Recording a Refund You Paid Yourself

Not every refund goes back through Direct Debit — sometimes it's quicker to send the parent a bank transfer. Until now those refunds left two loose ends: the payment carried on showing as Paid, and the money leaving your account sat in your bank inbox with nothing to match it to.

You can now link the two. Match the refund in your bank statement to the exact payment it gives back, and both ends tidy themselves up.

Where to start#

Go to Finance → Accounting and open the Bank inbox tab. Find the line where the money left your account — the refund you sent — and click it to open the reconcile panel.

You'll see a Refund tab alongside Match, Create, Transfer and Park. It only appears on money going out of your account, because money coming in can't be a refund you paid.

Matching the refund#

The panel shows how much there is to allocate at the top, and a searchable list of every payment you've actually collected — recurring subscription payments and one-off payments together.

1. Search for the member, the payment name, or the reference.
2. Click the payment this money was given back for. The amount fills in automatically with whatever's left of the bank line, capped at whatever that payment can still give back.
3. Adjust the amount if you only refunded part of it.
4. Add a note if it helps future-you — "Camp cancelled", for example.
5. Select Match refund to payment.

Refunding several families in one transfer#

If you refunded a whole patrol with a single bank transfer, select each of their payments in turn. Left to allocate counts down as you go, and the button won't let you allocate more than the transfer was worth.

What changes afterwards#

A recurring subscription keeps its own status — refunding one month doesn't cancel the subscription — but the member's row shows how much has been handed back.

Changing your mind#

If you match the wrong payment, open that member's payment history, find the refund and select Reverse this refund. The payment goes back to how it was, and the bank transaction returns to your inbox so you can match it somewhere else.

Refunding through Scoutworks instead#

If you haven't sent the money yet, it's usually simpler to refund through the app — the parent is paid back automatically and you don't have to reconcile anything afterwards. See Refunds for that route. Use this article when the money has already left your account by some other means.

What's next#

• Refunds — refunding a collected payment through Scoutworks, so the parent is paid back automatically.
• Bank Reconciliation and Restricted Funds — working through the rest of your bank inbox.
• One-Off Payments — creating the one-time payment requests you might later refund.