Process refunds for credit notes via Stripe

This article details the process of refunding Stripe customers directly from Storeganise

Overview

If Stripe is the payment gateway you have setup with your Storeganise account, you can directly process refunds (as credit notes) to customers that have Stripe payment methods on file. Just like Stripe payments for invoices, refunds are handled by Storeganise automatically so you do not have to log into your Stripe dashboard to complete the refund.

All refunds are handled in Storeganise as an invoice with a negative amount, known as a credit note.

When viewing a credit note invoice that is in Draft state, you will see a blue 'Refund customer' button. Just like charging customers, simply clicking this button will automatically refund the customer the amount seen in the Total for the invoice.

You will then see the associated Stripe payment ID indicating this refund was processed successfully through your Stripe account automatically.

You can split up a refund by adding a manual payment with a negative amount to reflect the remaining balance to be refunded to the customer. In this case, the Balance remaining is the total amount refunded via Stripe.

Upon then refunding the invoice to the customer, you will see the full amount that was associated to the Stripe portion of the refund.

Why does a refund fail?

Refunds will only work if you have previously charged the customer via Stripe for at least the amount that you are looking to refund.

In the case that you have not previously charged the customer enough via Stripe, the refund will fail and you will see a response indicating that the refund amount is too high.

This is because refunds must be tied to previous payments in Stripe.

Stripe Dashboard

In the Stripe dashboard view, a refund will display as either 'Refunded' or 'Partial refund ⓘ'.

A line marked as 'Refunded' indicates that the full amount that was tied to the initial invoice paid by the customer has been refunded.

You may find it is more common to see lines marked as 'Partial refund ⓘ'. And there may be some confusion at first glance for any line that is a partial refund.

The amount displayed under the 'Amount' column for a partial refund is referencing the original associated paid invoice, NOT the amount that was refunded to the customer.

If you hover over the 'Partial refund ⓘ' text, the amount that was actually refunded will be displayed.

Any amount being refunded to a customer is typically going to be tied to an initial payment by the customer. The most common example of this would be refunding a customer the deposit amount, when they move-out, from their very first move-in invoice.