A refund receipt is a page Rhythm builds from a template. It shows the refund, the original payment, the customer, and each refunded line. Use this article when you need to give the customer proof of the refund, either as a printed copy or as an emailed link.
When to Use This
Use this after you process a refund and the customer needs proof of it, either as a printed copy or as an emailed link to a hosted copy. If you have not issued the refund yet, see Refund a Payment first.
Prerequisites
- Permission to print refund receipts, to use Print Receipt.
- Permission to email refund receipts, to use Email Receipt. Your account may grant these separately, so you may have one permission without the other.
What a Refund Receipt Shows
A refund receipt shows the refund number and date, the original payment, the customer's name and billing address, the association's information, and each refunded line with its product name and amount. It never shows a full card or bank account number; it shows only the last digits already stored on the payment. The layout comes from the business unit's refund receipt template, which is set up under Finance & Billing Setup. If the business unit does not have a template named, Rhythm uses its built-in layout instead.
Warning
The card brand printed on a refund receipt is not always reliable. Some receipts show Visa as the card type even when a different card was actually used, which is the same known issue that can affect payment receipts and Payment 360. If the card brand matters for your records, confirm it with the customer or on the original payment.
If your account was affected by a period when a payment's last four digits were missing from receipts, the fix restores them only for new transactions going forward. A refund receipt generated before the fix keeps showing what it originally showed, and it is not corrected retroactively.
Warning
Refund visibility depends on how the original payment was processed. If a payment went through a different payment gateway than Rhythm Payments, such as BluePay, its refund may not appear in Rhythm at all. In that case, look up the refund receipt directly in that gateway using the original transaction's identifier, instead of looking for it here.
Print a Refund Receipt
- Open the refund.
- Open Refund Options and select Print Receipt.
Result
Rhythm builds the receipt from the business unit's template and opens it in a new browser tab.
Tip
The receipt page is built dynamically, so an embedded print button on the page can be missing or fail to respond. Once the receipt is open, use your browser's print command instead: right-click and choose Print, or use File > Print (Ctrl/Cmd+P). The receipt prints the same way whether or not an in-page button is working.
If Print Receipt returns an error instead of opening the receipt, see If a Refund Receipt Won't Print or Email below.
Email a Refund Receipt
- Open the refund.
- Open Refund Options and select Email Receipt.
- Rhythm builds an email addressed to the refund's contact, with the subject "Refund #[number] Receipt" and a body that names the refund and its amount, with a link to the hosted receipt.
- Change the recipient, subject, or body if needed, then send the email.
Result
Rhythm sends the email with a link to the receipt. Anyone with that link can open the receipt, so treat it the same way you would treat a printed copy you are handing to someone.
Warning
The email amount always appears with a dollar sign, even for a refund in another currency. If there is any doubt about what was actually refunded, check the currency code on the refund itself.
If the Customer Has No Contact on File
The email composer builds its greeting from the refund's contact. If the refund's customer is an organization with no linked contact, the composer may not be able to build the greeting, and the dialog can keep waiting indefinitely. If that happens, close the dialog and print the receipt instead, or send it manually after you have a contact address to use.
Why an Automatic Receipt Didn't Go Out
The Issue a Refund... dialog includes Send Email Receipt(s):, which starts filled in with the customer's email address. Typing or changing an address there does not send anything by itself. Rhythm does not email a receipt automatically when you process a refund or a payment credit, and that field does not record anything on the person's CRM email history. To send a receipt, use Email Receipt on the refund's own page after the refund has been recorded. Sending it that way also adds the email to the person's CRM email tab, so you have a record that it went out.
If a Refund Receipt Won't Print or Email
- Printing or emailing fails with an error, and the refund came from a credit or store credit. Refunds issued against a credit can create a refund record with no product line items. When that happens, Print Receipt can fail with an error about the refund's line items, and Email Receipt can fail to render for the same reason. This has been reported as a known issue for credit-based refunds. It does not happen for other refund scenarios, such as merchandise or membership package refunds.
- You need proof of the refund and neither printing nor emailing works. As a temporary substitute, you can use a screenshot of the refund's own page, Refund 360, to show that the refund happened. It will not have the accounting detail that a proper receipt has, so use it only until you can produce a working receipt.
Related Reading
To issue the refund first, see Refund a Payment. To find a refund you have already processed, or to correct its date, memo, or notes, see Find, View, and Correct a Refund or Credit.