How to Issue a Refund Through Authorize.net

IMPORTANT! In the coming months, we will be phasing out this version of the Tuition Management module. If you are looking for how to work with Contracts in the next generation of the Tuition Management module (which is where all 2023-2024 Contracts were built and sent from), go to the Tuition Management section of our Help Center.

Issuing refunds is unavoidable anytime monetary transactions occur. This article is going to walk you through the steps of what to do either void a payment (if caught early enough) or issue a refund through Authorize.net.

This article will first go through how to void a payment. Click on the link if you are looking for the steps to process the refund in Authorize.net.

If you have already followed these steps and need to know How to Clear the Unresolved Transaction in BigSIS click here. 

How to Void a Payment (if caught early enough)

1. Go to Favorites > Families > Search for the Family > Edit.
   
2. Once you are in the family that you want scroll down to the menu towards the bottom and select Payment & Refunds > select the payment you are going to refund.
   
3. At the top you will see the View Transaction.
   
   
4. Click on the Get Latest from Authorize.net > click Back > View Transaction to make sure that you have the latest and most up to date transaction data. If the you see the Transaction Status is yellow or capturedPendingSettlement then you are good to proceed to the next step. However if the transaction is green or settledSuccessfully (as seen here), you will proceed to the How to Refund through Authorize.net instructions.
   
5. That will take you to a new page, at the top you will see the Void Button
   Pro Tip! Please make sure you are 100% certain that you want to click this button. Once you have, there will not be a way to Unvoid. 
   
6. If you get a Red error message, that means the transaction has gone through and now you need to follow the steps on how to issue a refund through Authorize.net.
   

How to Refund through Authorize.net

These steps are going to walk you through how to issue a refund through Authorize.net. You are taking these steps because the transaction status for the invoice in BigSIS was settled successfully.

1. Go to Favorites > Families > Search for the Family > Edit.
   
2. Scroll down to the Payments & Refunds tab and copy the number you see in the Transaction tab.
   
3. Please start by clicking on this link: https://login.authorize.net/?cobrand=anet 
   Enter your Authorize.net username and password.
4. Go to Transaction Search > enter the transaction number that you got previously > double click on the Trans ID when you get to the Transaction Search Results page (the area in the red box).
   
   
   
5. That takes you to a window that will be titled Transaction Detail > Click Refund.
   
6. You will, again, be taken to a new window and from there you will see an amount entered in the refund amount box (that is going to be the amount of the transaction). You can do all or some of it (up to you). Then you will need to add a Description (Refund for mistake payment or any description you find useful). Lastly click OK.
   

How to Clear the Unresolved Transaction in BigSIS

1. Go to the Dashboard > Find your Unresolved Transactions Widget (if you cannot find it use our Dashboard Widget Video for help) > Double click to edit the transaction that you need to clear.
   
2. Scroll down to the Original Payment Method Details > Make sure the Reverse the original payment applied to invoice(s) box is checked > click Resolve Transaction and this will tie the refund back to the original invoice. 
   Pro Tip! If the transaction is tied to multiple invoices (as seen in the example) make sure you fill in the Amount to Apply to each of the invoices. 
   (Right-click and "Open image in new tab" to enlarge)
   
3. If you are continuing to take payments for the invoice then you may be done. Once you resolve the transaction in BigSIS the invoice is ready to take payments again. If you need to add a credit memo to zero out the invoice you can use one of the following options.
   • How to Create a Credit Memo from an Existing Invoice and Apply It
   • How to Create a Credit Memo from Scratch

Congrats! You've successfully completed the refund in Authorize.net and resolved the transaction in BigSIS!

*PPI in the screenshots was grayed out for privacy reasons