This article provides a guide on processing refunds for your donor's ACH (Automated Clearing House) donations. If your organization uses Webconnex Payments, our preferred in-house payment processor, GivingFuel automatically updates the status of your donations if an ACH donation fails. Users can also easily issue refunds for any ACH donations directly within GivingFuel, ensuring a seamless experience.
For customers using a custom third-party processor, users must monitor their payment processor to ensure that any ACH donations process as expected, and manually update the status of any ACH donations that fail in GivingFuel. Refunds must also be processed through the payment processor itself.
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Refund an ACH Donation in Webconnex Payments
When using Webconnex Payments, our system automatically updates the status of your ACH donations in GivingFuel. So if an ACH donation originally shows a status of "Completed" in GivingFuel, but later this donation is rejected by the payment processor, GivingFuel will automatically update the status of this donation to "Declined." This ensures that your GivingFuel ACH data remains accurate and precise. ACH refunds can also be processed directly within GivingFuel.
WARNING: Once a donation has been refunded, this action cannot be reversed.
From the top menu bar, click the Donations tab
Search for the donor's name or billing email in the search box
Select the eye icon next to donation you want to refund
Click the Refund Donation link on the right-hand side
In the Options field, select to issue a full or partial refund
Select the I understand that refunding this transaction cannot be undone checkbox, and add an administrative note if desired
Click Refund
Update the Status of an ACH Donation in a Custom Payment Processor
When using a custom payment processor, please be aware that ACH (Automated Clearing House) transactions are unique because they always show as Completed in GivingFuel, even when they aren't successful. This occurs because ACH transactions can take up to 14 days to clear the various banks that process them. The best practice when providing ACH Payments as an option to donors is to regularly monitor the payment processor to ensure that any ACH transfer attempts are cleared by the banks.
If a donor's ACH donation fails in the payment processor or a donor requests to refund their ACH donation, your organization may want to update the status of this donation in GivingFuel to provide accurate reporting information.
Pro Tip: Because of the nature of ACH Donations, the refund button will not show up on ACH Donations processed under a custom payment processor. All ACH donations must be refunded in the payment processor itself. Once the ACH donation is refunded in the payment processor, users can then update the status to void or declined in GivingFuel.
If your donor requested a refund, first refund the donation in the payment processor. Changing the status in GivingFuel will not issue a refunds.
From the top menu bar, click the Contacts tab
Search for the donor's name or billing email in the search box
Select the eye icon next to the donation for which you want to update the status
Click the Update Status button
Under Transaction Status, select the updated status, and add a note if desired
If the donation is a recurring donation: select to either cancel future recurring payments, or do not change the recurring payment
Click Save
FAQs
On Webconnex Payments, why can't I refund one of my ACH donations?
On Webconnex Payments, why can't I refund one of my ACH donations?
On Webconnex Payments, the refund option is only available after a transaction settles. ACH transactions take 5 business days to settle. If a donation doesn't have a settlement date, we recommend waiting until the donation has settled, and then issuing a refund.
Here is how to check whether your ACH donation has a settlement date:
On the donation itself, scroll to the Transaction Details section
Click Show Gateway Details
From this tab, view the Settlement Date field to confirm whether the donation has a settlement date.
If I process a refund for an ACH donation on Webconnex Payments, will my fees be refunded?
If I process a refund for an ACH donation on Webconnex Payments, will my fees be refunded?
On Webconnex Payments, your fees will be returned if a full refund is issued. If a partial refund is submitted, Webconnex Payments will retain all fees charged on the original donation.