Refunds, repayments, holds and void and reissue

Once a payment is made, the money does not always stay where it went. A grantee returns part of a grant, the bank sends a payment back, or a tranche has to wait. Backed corrects each of these on the record it applies to, and keeps the original payment and its history:

Refunds, money returned against a paid payment, on the payment's row.
Repayments, money you ask a grantee to return, on the contract or the application.
Holds, which keep a milestone's tranche from being paid until you release it.
Void and reissue, for a paid payment the bank returned.

Before you start

This appears only when Payments is turned on for your organisation, and you need the Can access Payments permission. Your admin group's data access must give you Full Access to payments in the payment's round: with Read Only you see the refunds, repayments and holds but can't change them. You see only the buttons your permissions allow. Labels that name Milestone, Payment Batch, Application and Contract use your organisation's own term if you've renamed it.

Record a refund

A refund is recorded against one payment that is Paid. Find the payment on its batch's page (open the batch from Award and pay > Payments) or in the Payments section of its milestone's page.

On the payment's row, select Record refund.
Enter the Amount, the date the money came back, how it came back (the method), and a reference and note if they help your finance team find it later.
Leave Expected off when the money is already in your account. Turn it on when the grantee has promised the money but it hasn't arrived yet.
Select Record refund.

A refund recorded without Expected is received at once. It lowers what the payment has paid (its net paid), and with it the milestone's Paid to date and Outstanding, the application's paid total and, when your organisation uses Funds, the fund's Paid Amount and Available Amount. The payment's status stays Paid.

An expected refund changes no total. When the money arrives, select Mark received on the refund's row, and it counts from then on. Only an expected refund offers Mark received.

How much can be refunded

A payment can be refunded up to what is still refundable: the amount the bank paid, GST included, less every refund already recorded against it, received or expected. A larger amount is refused, and Backed says how much is still refundable.

Delete a refund

Select Delete on a refund recorded by mistake. It stops counting, and the totals return to what they were. The deletion is kept in the payment's history. A refund recorded as the receipt of a repayment can't be deleted: it belongs to the repayment's record.

When a milestone is overpaid

A milestone paid more than its funding amount shows Overpaid with the amount beside its payment status, on its page and in the tranche summary. An application whose paid total is more than its approved amount shows Overpaid with the amount beside its Approved Amount and in its tranche summary. The status stays Paid.

The label counts received refunds, so it clears once the excess has been refunded and received. An expected refund doesn't clear it.

Ask a grantee to repay

When a grantee owes money back, for example after an audit or because a project ended early, ask for it from the contract's page or the application's page.

Select Request repayment. It is offered once the repayments list has loaded. If the list fails to load, select Try again to read it again.
Enter the Amount owed, the reason and the due date. The form says which currency it is asked in, Requested in and the currency's code, under the amount. A contract is asked in its own currency. An application is asked in the currency of its latest paid payment, so until it has one the currency isn't known, the form says so, and nothing can be requested. The amount can't be more than the contract or application has been paid, net of refunds, in that currency.
Select Request repayment.

The grantee's applicants are sent the Repayment requested email, and a notification in the applicant portal, with the amount, the due date and a remittance reference to quote when they pay. The reference is RP-, the contract number or application number, and a count: the first repayment asked of contract number 1042 is RP-1042-1, the next RP-1042-2.

The Repayments panel on the contract's or application's page lists each request with its reference, amount, what has been received, what is still outstanding, its due date and its status:

Requested: nothing received yet.
Part received: some of the money is in.
Received: all of it is in.
Waived: you stopped asking for the rest.

Record money received

When money arrives against a repayment, select Record receipt on it and enter the amount and the date it arrived. The receipt is recorded as a received refund against one of the grantee's paid payments: the one you choose, or else the latest paid payment with enough left to refund. So a receipt lowers net paid exactly as a refund does. The repayment becomes Part received or Received as the receipts add up.

Waive the rest

Select Waive and give a reason to stop asking for what is still owed. The receipts already recorded stay. A repayment that is Received or Waived takes no more receipts and can't be waived again.

Hold a tranche

A hold stops a milestone's tranche from being paid, for example while you wait on a report or look into a concern. The hold is on the milestone, so it covers every payment of it.

In the Payments section of the milestone's page, select Hold.
Give the reason. It is shown wherever the hold is listed.

While the milestone is held:

it isn't offered under Add Milestones in a payment batch, and none of its payments can be added to a batch;
a batch that already holds a Pending Approval payment of it can't be approved until the hold is released or the payment is removed from the batch;
it never reaches a bank file;
the application's and contract's tranche summaries show it as Held.

Select Release on the milestone's page, or in Held tranches, to lift the hold. Releasing moves no money; the milestone can be added to a batch again.

A milestone can't be held when it is already paid in full, when one of its payments is already in an Approved or Paid batch (the money is past the point a hold can stop), or when it is already held.

See every held tranche

On Award and pay > Payments, select Held tranches beside the list of batches. It lists each held milestone with its application, recipient, amount, the reason, who held it and when. Select Release on a row to lift that hold. You see the holds in the rounds whose payments you can see.

Void and reissue a returned payment

When the bank sends a paid payment back, for example because the account was closed, void it and issue a replacement.

On the payment's row, on its batch's page or its milestone's page, select Void and reissue.
Give the reason. A reason is required.
Select Void and reissue.

The payment becomes Voided and its amount no longer counts as paid: the milestone's Paid to date, the application's paid total and the fund's Paid Amount all fall by it. Backed creates a replacement payment, Pending Approval, with the same recipient, milestone, application, contract, amount, GST treatment, payment category and currency, in a new Draft batch titled Reissue of followed by the original batch's title (or by the payment's number, for a payment added outside a batch). The two payments link to each other.

Correct whatever made the bank return the payment, such as the bank account on the contract, then prepare, approve and pay the new batch as usual. See Reviewing and approving a payment batch.

A payment can be voided only when it is Paid. A milestone payment can't be voided while its milestone is held (release the hold first), or while the milestone already has another unpaid payment.

Payments sent to an accounting system

When your organisation connects an accounting system and a payment has already been sent to it, Backed never changes the bill there. A received refund or a void of that payment adds an entry Needs accounting adjustment to Integration logs. Make the matching adjustment in your accounting system by hand. See Integration logs.

What a refusal means

What you see	Why
The refund amount is more than can be refunded	The amount is above what is still refundable on the payment. Enter a smaller amount.
The payment hasn't been paid	Only a `Paid` payment can be refunded or voided. A voided payment can't be refunded.
The milestone already has a payment in a batch	One of its payments is in an `Approved` or `Paid` batch, so it can't be held.
The milestone is held	A held milestone's payment can't be voided, and its batch can't be approved.
The repayment is closed	It is `Received` or `Waived`, so it takes no receipt or waiver.
The refund belongs to a repayment	It is a repayment's receipt, so it can't be deleted.

What is recorded

Each refund, receipt, waiver, hold, release, void and reissue is kept in the history of the payment or milestone it applies to, with who did it, when and the reason given. The entries can't be changed.