back money that has been paid. It's the right action when a patient paid and shouldn't have, or paid for something you didn't deliver. An unpaid invoice that was a mistake is voided instead, and a balance you've decided not to chase is written off; neither moves money. Only an invoice with a settled payment on it can be refunded, and the refund needs the refund permission, which Administrators, Power Receptionists and Bookkeepers have.
Refund from the invoice
Open the invoice and select Refund
The dialog Refund this invoice lists each source the invoice was paid from, for example Card · back to the card · up to $85.00, Cash · up to $20.00 or Account credit · back to account credit, with an amount field each.
Enter how much to refund from each source
Any amount up to what's refundable from that source. Each part goes back where it came from: a card payment back to the card through Stripe, PayPal or Square; cash and other manual methods are recorded as refunded for you to hand over; the part paid with account credit goes back to the patient's credit.
Give a Reason and select Refund
The reason is required and kept in the history. You'll see what was refunded from where, for example Refunded $85.00: Card 85.00.
A refund can't be undone, and a refunded payment can't be voided. A full refund makes the invoice Refunded; a partial one leaves it paid with a credit note recorded against it, and it can't be edited afterward. Product lines on a fully refunded invoice go back into stock.
Card refunds and the provider
- A refund to a card goes through the provider that took the payment. If the provider refuses, for example because the charge is under dispute, the refund isn't recorded and you're told the provider's reason.
- A refund done in the provider's own dashboard instead is picked up from the provider's notification and recorded the same way, with a credit note.
- Money that became account credit from a card payment can be sent back to the card from the patient's credit, as long as the original card payment can still be refunded.
- A refund in a currency other than the clinic's is converted back at the rate of the original charge.
Rarely, a card refund that Stripe or Square accepted fails later at the patient's bank, for example on an expired or canceled card. ClinyPal then shows a red line on the invoice: Refund of … failed at the bank on … (reason). The patient hasn't received this money: pay them back another way. It's already counted, so don't record it again. The clinic's owner gets one email about it. Pay the patient back by cash or bank transfer and leave ClinyPal as it is; a second refund would count the money twice.
Credit notes
Every refund issues a credit note, numbered with the prefix from Invoice Settings, such as CN-000017, for the whole amount refunded. It's shown on the invoice as a Credit note line in the totals, printed or emailed from the invoice's Print and Email menus under Credit note, and listed with every other credit note under Credit notes on the Invoices page, searchable by patient or invoice number. If your accounting software is connected, the credit note and the refund are sent to it; see Connect accounting software.
A credit note whose refund failed at the bank shows Refund failed at the bank: see the invoice.
With an accounting app connected
A refund to account credit reaches Xero, QuickBooks Online or Zoho Books as money into the Patient credit account; a refund to the patient's card or cash goes as a credit note and refund payment. See Connect your accounting software.