Updated July 26, 2024
With Dubsado Payments, managing refunds is upgraded from what you could previously do in Dubsado.
Before Dubsado Payments, you could only log a refund in Dubsado, but you would still need to issue the refund from your external payment processor account.
With Dubsado Payments connected as your payment processor, you can now issue full or partial refunds to clients from either Stripe or directly from Dubsado. Refunds initiated within Stripe will appear on the associated Dubsado invoice automatically, and refunds initiated in Dubsado will send the funds back to your client and appear within Stripe.
⛔ Heads up! If a payment was not processed through Dubsado Payments, that payment cannot be refunded through Dubsado.
If you try to refund a non-Dubsado Payments transaction in Dubsado, a warning banner will note that the refund is only being logged in Dubsado.
After logging the refund, you can initiate the refund from your external payment processor account.
If you previously had Legacy Stripe connected and were upgraded to Dubsado Payments, you should be able to initiate refunds for older payments through your old Stripe Dashboard.
The article below summarizes how Stripe manages refunds, with additional details on how to initiate a refund from Dubsado.
How to issue a refund
With Dubsado Payments, you can initiate the refund from either Dubsado or your Stripe Dashboard. This means that refunds initiated in Dubsado will appear in Stripe, and refunds initiated in Stripe will appear in Dubsado.
If you have issued refunds from Stripe before, issuing a refund from your Stripe account will not look any different. If you’re not sure how to issue a refund from Stripe, please follow their instructions on refunding a client.
To issue a refund from Dubsado, follow the steps below:
Go to Projects and select the client.
Click on the Invoices tab.
At the bottom of the page under PAYMENTS, click the
...next to the payment that you want to refund.
Click Refund. A popup will appear.
Type in the amount that you’re refunding.
Type in a note or description (both optional).
Toggle the Allow client to repay option if you expect your client to make another payment towards some or all of the refunded amount.
Click Continue. A refund summary will appear.
Click Refund to issue the refund.
⛔ Heads up! When initiating a refund in Dubsado, each refund is associated with a specific transaction, as opposed to refunding an entire invoice. This is to follow Stripe’s practice of providing a refund for each transaction.
After issuing the refund, you’ll see it listed at the bottom of the Invoices tab. Refunds will appear in Dubsado right away even if the refund is still pending in Stripe.
Partial refunds
Just like full refunds, partial refunds can be issued from either Dubsado or your Stripe Dashboard. To issue a partial refund from Dubsado, type in the amount that you would like to refund under Refund amount.
From Stripe, enter a different amount to be refunded next to Refund.
How funds get withdrawn from your Stripe account
Since Dubsado does not come in contact with any funds, all refunds will be withdrawn from your Stripe account. Let’s look at how Stripe currently handles fund withdrawals for refunds, which Dubsado Payments will follow as well.
When you issue a refund, your Stripe account will immediately be debited. If there are not enough funds in your Stripe account to cover the full refund, the refund will remain in a “pending” state until your Stripe balance has sufficient funds to cover the transaction. Depending on the value of the refund, Stripe may still send your client their full refund first, which will create a negative balance in your Stripe account.
To bring your Stripe account back to $0.00, Stripe may automatically charge your bank account. You’ll be notified by email before a charge is made to your bank account, so you will be able to change or add funds to your bank account if needed. Stripe provides more details in their auto debit FAQ article.
Top-ups
In some cases, if your Stripe balance doesn’t have sufficient funds to cover a refund, your refund can’t be sent immediately and Stripe won’t automatically charge your bank account. To initiate the refund, you can add funds to your Stripe balance using a top-up.
Top-ups are transactions that send money from your bank account to your Stripe balance. To initiate a top-up, follow these steps:
In the Dashboard, go to the Balance section.
In the Add to balance window, enter an amount and select Cover negative balances for repaying a negative balance or for setting aside funds for future refunds.
Verify the amount and click Add funds.
Once your Stripe balance has received funds, either via a top-up or other client payments, you’ll be able to initiate your refund.
Refund timelines
Even though you can now initiate the refund through Dubsado, refund timelines with Dubsado Payments will not differ from Stripe’s current timelines.
Regardless of whether your client paid with a credit card or ACH, your client can expect the refund in 5-10 business days from when you initiated the refund.
My client doesn’t see the refund after ten business days
After you provide a refund to your client, it takes some time for the refund to appear in your client’s statement. If your client reaches out to you because they don’t see the refund, then the refund may have been processed as a reversal. This means that your client won’t see a refunded amount — instead, the original payment will disappear as if the charge never occurred.
Ask your client to go back and check the statement when the original payment was processed. For example, if your client paid you $100 on March 15 and you sent the refund on June 15, your client may not see a -$100 charge in their June statement. Instead, have your client check their March statement to see if the original $100 charge was removed.
If your client still sees the charge, then please have your client reach out to their bank.
FAQ
Are processing fees returned?
Unfortunately, processing fees will not be returned on full or partial refunds. For more information, read Stripe’s help article on understanding fees for refunded payments.
How do I check the status of a refund?
After you issue the refund to your client, you can check the status of a refund by going directly to your Stripe Dashboard. Stripe has three refund statuses: refunded, refund pending, and partial refund. For details on these, you can go to Stripe’s refund status article.
Can I issue a refund to a different card?
Refunds are usually returned to the original payment method to prevent fraud. If your client's card is canceled or expired, the bank will try to refund the money to their replacement card or bank account. If that's not possible, the bank will return the money to Stripe, who will then contact you by email for next steps.
Will issuing a refund stop autopay on future payment plan installments or recurring invoices?
No! Future autopay charges will continue as expected.
Can I log a refund in Dubsado?
With Dubsado Payments, any refunds issued in Dubsado or Stripe are automatically captured in Dubsado. This saves you the extra step of logging the refund in Dubsado.
For other payment processors or payment methods, you will still be able to log the refund in Dubsado. For example, if your client paid with PayPal or cash and you provided a refund, you can log that outside refund in Dubsado.
Can I edit or delete a refund?
Refunds issued with Dubsado Payments can’t be edited or deleted in Dubsado. This is to align with Stripe, where it also isn’t possible to delete or edit refunds.
Who can initiate refunds in Dubsado?
Only the brand owner can initiate refunds — multi-users won’t see the option to initiate a refund from Dubsado.