User permissions
There are 4 possible user permission levels for refunds. The following list details the levels and the associated permissions to give the user (in Configuration > Users > Permissions & main setup):
- 1) Can view bookings but NOT add payments/refunds*
- Set Bookings, Customers & Enquiries to Read only.
- 2) Can add payments but NOT refunds *
- Set Bookings, Customers & Enquiries to Full and ✔ Add payments. Set Money Sales ledger to either No or Read only.
- 3) Can add a payment AND add refunds
- Set Bookings, Customers & Enquiries to Full and ✔ Add payments. Set Money Sales ledger to Full.
- 4) Can edit & delete existing payments & refunds
- Set Bookings, Customers & Enquiries to Full and ✔ Add payments. Set Money Sales ledger to Full.
In the Super powers box ✔ Super user.
* For users that DO NOT have permission to add a refund our suggested business process is that set a Flag (on the Workflow tab on the booking edit screen) to their team leader, with a message such as “Please refund this booking 100 GBP”. This will put that booking in that user's queue for action.
Adding a refund
The core rule is that IF the customer is still taking the tour (or has taken the tour) leave the booking as confirmed. If they are NOT taking the tour then cancel the booking. This will ensure that your operational reports are accurate.
Go to the Money tab of the booking to add a refund:
- Credit card
It's only available if it already exists a previous credit card payment and it triggers a credit card refund via the integrated payment gateway.
Although, there is an exception for payments made on the old Trust My Travel (TMT) platform, which can no longer be refunded by TourCMS and should instead be emailed to Trust My Travel (support@trustmytravel.com). These would be payments made prior to the end of March 2021 and can be identified as they say "Spreedly TMT" in the type.
- Manually add a payment/refund
Introduce a negative amount in the payment value field, complete the rest of the information (date, payment value, payment type, etc.) and click on "New payment". This action is merely for informational purposes, it's not connected to your payment system.
For confirmed bookings where you are giving a refund ensure that the Balance status, on the money tab on a booking, is set to Refunded. This will ensure that the outstanding balance is set to zero. If you don't do this it will appear that the customer owes money (when they do not).
For bookings that are canceled the balance outstanding normally automatically reduces to zero. You can change this behaviour in configuration & setup - general booking settings
Customer changing to a lower value tour
- Leave the booking as a confirmed booking
- Ensure that the total sale value is accurate (edit if necessary)
- If they have ALREADY made a payment, and now have overpaid, and a refund equal to the value you paid back
- The sale value, payments made AND refunds added should add up to zero. DO NOT change the payment status to refunded
Customer unhappy with tour so receiving a PARTIAL refund
- Leave the booking as a confirmed booking
- Assuming they have ALREADY made a payment and a refund equal to the value you paid back
- The payment status SHOULD be changed to REFUNDED otherwise it will look like they still owe money
Customer overpaid
- Leave the booking as a confirmed booking
- Add a refund equal to the value you paid back
- The sale value, payments made AND refunds added should add up to zero. DO NOT change the payment status to refunded
Customer chosen to not take the tour
- Cancel the booking
- Assuming they have ALREADY made a payment and a refund equal to the value you paid back (normally if a customer instigated the cancellation you would only pay back a partial value but this depends upon your cancellation terms & conditions)
Tour operator cancelled the tour
- Cancel the booking
- Assuming they have ALREADY made a payment and a refund equal to the value you paid back (normally if a tour operator instigated the cancellation you would pay back the full value but this depends upon your cancellation terms & conditions)
Customer receiving a free tour (To COMP a booking)
- Leave the booking as a confirmed booking
- Edit the sale price to zero
- You only need to add a refund IF they had already had a payment added to their booking
Or, as an alternative to using refunds for complimentary tours, the staff member could instead enter a Promo code that applies a 100% discount, this may make tracking promotions easier. (You may want to use a staff only promo code for this, to stop it being used by customers)