Refund Money to Parishioners
- Use Refund-Deductible if the refunded payments are deductible types, such as Sunday offerings, extra contributions, or pledge drives.
- Use Refund Non-Deductible if the refunded payments are non-deductible types, such as school tuition or religious education fees.
On the Administration tab, click . Create an activity with the function Refund.
Simple Refund
A simple refund doesn't involve a charge or recurring charge. It's a return of a portion of past contributions. For example, a family suffers a hardship and asks the parish for assistance.
Because there are no charges involved, you can post an entry in the family's Rates/History/Keywds window, then post the refund. The refunded amount is subtracted from the amount paid in the Recap/Totals window.
Refund a One-Time Charge
A one-time charge is a fee or other charge that's not recurring, such as a late fee or registration fee. If the fee has been paid but needs to be refunded, refunding the fee brings back the charge. An additional entry is needed to correct the charge. For example, if a family paid the bus fee for their child's field trip, and the trip was canceled, the family is entitled to a refund of the fee.
Check to see if the group includes a refund activity. If not, add it. Then, post the refund entry in the Rates/History/Keywds window, and change the fee amount to 0.00.
Refund a Recurring Charge
Refunding a payment that's part of a recurring charge is handled differently than a one-time charge. For a recurring charge, you can post the refund, but you shouldn't change the amount due to zero. Because this is a recurring charge, the family is still obligated to pay the amount for the time period.
If you need to refund money and stop the pledge, you can post the refund and change the rate to zero, effective on the date of the last fully-paid period. For example, a family pledges $100 per month for one year. It's March, but they paid through April. Because they're leaving the parish this month, they requested a refund of April's payment. In this case, you would issue a refund activity in the Rates/History/Keywds window after the pledge payment activities. To post the rate change, click Change Rate/Total and set the new rate to 0.00. Enter the month the family requested a refund for. The rate and total values change to reflect the new settings, and the Recap/Totals window displays the updated totals.