Donations: Deleting, Refunding/Crediting, and Voiding Gifts

Donations: Deleting, Refunding/Crediting, and Voiding Gifts

1. If you erroneously enter a donation, you can Void (for non in-kind gifts) or Delete/Erase (for in-kind gifts) to remove it (you can also delete a non in-kind gift by deleting the Invoice; however, this is the "nuclear" option and will erase the paper trail/all record of the transaction and we do not recommend using this method except for cases of absolute necessity). If you received a donation (receive the money in hand) but the donor then changes their mind or wants the money applied in a different way, you can Void, Refund or Credit the gift.
2. Please Note: voiding/cancelling the FIRST transaction of a recurring donation will CLOSE the recurring donation (as the recurring donation needs the details of the first charge to propel subsequent charges) (though the status will still show as active) and you will need to change the status to inactive and then set up a new recurring donation.
3. To Delete an erroneous gift: to keep the paper trail/history of the erroneous entry, use the Void function. From the Main Menu, select Fundraising to open the fundraising sub-menu, and then click Gifts to navigate to the Gifts Index screen.
   Or
   From contact view, scroll down  to Gift widget and click "All." This will redirect you to a new screen with list of all Gifts from that contact.
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4. Click the drop down to the right of the gift you wish to Void and select Cancel/Void Transaction (for cash/non in-kind donations). For in-kind gifts, the menu option will be to Delete. There is no option to Void an in-kind gift. You can only delete it. Selecting delete for an in-kind gift will automatically delete/remove it from the system. Once deleted, it cannot be recovered.

   

   

5. (for non in-kind gifts) On the Cancel Gift screen, select whether you wish to Refund, Void, or Credit the gift. Refund allows you to issue a 100%/full refund (send the payment back to the donor) (there is no ability to partially refund a donation - in that case, you would need to Refund, Void, or Delete this donation and re-enter a new one at the lower amount), Void - which will zero out the transaction (but keep the history/record). Void allows you to zero out the transaction/erase an erroneous transaction. Credit allows you to cancel the donation and issue a credit for the amount paid (you will then be apply the credit/payment to a new/different transaction).

   

6. If you are choose Refund or Credit, enter the Cancellation Date and enter any Notes (notes will display on the gift index screen when the user hovers over the transaction).

   

   

7. The payment information for the original transaction will automatically be displayed in the lower half of the refund/credit screen.

   

8. For refunds: if the original transaction was paid via credit card, then the refund will be issued via credit card (and you will not have the option to issue the refund any other way) [note: that selecting refund for a transaction paid via credit card WILL automatically trigger a refund in Stripe. The money will be returned to the donor automatically; there is no need to manually refund the money). For all other payment methods, you will have the option to indicate how the money will be refunded to the contact. Complete the Mode of Refund and Refund Reference No. fields.
9. For Refunds, if the original payment was made via multiple modes (for example, 50% paid via credit card and 50% via check), the credit card transaction is refunded first/the amount to be refunded is done via credit card first. If there is any remainder, then you will have the option to select the method for the remainder).

   

10. If you choose to Void the transaction, simply select Void and then click the Void button at the bottom of the screen. The transaction paper trail will remain, but the payment information will be erased/zeroed out.

    

11. Click the button in the lower right to save the transaction (button text will say Issue Refund if refunding, Void if voiding, and Issue Credit if crediting the transaction).

    

    

    

12. For refunded donations, you will be able to see that the donation was refunded when viewing the contact record in the Giving Details widget, the Financial Details widget, and when viewing the Gifts Index page. For credited and voided donations, you will see these on the Gifts Index page; they will not show on View Contact: Financial Details or Giving Details.
    

    

    
    

    

13. The fact the transaction was refunded or credited will also show on the Invoice.

    

14. It will also show on the contact's Ledger

    

15. If you Void/Cancel/Refund a donation BEFORE you send the donation acknowledgement letter, then the donation acknowledgement letter will be deleted/removed from the generate acknowledgments area (that is, you will not have the option to generate an acknowledgement letter for a cancelled donation). If you Void/Cancel/Refund a donation AFTER you send the donation acknowledgement letter, that letter will remain in the contact's Engagement History and in Communications: History (that is, the system will not erase the history of a letter that was actually sent).
16. In the contact profile, the timeline displays a record of all engagement with the contact: event registrations, memberships, donations, tasks and interactions, and communications sent to the contact. You can click on the timeline entry to view the entry details.
    Note: System does not delete the timeline entry in real-time, as deleting is resource consuming process. We have weekly scheduler, which runs during the weekend to clean up such entries. So entries will be deleted from timeline over weekends.