Process refunds for Thinkific Payments directly from your Thinkific dashboard - no integrations needed.
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Unenrolling Students From a Course or Bundle
About This Feature
We know that generating sales is a crucial aspect of growing your business. We also know that time spent on payments is time not spent teaching. That’s why we’ve launched Thinkific Payments - to help you sell more courses and spend less time doing it.
When students purchase your courses using Thinkific Payments, their orders are tracked directly on your Thinkific dashboard. And if you need to refund a student's transaction, it's now easier than ever from the updated Orders Report.
Click for more information about the Orders Report and exporting your Orders and Transactions.
How It Works
Full Refunds
With Thinkific Payments, you have the option to offer refunds directly from your Thinkific Admin Dashboard.
- To issue refunds for payments processed through Thinkific Payments, go to Market & Sell, and then select Orders in the menu on the left-hand side of your Admin Dashboard
- Next, simply click the Refund button next to the transaction you'd like to refund:
If you don't see the option to refund a transaction, check the Provider column. If it is not visible, you can scroll to the right to reveal additional columns. Payments must be processed through Thinkific Payments in order to issue refunds from the Thinkific dashboard:
- Next, type in the Refund amount you'd like to refund. The refund amount in the refund pop-out menu will default to a full refund:
- Next, select the Reason for Refund (Duplicate, Fraudulent, Requested by Customer). If you do not wish to enter a reason for refund, you can skip this step.
- Click Refund
And that's it! The student will receive an email with a refund receipt.
Refunds will be listed as separate transactions in the Orders table in your Thinkific dashboard. The Type of transaction will be listed as a Refund, and the transaction Amount will show in brackets to indicate a negative amount.
Check out Unenrolling Students From a Course or Bundle (below) for more information about revoking course access.
Partial Refunds
With Thinkific Payments you also have the option to offer partial refunds directly from your Thinkific Admin Dashboard.
- To issue partial refunds for payments processed through Thinkific Payments, go to Market & Sell, and then select Orders in the menu on the left-hand side of your Admin Dashboard
- Next, simply click the Refund button next to the transaction you'd like to refund:If you don't see the option to refund a transaction, check the Provider column. If it is not visible, you can scroll to the right to reveal additional columns. Payments must be processed through Thinkific Payments in order to issue refunds from the Thinkific dashboard:
- Next, type in the Refund amount you'd like to refund. The refund amount in the refund pop-out menu will default to a full refund:
If you've previously given a partial refund for a transaction, that Amount will be shown in brackets in the refund pop-out menu. The Refund amount will default to the remaining balance of the transaction total. The Refund amount can be adjusted to any amount equal to or less than the remaining balance of the transaction:
- Next, select the Reason for Refund (Duplicate, Fraudulent, Requested by Customer). If you do not wish to enter a reason for refund, you can skip this step.
And that's it! The student will receive an email with a receipt for the partial refund.
Refunds will be listed as separate transactions in the Orders table in your Thinkific dashboard. The Type of transaction will be listed as a Partial refund, and the transaction Amount will show in brackets to indicate a negative amount.
Check out Unenrolling Students From a Course or Bundle (below) for more information about revoking course access.
Reason for Refund
Whether you issue a full or partial refund to a student, you will have the ability to select a preset reason for refund. This step was designed to help you with investigations and business analysis, however, if you don't wish to add a reason to a refund, you can skip this step.
The reasons for refund that you will see listed in the dropdown menu are:
- Duplicate - this can be used when an order has been placed more than once in error
- Fraudulent - this option can be used for transactions that require an investigation or followup - things like overpayments, potential stolen cards, payment disputes, and more
- Requested by Customer - this option can be used for refunds that have been requested directly from the customer
Any reasons you select for your refunds will reflect on your Payouts Report. This functionality will be available via the Thinkific dashboard for Thinkific Payments only.
Unenrolling Students From a Course or Bundle
After you've issued a refund, the refunded student will still have access to the course or bundle.
You can remove a student's access to a course or bundle at any time by manually unenrolling them. For instructions, please refer to: Unenroll a Student From a Course and Unenroll a Student From a Bundle.
Course progress will be saved for unenrolled students in case they wish to re-purchase a product in the future.
Important Considerations
- If you refund a payment, funds will be taken from the revenue in your Thinkific account (before it is transferred to your bank account), or if your refund is more than the current revenue balance in your Thinkific account, the funds will be withdrawn from your bank account. You can see a history of refund withdrawals in the Payouts Report.
- If you need to refund a payment processed through Stripe or PayPal, before you switched to Thinkific Payments, you can do so from your account in Stripe or PayPal. The Provider column will list Stripe for Stripe transactions and PayPal for PayPal transactions.
- Only the Site Owner and Site Admin(s) can refund a Thinkific Payment.
- If you refund a Thinkific Payment, the Revenue amount in your Thinkific dashboard will update to reflect this.
Frequently Asked Questions
If a student's payment was made through Stripe, can I refund it using Thinkific Payments?
If you processed payments using our Stripe or PayPal integration before setting up Thinkific Payments, these refunds must be completed directly through your Stripe and/or PayPal account.
The Provider column in the Order Report will list Stripe for Stripe transactions and PayPal for PayPal transactions. For more information, check out our article: Did my student's purchase go through Thinkific Payments, Stripe, or PayPal?
Will my Transactions and Orders Reports be updated based on any refunds I issue?
Yes, the Orders table in your Thinkific dashboard will show refunds as a separate transaction with the Type of transaction listed as a refund. You can also export the Transactions Report as a CSV file that will list all your transactions, including refunds.
When refunding a student, do I receive a refund for processing or transaction fees?
There are no fees to refund a charge, but the fees from the original charge are not returned. This is true for full and partial refunds.
What is a chargeback?
A chargeback occurs when the person who issues a payment to you, disputes a charge. During a chargeback, the payment issuer debits your account and holds the funds while the dispute is processed. Once the chargeback is created, you have a limited amount of time to respond with evidence to dispute the chargeback. The time given varies depending on the card network.
How can I dispute a chargeback?
Chargebacks are managed by contacting Thinkific Payments. Please email payments-support@thinkific.com for assistance.
You will be contacted by our Support team if there is a dispute and they will help you respond to it.
Is Thinkific Payments available outside the USA and Canada?
Thinkific Payments is currently in a private release and only available to Creators based in the USA and Canada.
More About Thinkific Payments
Thinkific Payments: Set Your Course Pricing
Thinkific Payments: Managing Student Payments
Migrating Subscriptions and Payment Plans from Stripe to Thinkific Payments