Refund or reverse a payment
Once a payment has been posted, it is part of your accounting records and cannot simply be deleted. If it was recorded in error, or the money is being returned to the customer, you undo it with an equal and opposite entry, so the payment's effect on your accounts is fully undone while both the original and the undoing entry stay on record.
Those are two different things, and Sales Scribe asks you which one happened:
- The money went back to the customer — a refund. The reversing entry is dated today, because that is when the money moved. The payment becomes Refunded.
- The payment should never have been recorded — a reversal. A duplicate, the wrong customer, a receipt that never arrived. The reversing entry is dated the payment's own date, so the month it was in reads as though nothing had been received. The payment becomes Reversed.
Nothing is chosen for you, because the two put the money in different months. Choosing refund for a mistake shows money leaving your bank this month that never came in; choosing reversal for a real refund makes last month's bank balance wrong.
Was the payment taken online by card (through Stripe)? Then "reverse" means a real refund — the money goes back to the customer's card. See Refunding an online card payment below; the manual reversal described here is only for payments you recorded yourself (bank transfer, cash, cheque).
Refunding an online card payment
For a payment your customer made online, open the payment's details page and choose Refund via Stripe:
- Full or partial — the amount field defaults to everything still refundable; lower it for a partial refund. You can refund in several instalments, up to the amount originally paid.
- The refund is sent to Stripe, and the money returns to the customer's card (this typically takes 5–10 working days to appear on their statement).
- Your accounts update when Stripe confirms the refund — usually within seconds: the invoice becomes outstanding again for the refunded amount, and the payment shows what has been refunded. A payment is marked Refunded once everything paid has gone back — by refunds, by a chargeback the customer's bank won, or both together, in whichever order they happened.
- Stripe's processing fee is not returned on a refund — it remains a cost of the original transaction, and your accounts keep it booked accordingly.
- Your customer is emailed a refund confirmation automatically when Stripe confirms the refund, mirroring the payment receipt they received: the amount, the invoice it was against, and a note that it typically takes 5–10 working days to reach their statement.
- Refunds made directly in your Stripe dashboard work identically — Sales Scribe picks them up automatically (including the customer's confirmation email), so the books never drift from Stripe.
The ledger-only reversal described below is deliberately not allowed for online payments: it would mark your books as refunded without any money actually returning to the customer.
Void or reverse — which do I need?
The right action depends on whether the payment has been posted:
| Situation | What to do | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Payment is still a Draft (not posted) | Void it (or delete it) | No accounting effect — nothing had entered your books. See Void a draft payment. |
| Payment has been Posted and the money went back | Refund it | A reversing entry dated today; the payment becomes Refunded. |
| Payment has been Posted and was a mistake | Reverse it | A reversing entry dated the payment's own date; the payment becomes Reversed. |
The rule of thumb: nothing posted yet → void; already posted → refund or reverse. You cannot void a posted payment, and you cannot refund or reverse a draft.
How to do it
- Open the posted payment's details page and choose Reverse Payment.
- Under What happened?, pick either This receipt was a mistake or The money went back to the customer. Each option says what date the reversing entry will carry and what status the payment will end in.
- Enter a reason and confirm.
Either way, Sales Scribe:
- posts an equal and opposite entry that undoes the original — your bank balance and the customer's accounts receivable return to where they were;
- undoes its allocations, so any invoices the payment had cleared become outstanding again and their statuses recalculate automatically;
- sets the payment's status to Refunded or Reversed, matching the choice you made;
- keeps a permanent record of both the original payment and the entry that undid it, so your audit trail stays intact.
Supplier payments ask the same question — see Record a supplier payment.
If the "mistake" option is unavailable
The payment's date falls inside a locked period. Reversing it on that date would be a posting into the locked month, which is exactly what the lock exists to stop, so in place of the option you will see a note naming the payment's date and the lock date. The refund option is still there, because a refund is dated today.
If it really was a mistake, someone with permission to post into a locked period can either move the lock or make the reversal for you. See Why can't I post into this date?.
Important notes
- Undoing a payment is not the same as removing an allocation. Removing an allocation just returns the money to the payment's unallocated balance and leaves the payment posted; refunding or reversing undoes the whole payment. See Allocate an existing payment.
- Both are permanent and keep the history. They are the correct, audit-safe way to undo posted money — never try to "tidy up" by deleting records.