Refunds reverse payments when corrections are needed, such as for incorrect amounts, payment methods, or session allocations. Instead of deleting a receipt, a refund provides a record of returned funds. Instead of deleting a receipt that contains the details of the original payment and removing the transaction from the client's history, you can process a refund to provide evidence that the funds have been returned to the client.
The benefit of processing a refund is that you have a record of the transaction to reference at any time. If a dispute arises as to the balance of an account or the status of a client payment, you can refer to their Invoices, Receipts, and Refunds documents to obtain a complete picture of the client's financial history with your practice.
Refunds are processed based on receipts and can only be processed from within a receipt. If a payment has been recorded on a credit card or bank account using Stripe Payments, it can be refunded the same as any other transaction.
There are two ways that you can view a receipt to process a refund, through the Clients view or the Calendar view.
Refunding through the Clients view
By going to Clients view, then Finances in the client's profile and selecting the receipt for the payment you wish to refund and selecting View.
In the Receipt PDF Preview select Refund.
Finally, on the Refund Payment menu select Refund Payment to process the refund.
You will receive a warning noting that you will not be able to delete the related financial documents or delete the amount charged for the related session. Select the Refund button to finalize the refund.
Refunding through the Calendar View
Navigate to the Calendar view and select Payment Actions, then View Receipt.
In the Receipt PDF Preview select Refund.
Finally, on the Refund Payment menu select Refund Payment to process the refund.
You will receive a warning noting that you will not be able to delete the related financial documents or delete the amount charged for the related session. Select the Refund button to finalize the refund.
Viewing Processed Refunds
When a refund is processed, a Refund document is created and stored within the client's record to ensure that you have a complete and accurate financial history for all transactions. You can view the refund documents two ways:
Go to the client's record and select Finances, then the Refunds tab. Select the refund from the list and select the View button that appears in the banner at the top of the page.
From the Calendar select the paid session and select Payment Actions, then View Refund.
The details of the refund are displayed in the document, including the session with the amount charged, the amount paid, and the amount refunded. In the sidebar there is a selectable reference for the receipt that the refund was processed against. You can select it to view the receipt if you wish.
Unapplying Credit
When a payment has been made using a client's account credit, it cannot be refunded until the credit has been unapplied. Credit can be unapplied and reinstated on the client's account.
When you open a receipt that had credit applied as payment, you will see the reference to the amount of credit applied in the sidebar. You will also see an option to Unapply Credit.
Select the Unapply Credit option. This will remove the credit that was used and add it back to the client's record. The balance for the session is updated to reflect the amount still owing.
If the payment was a combination of account credit and another fund source, e.g. cash, you will process the refund in two steps:
- Unapply the Credit
- Refund the remaining balance
Once the credit has been unapplied the Refund button will appear, and you can complete the refund.
Reporting - Refund
All of the refunds that have been processed will be logged in the Refunds Export. Access this export by going to Dashboard, then Data Exports and scrolling to Refund Export.
The export can be filtered to report data for a date range of your choosing, and will download as a .CSV file that can be opened using data programs like Excel or Numbers. The Refunds Export lists:
- Refund ID
- Date that the refund was processed
- Client ID
- Amount refunded
- Taxes refunded
- Payment Method
- Any Confirmation Number input when the transaction was processed
Note: If a payment has been refunded, other data exports in Zencare Practice Management will be updated accordingly as well. If a payment for a session has been refunded, the session will still appear in the Session Export and you'll see that the Amount Paid and Tax Paid fields have been updated. If a refund was processed in full, there will be no amounts displayed in these fields. If a refund was processed for a portion of the payment, these fields will be updated to reflect the amount of the session that has been partially paid.
Refunds - Correcting Errors
Zencare Practice Management's Refunds feature allows you to easily refund payment to a client if needed and show that a balance is still outstanding on their account for that amount. However, once a refund has been processed you will not be able to delete any of the related financial documents or edit the Amount Charged for the session. This is done to preserve the integrity of the data and maintain a comprehensive financial history for the client's file.
If you've processed a refund erroneously and no longer have the option to delete the related financial documents, what should you do next to correct the client account? Outlined below are three possible options, depending on the scenario:
- The Refund Amount You Input Was Higher Than Intended — If you have processed a refund for an amount higher than you intended, you can correct it by recording another payment against the session for the difference. If you refunded $100 when you meant to only refund $60.00, you can then record a payment of $40.00 on the session to correct the balance outstanding on the client's record. You can make a note on the payment that it was recorded to adjust the balance of the refund processed for accuracy in your reporting.
- The Refund Amount You Input Was Less Than Intended — If you have processed a refund for an amount less than you intended, you can open the receipt and process another refund for the amount of payment remaining on the session. If the session was $100 and you only refunded $50 of it in the first transaction, you can open the receipt and issue another refund for $1-$50 of the payment amount that remains.
- You Processed a Refund on the Wrong Receipt — If you refunded the incorrect receipt altogether, what you can do is process a new payment against that session and note that it is a refund correction in the additional comments for your reference, then you can proceed to process the refund against the intended receipt.