How to Correct a Manual Refund on Folios (Wrong Charge and Payment Refund)

Difference Between Refund for Charge and Refund for Payment
How to Correct Accidental Manual Refund for Charge
Example: Refund for Charge
How to Refund a Payment
How to Correct Accidental Manual Refund for Payment
Example: Refund for Payment

 

When you need to refund charges or payments on folios, always use the 3 dots next to the specific charge or payment. Avoid using the Actions menu to add a manual refund.

Difference Between Refund for Charge and Refund for Payment

• Manual refunds of charges, also known as allowances, are global and not associated with a specific charge. This can cause discrepancies in accounting reports.
• Manual refunds of payments are also global and do not trigger a real Apaleo Pay transaction, meaning no actual refund is made to the guest's credit card.

Manual refunds cannot be reversed. Below are workarounds to correct accidental manual refunds.

 

How to Correct Accidental Manual Refund for Charge

1. Move the manual refund to another folio: click the 3 dots (⋮) next to the charge and select Move to.
2. In that folio, add a manual charge to balance out the manual refund. (Actions + Add Charge Add charge manually).
3. Ensure that the amount, service type, and VAT type match the manual refund so that the accounting transactions balance out.
4. On the original folio, you can now correctly refund the charge: click the 3 dots (⋮) next to the charge and select refund.

Example: Refund for Charge

• You meant to discount a guest's city tax but accidentally added it as a manual refund. Now the folio shows no connection between the city tax charge and your refund:
• To correct this, you move the incorrect refund to Folio 2 of the reservation.
• On Folio 2, you add a manual charge to balance out the manual refund, making sure the amount, service type, and VAT type match your manual refund. Posting this balances Folio 2:
• On Folio 1, you can now refund the city tax correctly, using the 3 dots next to the charge. You can clearly see which charge the refund is for:

 

How to Refund a Payment

In general, when you want to partially or totally refund a payment in Apaleo, you can do it very easily.

For hotels using Apaleo payment services:

Thanks to our integration, you only need one simple step to refund a payment to the payer in Apaleo:

• Click on the THREE DOTS of a payment transaction and select Refund payment.
• Only payment transactions with a PSP reference will be refunded directly on the guest's payment card.
  • If a payment transaction does not have a PSP reference, it means that the payment has not been processed by the Apaleo payment services*, so no actual payment happened on the guest's payment card.

*This case has only one exception:

If you insert an amount directly on the card terminal, without launching it from Apaleo, the payment will not be posted on the folio in Apaleo automatically. This means that the guest will be charged, but you will not see it in Apaleo.

• To refund that transaction, you need to do it directly in Adyen.

If you click on the Refund from the Action: It is considered as a Refund button for the manual payment.

• It has no direct connection to a specific payment in the folio and will not trigger a refund to a payment card.
• If a payment refund did not go through, under the refund transaction you will see a red light with a message which comes directly from the bank.

For hotels that do not use Apaleo payment services:

• Click on the THREE DOTS  of a payment transaction and select Refund payment.
• Since there is no direct connection to a payment provider in this case, refunding the payment in Apaleo will not actually cause a refund to the credit card, but will just keep your accounting in line.
• After the refund in Apaleo, you will need to log in to your payment provider's interface or manually trigger the refund from the card terminal there.

So, what if you accidentally did a manual refund payment in this case?

Below is how to fix it.

How to Fix Wrong Manual Payment Refund

1. Move the manual refund to another folio (Click the 3 dots (⋮) next to each and select move to).
2. Check if the folio has an open balance that is greater than the amount of the refund.
   • If no: go to step 3
   • If yes: go to step 4
3. In order to add a manual payment to balance out the manual refund, you need to first add a manual charge for the same amount (Actions + Add Charge Add charge manually).
4. Add a manual payment to balance out the manual refund. Ensure that the payment method is the same as that used for the manual refund so that the accounting transactions balance out.
5. Refund the manual charge using the three dots next to the charge (the purpose of adding the charge was only to be able to add a payment).
6. On the original folio, you can now correctly refund the payment: click the 3 dots (⋮) next to the payment and select refund.

Example: Refund for Payment

• A guest who paid 100 Euros via payment link was offered a full refund by your hotel.
• Two weeks after their stay, the guest reports that they never received the refund in their bank account.
• You check the folio and see that your colleague added a manual refund with payment method cash. This means no real refund was made to the guest

• You will need to open the second folio and then move the incorrect cash refund to the second folio using the three dots.

• Once you move the manual refund to the second folio, you can add the charge (in order to be able to add the payment later). The manual charge should mention the correction so it is noticeable for your accounting team.

• Then you can add the payment. Since the incorrect manual refund payment method is cash, you will need to select "Cash" as the payment method to balance it out.

• Once the payment is added and balanced out, you can refund the charge that you manually added by using the three dots.
• Below is how the folio 2 should looks like: