Guide
Give a refund
Refund a card payment in your Stripe Dashboard and it's recorded by itself; give back cash, a check or Zelle yourself and record it on the invoice.
How you give money back depends on how it came in. Either way the invoice stays paid, the refund comes off your income in your books, and whoever paid is told by email, in your name.
A card payment made through Hand & Seal
Card payments go into your own Stripe account, so they're refunded there.
Open the invoice. Under Payments, the card payment says Paid by card on Stripe, with a link to your Stripe Dashboard.
Refund it in your Stripe Dashboard — all of it, or part.
That's all. When Stripe says so, the refund is recorded on the invoice by itself, beside the payment, and the client is told.
Cash, a check, Zelle — money you gave back yourself
Open the invoice. Under Payments, choose Refund… beside the payment.
Fill it in. Given back starts at the whole payment; change it for part. Then On (the day), How (Cash, Check, Zelle, Venmo, Bank transfer, Card or Other) — and a Reference if you like, such as the check number.
Choose Record the refund. It comes off your income in your books, as returns and allowances, and the invoice stays paid.
A card payment with nowhere to go
Now and then a client pays by card from the link after the invoice was already settled another way, or voided — or a card you took at the table went through after you'd taken cash instead. The money is in your Stripe account, you're told by an alert and an email, and the invoice shows A card payment with nowhere to go, marked To sort out:
- Refund it from your Stripe Dashboard — it clears here by itself when Stripe says so; or
- Keep it — put it in my books, if the client meant it for something else. It goes into your books on the job, and pays whatever the invoice still owes first — or, if that invoice has been voided since, what the job's invoice to the same client still owes.
If they paid twice — cash and the card, say — refunding the card is the usual answer. A card payment you had already recorded by hand, as a card for the same amount, never lands here: it's matched to the one you recorded and counted once.
Good to know
- A deposit taken when someone booked from your page is refunded by itself when the rules say so — see Ask for a deposit.
- A dispute or chargeback from the client's bank is answered in your Stripe Dashboard, never here. The invoice shows Disputed while it's open, and Chargeback if the bank took the money back.
- A card taken at the table with the phone is refunded in your Stripe Dashboard too.
Tax information, not tax advice
Hand & Seal's books take a refund off travel and service fees first and notary fees last. If the refund was for something else, tell your preparer.
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