Refunding a parent's card payment: timing and route
Why a school's refund of a fee paid by card goes back to the same card, how long the parent may wait, and how the school records it in Achekam.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Education businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A parent paid the term's fees by card through the school's online pay page. A week later the family learns they are relocating, and the school agrees to refund part of the term. The parent then asks two reasonable questions: can the money go into their new bank account instead, because the card is about to be cancelled? And when will they see it?
The bursar's honest answers are "probably not" and "it depends on the bank". Both answers are easier to give, and to accept, if the school understands how card refunds work and records each one cleanly. This article draws on a payment provider's own documentation to explain the route and the timing, and then shows how the refund fits into the school's books in Achekam.
Back to the original card only
Stripe's documentation states that refunds can only be sent back to the original payment method used for the charge, not to a different destination such as another card or a bank account. Card refunds travel back along the path the payment came in on.
For a school, that has two consequences:
- The school cannot redirect a card refund to a parent's bank account through the card system. If the family insists on a bank transfer instead, that is a separate payment by the school, and the bursar should treat it with the same care as any other outgoing EFT, including confirming the bank details independently.
- If the card has since been cancelled, the parent should ask their own bank how a refund to that card will reach them. The school's part is to send it to the card the payment came from.
Each gateway documents its own rules. Stripe's page on refunding and cancelling payments explains the difference between cancelling and refunding, full and partial refunds, timing and fees, and is a useful reference even if the school uses another provider; check that provider's documentation too.
How long the parent waits, and when it is a reversal
Stripe says a customer sees a card refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days after it is initiated, depending on the bank. Tell parents that up front, in writing, so the second week of waiting does not produce an anxious call to the bursary.
Stripe also explains that a refund issued shortly after the original charge may appear as a reversal: the original charge drops off the customer's statement and no separate credit is issued. A parent who expects to see a credit line may think the refund never happened. If the refund follows soon after the payment, explain that the original charge may simply disappear.
The reference number for a worried parent
When a parent says the refund has not arrived, Stripe suggests giving them the refund's reference number, such as an Acquirer Reference Number (ARN) for a card refund. The customer's bank can use it to say when the refund will be available.
A short routine for the bursary:
- Note the gateway's refund reference on the school's record of the refund on the day it is made.
- Send the parent a short e-mail with the amount, the date, the card it went to and the reference.
- If the parent calls after the expected period, give them the reference and ask them to raise it with their bank.
That turns a vague complaint into something the parent's bank can trace.
Fees the school does not get back
Stripe explains that a payment can be cancelled before it is completed at no cost, while refunding all or part of a successful payment might incur a fee, and the processing fees from the original transaction are not returned.
On those terms, a refunded card payment leaves the school without the original processing fee, and possibly paying a refund fee as well. Decide in the fee policy whether the school absorbs that cost or deducts an administration charge from refunds, and tell parents before they pay, not when they ask for money back. Check your own gateway's terms for the exact position.
Where the refund arises because a family has overpaid or a pupil leaves mid-year, a credit carried forward to the next term or to a sibling's account may avoid a refund altogether, if the family agrees. Overpaid fees and leavers covers those choices.
Credit note and refund recorded in Achekam
The refund itself happens in the payment gateway. A refund of an online invoice payment is not sent through the gateway by Achekam: someone at the school makes it in the gateway's own dashboard and then records it in Achekam. The steps in the books are:
- Reduce what the parent owes. A credit note is issued from the invoice it corrects, in full or for chosen lines. It is posted to the ledger and can be downloaded as a PDF or e-mailed, and any leftover credit is held for the customer. There is no credit note without an invoice, so always start from the fee invoice concerned.
- Deal with the receipt. Customer payments are recorded against one invoice or spread across several, a part payment leaves an invoice part-paid, and any extra sits on the customer's account. A receipt can be re-allocated, and administrators can refund or reverse it, which is how the money leaving the school is recorded against the parent's account.
- Note the reference. Record the gateway's refund reference with the refund so the bursary can answer the parent's follow-up questions.
Doing it in that order keeps the parent's statement, the school's receivables and the gateway's records in agreement. If the parent was paying in instalments, check the remaining schedule too; fee instalments and part payments explains how part-paid invoices behave.
Write the expected refund time and the school's position on processing fees into the fee policy before the next term's invoices go out.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
