➤ Product: OfficeRnD Flex
➤ Who: Admins
➤ Where: On the Admin Portal, under Billing and Operations
➤ Availability: All Flex plans
A member asks for money back after the invoice is paid, and your accounting system already holds that invoice. OfficeRnD Flex records the refund, so your billing records match the money you send back. Flex does not send the money itself, except for refunds you issue through Stripe.
The record you create depends on how the member paid. It also depends on what you refund: a booking, an invoice, an overpayment, or a deposit.
In this article:
Find the workflow that matches your case.
Record the refund, and send the money back.
Check how your accounting integration handles the refund.
Fix fees that come back after a refund.
How refunds work in OfficeRnD Flex
A refund in OfficeRnD Flex has 2 separate parts. The first part is the record, which is almost always a Credit Note. A Credit Note reverses the amount on the invoice and keeps the original invoice intact for your audit trail. The second part is the money, which travels through the same channel the member used to pay.
Important: A Credit Note does not return money to the member. Send the money back through your payment gateway, your bank, or in cash, and then record it in OfficeRnD Flex.
Stripe is the exception to the second part. When the member paid through Stripe, you can issue the refund from the invoice in OfficeRnD Flex, and Stripe returns the money to the card.
Choose the workflow for your case
The 2 parts of a refund stay the same, and the steps that produce them differ per case. Find your case in the list below, and follow the linked article.
A member cancels or changes a booking that you already invoiced. Record a refund for the booking fee, detach that line item from the invoice, and then change the booking. Flex adds the new fee to the next invoice. Edit or cancel invoiced or waived bookings →
The member paid the invoice through Stripe. Issue the refund from the payment actions on the invoice, and Stripe returns the money. Issue Stripe refunds from OfficeRnD Flex →
The member paid the invoice another way. Create a Credit Note for the line items you refund, then return the money yourself and record it. Record a refund using a Credit Note →
The member paid more than the invoiced amount. Record the overpayment in OfficeRnD Flex first, then refund the excess from your bank account or your payment provider. Add, allocate, and refund overpayments →
You return a deposit. Open the deposit fee on the member or company profile and create a Credit Note for it, then return the money yourself. Refund a deposit →
You can refund part of an invoice in any of the cases above. Select only the line items you return when you create the Credit Note.
Check your accounting integration before you refund
Your Credit Note is a billing record, and your accounting system holds a copy of the original invoice. The 2 integrations treat refunds differently, so check which one you use before you create the Credit Note.
Xero accepts both parts. The Credit Note syncs to Xero, and the refund transaction syncs with it.
QuickBooks accepts neither part. The QuickBooks integration does not support refunds through Credit Notes, and a Credit Note that carries a refund produces a sync error. Create a Refund Receipt in QuickBooks, and record its number on the Credit Note in OfficeRnD Flex. Record a refund using a Credit Note →
Fix fees that come back after a refund
A refund changes what a member owes, and the fees behind that invoice stay in OfficeRnD Flex. A fee that you detach or refund can return on a later invoice, or appear twice.
Make refunded invoices chargeable again
Use this method when you refunded a payment that covered several invoices, and those invoices must become due again.
Go to Billing > Invoices and open the invoices the payment covered.
Set each matching payment to 'Failed'.
The invoices return to a chargeable state, and the correct amount is due again.
Note: The payment status in OfficeRnD Flex has no effect on your payment gateway. A payment you set to 'Failed' in Flex stays refunded in Stripe, and a refund you never issued stays unissued.
Stop a detached fee from returning
Detached fees can reappear on the next invoice, or duplicate on the current one. There are 2 ways to resolve this. Read both, then choose the one that matches how your finance team works.
Re-invoice and credit. Choose this method when your accounting history must stay complete and traceable. Every charge and every credit keeps its own record, which is what a finance team or an auditor follows. This method takes more steps, because you issue a new invoice and then credit the original one.
Issue all affected one-off fees and the membership fee as a new invoice.
Create a Credit Note from the original invoice. Add every fee that must not be charged again, and exclude the fees you already credited.
Allocate the new Credit Note to the new invoice.
Set to 'paid' and void. Choose this method when you want the fees to stop returning quickly. You don't reissue an invoice, so this fix takes fewer steps than the first method. This method creates no Credit Note, so your records show less detail about why each fee stopped.
Open the actions menu of each one-off fee that the original invoice already paid, and set the fee to 'Paid'. The fee stops appearing as unpaid.
Issue the membership fee as a separate invoice, and void that invoice. Do not detach the fee in this case.
Best practices
If a member disputes an amount, create the Credit Note before you return the money. The Credit Note tells you the exact amount to send. It also keeps the original invoice intact for your audit trail. The member waits for the money until the record exists, which is the cost of this order.
If you use QuickBooks with automatic sync, clear the Enable Sync checkbox on the Credit Note before you create the Refund Receipt. An automatic sync sends the Credit Note to QuickBooks, where it lands next to your Refund Receipt as a duplicate. The cleanup then costs you a deletion in QuickBooks and an edit in OfficeRnD Flex.
FAQs
Does a Credit Note return the money to the member?
A Credit Note does not return the money to the member. It records the refund in OfficeRnD Flex, and you return the money through your payment gateway, your bank, or in cash. Refunds you issue through Stripe are the exception, because Stripe returns the money to the card.
Can I refund only part of an invoice?
You can refund part of an invoice. Select the specific line items you refund when you create the Credit Note, and OfficeRnD Flex credits only those amounts.
Can I refund a deposit that was never invoiced?
You can refund a deposit that was never invoiced. Open the member profile, click the cogwheel next to the deposit fee, and select Add Credit Note. Refund a deposit →
Does the refund reach QuickBooks?
The refund does not reach QuickBooks. The QuickBooks integration does not support refunds through Credit Notes, so you create a Refund Receipt in QuickBooks and record its number in OfficeRnD Flex.
Why does a fee I detached appear on the next invoice?
A detached fee appears on the next invoice because detaching removes the fee from that invoice, and the fee itself stays open in OfficeRnD Flex. Set the fee to 'Paid', or credit it, to stop it from returning.