alternative to refunding ACH donations

Alicia Searfoss

Currently, we can't refund ACH donations since they aren't settled. Has anyone found a way to track any offline refunds you might have made for a EFT donation?

Andrew Hedden

Because of how ACH donations are processed it's not possible to refund an ACH transaction before it settles. The reason is that it takes longer for an ACH transaction to settle and for you to get the money in your bank account. If refunds were allowed before the transaction settled it would allow indviduals to abuse the system and possibly scam organizations out of funds. If there is an issue where your ACH transactions are not settling ever you would likely want to take this up with your payment processor to find out why this is happening.

I would suggest that you notify individuals that donate using their checking account that it takes longer for refunds to process if they are requested. You could put this as part of donation specific messages on the form or even as part of the donation auto-responder. I believe that if you effectively manage the constituent's expectation then it may make things easier from a constituent satisfaction stand point.

-Andrew