Refund a payment
The refund is the official procedure to cancel an online payment and return the sum to the donor. Unlike deletion, the refund initiates a real return transaction at the payment platform (Stripe), which guarantees accounting integrity.
Conditions to refund
To be able to refund a payment, all the following conditions must be met:
| Condition | Detail |
|---|---|
| Stripe platform | Refund is only possible for payments processed by Stripe |
| Validated payment | The payment must be at Validated status (not in progress, not already refunded) |
| No refund in progress | If a refund has already been initiated, wait for its finalization |
| No successful refund | A payment already refunded cannot be refunded again |
| No grouped payment | Payments that are part of a grouped batch are not individually refundable |
| Administrator permissions | Only administrators (not team members) can make a refund |
Procedure
- 1
Locate the payment to refund
In the payments list, find the relevant payment. Filter by Stripe platform and Validated status if needed.
- 2
Open the Edit menu
Click on the pencil icon on the right of the line.
- 3
Click 'Refund the payment'
The option only appears if all refund conditions are met.
- 4
Choose the refund reason
Select from the options proposed by Stripe:
- Customer request — the donor requested the refund (the most common case)
- Duplicate payment — the donor paid twice by mistake
- Fraud — suspicious payment or dispute
- Other — any other reason
This reason is transmitted to Stripe for administrative processing.
- 5
Enter an internal message (mandatory)
Describe the situation for internal history — for example: "David Cohen paid the same membership fee twice, refund of the second payment of 180 €".
This message stays in Unisoft and is not sent to the donor.
- 6
Decide the fate of the subscription (if applicable)
If the payment comes from a subscription (recurring payment), Unisoft asks you if you want to:
- Pause the subscription — prevents the next automatic direct debits
- Leave the subscription active — the donor will be debited again at the next due date
- 7
Confirm the refund
Click on Confirm. Unisoft sends the request to Stripe.
- 8
Track the status
The payment immediately goes to Refund in progress status.
Stripe processes the request within a few minutes to a few days. Once confirmed, the status goes to Refunded and the donor sees the amount re-credited to their card or account within 3 to 10 business days.
Automatic consequences
As soon as the refund is confirmed by Stripe, Unisoft automatically applies the following effects:
- ✅ Payment status: goes to Refunded
- ✅ Tax receipt (if issued): canceled and recorded in the list of canceled receipts of the tax declaration
- ✅ Linked donation pledge: the remaining balance increases by the refunded amount
- ✅ Campaign / Fund / Booklet: statistics are recalculated
- ✅ Subscription (if requested): goes to Paused status
And if the refund fails?
Stripe can refuse a refund in certain rare cases (expired card, closed account, etc.). If this happens:
- The payment status returns to Validated
- The sub-status indicates Refund failure
- An error message specifies the reason (visible in the payment detail)
- You can retry after a few days, or contact the donor to propose another refund method (check, manual transfer)
Partial refund?
Currently, Unisoft only offers full refunds. If you want to refund only a part:
- Make the partial refund directly in the Stripe dashboard
- Edit the payment in Unisoft to reflect the new net amount
Go further
- Delete a payment — for manual payments
- Tax receipts — understanding automatic cancellation
- Recurring payments — subscription management