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Reversals and Refunds: Overview

Jennifer Trower Updated by Jennifer Trower

Read Time: 4 mins

When a payment needs to be undone in Sonar, such as when it was entered by mistake or the transaction later fails, use a reversal to remove it from the subscriber's account. If the subscriber should get their money back, Sonar then walks you through a second step to refund the payment through your payment processor.

A reversal and a refund are two different actions. A reversal undoes the payment inside Sonar and adjusts the account balance. A refund returns the actual money to the subscriber through your payment processor. You can do one or both, and the permissions for each are separate.

Permissions

Before getting started with the feature, your user roles will need to be adjusted to account for the permissions required to use the reversals and refunds feature.

If you're a Super Admin, you already have full access and no changes are needed. To learn more, see User Role Creation & Best Practices.
Entity
Permission
Reason
Account
View all account transactions
Locate the payment on the subscriber's account before reversing it.
Account
Whether a user can reverse transactions
Reverse the payment to remove it from the account.
Misc
Whether a user can issue payment refunds
Refund the reversed payment back through your payment processor.

Understanding Reversals in Sonar

Each transaction in Sonar can support multiple “layers” of reversal, depending on where that transaction is in the billing process. A transaction that has been applied to an invoice behaves differently than an uninvoiced transaction, and the rules can change depending on whether the accounting period is open or closed.

Reverse a Payment (and refund it if needed)

Use these steps to undo a payment and, if needed, return the funds to the subscriber.

  1. Open the subscriber's account and go to Billing > Transactions.
  2. Find the payment you need to fix, click the drop-down arrow on that payment, and select Reverse.
  3. In Step 1: Reverse Payment, confirm the Amount to reverse, enter an Explanation so it's clear why the change was made, then select Reverse.
  4. Sonar opens Step 2: Refund Payment in a second window, with the Amount to refund filled in to match what you reversed.
    1. If you don’t need to send money back, select Cancel.
    2. If you do need to return funds, select Refund to start the refund through your payment processor.
Only Bank Account and Credit Card payments can be refunded through Sonar. Other payment types won't include the refund option in the workflow.

What to Expect in Common Scenarios

A reversal behaves differently depending on whether the payment has been applied to an invoice and whether the accounting period is open or closed. Use the table below to know what to expect before you reverse.

Scenario
What happens
What to check first
Payment applied to one or more invoices
Reversing the payment voids the credits it created, so the amount it had paid down returns to the invoice balance.
Expect the invoice balance to go back up by the reversed amount.
Partial reversal
You can reverse part of a payment. The form defaults to the maximum available, which is the payment amount minus anything already reversed.
Lower the Amount field to reverse only part of the payment.
Payment tied to a frozen invoice
Any portion of the payment applied to a frozen invoice cannot be reversed, so the available amount is reduced by that portion.
If the amount is lower than expected, look for a frozen invoice on the account.
Reversal in a closed accounting period
The reversal stays on the account as a record and cannot be deleted, since the period it falls in is closed.
Confirm the period before reversing, because the action will not be removable.
Reversal in an open accounting period
The reversal can be deleted afterward if it was created in a period that is still open.
Use this if you may need to undo the reversal itself later.
These scenarios cover the most common cases, so your situation may vary. If you need help understanding how a reversal will affect your instance, contact your CRM or the support team.

Reversals and Refunds: Overview | Manual Transactions | Setting Up Payment Methods and Taking Payments | Credits and Refunds: How They Link to Invoices

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