Feature Summary: Refunding a payment doesn't always work the way system users expect, especially once account credit, package punches, split payments, promo codes, or processing fees are involved. This article walks through common refund scenarios system users encounter, including how refund destinations and amounts are determined and how to handle less straightforward cases.

Use Cases:

Two organization settings affect where refunds land. Confirm the club's refund policy before configuring these.

Do Not Allow Refunds to Member Balance if Payment Was Made from a CC - When enabled, system users cannot refund a payment back to account credit if the original payment was made by credit card. This keeps credit card refunds going back to the original payment method rather than being held as account credit.

On Refund Approval, Default "Refund to CC" to Be Checked by Default - When enabled, the Refund Destination field defaults to Credit Card whenever a system user approves a refund that originated from a credit card payment. The system user can still change the destination if needed.

Note: To protect against refunding unsettled e-check payments, CourtReserve prevents refunds to account credit or cash until the e-check has fully settled. During this period, refunds are only allowed back to the original e-check payment method. This applies to both manual and automatic refunds.

Note: Reverting a payment or refund is only possible before the transaction fully settles. Once a transaction has fully settled, it cannot be reverted, and a new refund is the only way to return funds to the member.

Auto Refunds let CourtReserve automatically process eligible refund requests without an admin reviewing each one individually. When a player cancels a paid booking within the permitted cancellation window, CourtReserve creates the refund request internally and processes it automatically, typically updating within about 30 seconds. Any request that falls outside the configured rules, such as a disabled payment type or a cancellation made too close to the start time, is routed to the Pending Refunds tab (found under Transactions > Refunds) for manual review instead.

Under Billing Settings > Auto-Refund, system users can configure:

Under Billing Settings > Auto-Refund > Refund Destinations, system users can set a default destination for each payment type when a refund is auto-approved. Credit card, eCheck, account credit, cash, and check payments can each have their own destination, and credit card payments can be set to auto-refund to Account Credit instead of back to the card. Issuing refunds as account credit this way avoids the additional processing fees that come with a card refund. Example shown here:

Note: When processing a refund for a Public Booking transaction, account credit is not an available refund destination, regardless of how the Auto Refund Destinations setting is configured, since Public Booking users are not tied to a member profile. If the Refund Destination for the Credit Card payment type is set to Account Credit, Public Booking cancellations will not auto-process. Instead, they are sent to the Pending Refunds tab for manual review, where account credit still will not appear as an option.

Use this when a refund was issued to account credit but needs to go back to the original credit card instead.

Real-life example: A member cancels a private lesson at the tennis club, and the front desk accidentally issues the refund to account credit instead of the card the member paid with. Staff reverts the account credit refund and reissues it to the member's credit card instead.

Note: The original payment must have been made with a credit card. An account credit refund cannot be redirected to a credit card if it was not originally tied to one.

The refund is then processed to the credit card the payment was originally made on.

Note: This only works before the transaction fully settles. If the refund has already fully processed (for example, a completed cash refund), it cannot be reverted or modified.

Troubleshooting: If the Refund Destination field only offers Cash or Account Credit, this usually means the refund is being processed from a screen that does not have access to the original payment method. Process the refund from the member's Billing > Transactions tab instead, which allows selecting the original payment method as the destination.

Multiple refunds to revert: If more than one refund needs to be reverted (for example, two separate $100 account credit refunds on the same profile), revert each one individually using the same steps before issuing any new refunds. If the reverted amounts are identical, it does not matter which specific payment record is used to reissue the refund to credit card, as long as the total refunded amount matches what is owed back to the member.

Because the payment has no credit card tied to it, the refund can generally only go back to account credit. There is no credit card destination available to switch to, since Revert Refund and the credit card destination option both depend on the original payment having a credit card component.

Real-life example: A member uses $30 in account credit to register for a pickleball clinic. The clinic is canceled, so the refund can only go back to account credit, since there is no credit card tied to that specific payment.

Note: Account credit balances are pooled and do not track which dollar came from which source, so whether a credit card destination is available depends on where the specific credit applied to that payment originated, not just on the fact that account credit was used.

Check the member's transaction history to confirm where the applied credit originated before assuming a destination is unavailable.

When a fee is paid using both account credit and a credit card, CourtReserve records it as two separate transaction rows: one with Payment Type of Account Credit and one with Payment Type of Credit Card. This happens whenever a system user applies partial credit toward a fee and charges the remaining balance to the payment profile on file.

Real-life example: Front desk registers a member for a $50 doubles pickleball reservation using $10 in account credit and $40 on the credit card on file. When the reservation is canceled, the $10 can only be refunded to account credit or cash, while the $40 can be refunded to the credit card, account credit, or cash.

