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Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2017-05-25
Overview
This article shows how to record a refund for a credit card donation using the nonprofit manager version of Trail Blazer.
This is specifically for nonprofit customers who use Vanco or Authorize.Net as their merchant gateway. These two gateways will backfill a donation record if you simply delete the donation from the system after issuing a refund from your merchant gateway account. There are specific steps to record this transaction correctly for your financial audit trail by recording a ‘negative’ donation to reflect the refund.
Tip: Did you know you can take donations directly through your Facebook Page? Here’s how.
Steps
Important: The actual refund for an online transaction will be issued via your *merchant gateway account*. In this example it refers to either Authorize.Net or Vanco but this would be the same for any of the merchant gateways we integrate with.
Navigate to the Contacts (Donors) list.
Run a search query for the donor who you issued a refund to and open their record. In this example I searched for Charles Flint.
Navigate to the Contribute tab and click [+ New].
Enter the value of the refund as a negative number into the memo field. In this example I refunded the full amount of the donation which was $1,500.
Highlight the negative amount, and cut the value into your clipboard with (CTRL + X) or right-click and select Cut.
Paste the negative refund value into the Amount field, you can either use (CTRL + V) or right-click and select Paste.
Fill out the rest of the donation record such as the date of the refund, the type of donation (credit card), the event (if applicable), and record a memo regarding the refund. [Save and Close] once you’re finished. My finished example is below.
Back in the donor’s record card the refund amount will reflect in their giving history under the Contribute tab. In my example there were two records that zeroed out after the refund was issued.
It’s not a bad idea to record a log note that details the refund as well.
The related resources below link to a variety of articles and videos that are related to this topic.
Related Resources
Article: How to Find Declined Donation or Sale Order Transactions and the Error Codes on why they were Declined
Article: Entering Contributions
Article: How to Put your Trail Blazer Donation Form on your Facebook Page
Article: How to Put your Database Merchant Gateway into ‘TEST MODE’ for Testing Donations, Selling Memberships, and Product Sales
Article: Linking your Website to your Database with Configurable iFrame Forms
Article: Configure Website (iFrames)
Article: How to Add the Security Disclaimer Section to your Online Donation Form, and How to Style the Text Inside with html & CSS
Article: How to Configure Recurring Donation Options for your Trail Blazer Donation Form (must be using either Vanco Services or Authorize.Net as your Merchant Gateway)
Article: How to Enable ACH (E-Check) Payments with the Vanco Merchant Gateway on Trail Blazer’s Donation Form
Article: Modify your Donation Form – Change the Amounts – Add Descriptions – Add & Remove which Amounts Display
Video: Getting Started 106a – Entering Contributions (NON PROFIT ONLY)
Video: Iframes
Website: List of Trail Blazer’s Merchant Gateway Integrations
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