Refunds
Full and partial refunds, the reasons list, and what the family sees afterwards.
A refund is always a refund of something, so refunds start from the charge itself rather than from a blank form. There is no "refund $40 to the Nguyen family" screen, and that is deliberate — it means nobody ever retypes an amount against the wrong charge.
Where to start one
The student's detail page → Charge history. Every row that still has money on it carries a Refund button.
Rows that don't: failed charges (no money moved), processing charges (we don't yet know that it landed), and charges already refunded in full (nothing left).
Refunds are not on the studio-wide ledger
Reports then Payments lists every charge the studio has taken, but it has no Refund button. Click the student's name on the row to reach their page, and refund it from their Charge history there.
The refund sheet
Opening it is the deliberate act — there is no second "are you sure?" step, and the confirm button names the exact amount.
At the top, three figures so you know where you stand:
- what was originally charged;
- how much has already been refunded, if any;
- how much is still refundable.
Then:
Choose full or partial
Refund the full $45.00 refunds everything still outstanding on this charge — not the original face value, if part of it has already gone back.
Refund part of it reveals an amount field, in dollars. Two decimal places at most; a third is refused rather than rounded. Anything above what is still refundable is rejected with the remaining figure named.
Pick a reason (optional)
Four choices: No reason given, Requested by the family, Duplicate charge, Fraudulent.
This is Stripe's own reason list in plain words, and it is passed through to Stripe. Fraudulent in particular is a signal to Stripe's risk systems — use it when a charge really was fraudulent, not as a shorthand for "the parent was annoyed".
Add a note (optional)
Free text, up to 500 characters, for your own records — "Cancelled before the seminar". Worth filling in; nobody remembers in six months.
Confirm
The button reads Refund $45.00, and above it: "You are about to send $45.00 back to the card this was paid with. Refunds can't be undone — take the payment again if you need to."
A refund cannot be reversed
There is no "undo refund". If you refund too much, the only remedy is to charge the family again — which means asking them, and means a second line on their statement. Read the amount on the button before you press it.
Partial refunds, more than once
You can refund a charge in several goes. Each refund reduces what is still refundable, and the sheet always offers the remaining balance rather than the original amount. A $120 charge refunded $40 twice leaves $40 refundable.
Two identical partial refunds are treated as two genuine refunds, not a double-click — the amount is part of what identifies the request, so changing the figure and submitting again is correctly a new refund.
What the family sees
- Their card is credited by Stripe. Timing is the bank's, typically five to ten business days, and Dojo Tiger cannot speed it up.
- On their own Payments page, the charge row gains a line reading "$40.00 refunded", and its badge changes to Refunded or Partly refunded.
- The original receipt link keeps working.
Dojo Tiger does not email the family about a refund. If it matters that they know today, tell them.
What you see
- The row in Charge history shows the refunded amount and the new status.
- The collected total on that card, and on the payments ledger, drops by the refunded amount — those totals are net of refunds by design.
- The refund is reflected in the studio's revenue reporting.
The status may take a moment to settle
The refunded total on a charge is written when Stripe confirms it rather than the instant you press the button. If the row still shows the old figure, give it a moment and reload. If a refund is still settling, the app says so rather than claiming it succeeded.
Refunding a monthly payment
A monthly tuition charge refunds exactly like any other charge — find it in the student's charge history and refund it there.
Refunding one month does not stop the next one. If the family is leaving, stop their monthly billing as well, from the Billing column on Students then Enrollments. This is the most common way a refund gets done half-way. See Stopping, pausing and unenrolling.
Who can refund
Owner and Admin. Refunding stays available even if you switch card charging off — a studio that has stopped taking money still has to be able to give some back.
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