Note: The account credit portion of a split payment can only be refunded to Account Credit or Cash. Credit Card is not offered as a destination for that portion, consistent with the rule in Scenario 2 that a refund can only reach a credit card if it is tied back to one. The credit card portion of the same payment can be refunded to Credit Card, Account Credit, or Cash, since it does have a card to refund back to. Because each portion has its own Refund Amt field, a partial refund can be issued on either portion independently, without affecting the other.

Behavior differs slightly depending on where the charge is happening.

For example: A member has a $20 invoice due and $5 in account credit. The system attempts to charge $15 to the payment profile first. If that charge succeeds, the remaining $5 is paid using account credit.

Ad hoc fees and reservations (Auto Apply Account Credit to Unpaid Fees enabled): When a system user posts a fee or creates a reservation, any available account credit is automatically applied to the first eligible fee. If the member has no account credit, this step is skipped and the fee is charged through the club's standard payment methods. If the member has some credit but not enough to cover the full fee, the credit is applied first and the remaining balance is charged normally.
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Batch billing and invoicing: If account credit is not enough to cover the full invoice amount, the system first attempts to charge the remaining balance to the member's payment profile.

Auto Payment of Membership Dues: Follows the same logic as batch billing above. Insufficient credit does not result in a partial payment; the system charges the remaining amount to the payment profile first, then applies the credit.

Point of Sale (POS): If account credit does not fully cover a fee, the Enter Payment Amount field shows the remaining balance after credit is applied, and the admin can charge the difference or choose another payment method.

A few different situations can cause the refund amount to show as less than what the member originally paid.

Promo code or discount applied: If a promo code was used, the refund is capped at the amount actually paid, not the original pre-discount price. A banner on the refund screen indicates a promo code was applied, along with the code, the discount amount, and the amount paid.

Partial refund entered: The Refund Amount field can be manually changed when issuing a refund. If a smaller value was entered, only that amount is refunded.

Credit card processing fees: If the original payment was made by credit card, the payment processor may deduct processing fees before settlement, which can reduce the amount available for payout below the original charge amount.

Note: The Refund Amount field cannot be set higher than the amount actually collected for that payment. There is no manual override to refund more than what was originally paid, regardless of the reason for the shortfall.

When a payment includes both account credit and a credit card, and the account credit portion has also been used, refunded, or reverted elsewhere on the member's account, the amount available to refund back to the credit card can appear artificially reduced. This can look like a processing-fee issue but may actually be an account credit reconciliation issue.

For example: A $100 league fee was paid using $7.50 in account credit and $92.50 by credit card. The full $100 was initially refunded to account credit, then that refund was reverted so the $92.50 could be sent back to the credit card instead. However, the system limited the refund to less than $92.50. On review, this was traced to the member's account credit also being tied to a separate fee (another registration that had used and been refunded with account credit), so the amounts did not reconcile cleanly against just this one payment.

If a credit-card refund on a split payment is capped below the expected amount and processing fees do not fully explain the gap, check whether the member has any other account credit refunds tied to overlapping fees, and consider reverting those as well before reattempting the refund.

Real-life example: The retail price is $45.00 for a singles tennis court rental but the member applies a 15% promo code, bringing her payment to $38.25. She cancels late, so the club refunds only $30.00 back to her credit card and notes "Only refunding $30 due to late cancel" in Refund Notes.

Use this when a member's credit card payment for Fee A was refunded to account credit, that account credit was then used to pay for Fee B, and the member now wants Fee B refunded back to the original credit card instead.

Since the credit has already been spent on Fee B, the credit must be unwound in reverse order before the original credit card can be reached.

The refund is then processed to the credit card the original Fee A payment was made on.

Note: This works cleanly when there is a single, traceable chain: one refund created the credit, and one payment consumed it. If the account credit was split across multiple fees or only partially used, each link in the chain may need to be unwound in the same reverse order before the full amount can be traced back to the card.

Real-life example: A member paid for a tennis clinic by credit card, then switched to a pickleball clinic and had the tennis fee refunded to account credit to cover it. She later decides to drop the pickleball clinic entirely and wants her card refunded. Staff refunds the pickleball payment back to account credit, reverts the original tennis clinic refund, and then refunds the tennis clinic fee to her credit card.

Use this when a fee was paid using a punch from a package (rather than cash, credit card, or account credit) and the punch needs to be returned to the member's account.

Real-life example: A member uses a punch from her 10-pack pickleball lesson package to pay for a private lesson, then decides she'd rather pay by credit card and keep the punch for a future lesson. Staff refunds the punch-based fee with Package as the destination, and the punch is returned to her package balance.

The transaction list then shows a new Refund - Punch row, and the punch is returned to the member's package balance.

Note: Since a punch has no direct cash value, Package is the only refund destination available for a punch-based payment. The punch cannot be refunded as cash, account credit, or back to a credit card.