Thinkific Payments: Refunds

If you are looking to refund a student with Thinkific Payments, you are in the right place! TCommerce makes processing refunds for Thinkific Payments easy, directly from your Thinkific dashboard - no integrations needed.

About This Feature

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! You can do so from the Transactions Report or the Orders Report.

How It Works

You can provide full or partial refunds directly from the Transaction or Orders Reports. When processing a refund, you will be prompted to include a reason for quick reference down the road.

Refunds will be listed as separate transactions in the Transactions Report. The Type of transaction will be listed as a Refund, and the transaction Amount will show in brackets to indicate a negative amount.

Students will also automatically receive an email including a refund receipt (if order receipts are enabled) with the order number and refund details.

To issue refunds, follow the steps below:

Issue Refunds from the Transaction Report

From your Admin Dashboard, select Sales
Select Transactions
Click the ellipses (3 dot icon) next to the transaction you'd like to refund
Click Refund in the dropdown menu
The Refund amount will default to the full refund amount. See Types of Refunds below if you would like to adjust the amount.
Select the Reason for Refund (Duplicate, Fraudulent, Requested by Customer). If you do not wish to enter a reason for a refund, you can skip this step.
Optionally and recommended: Check the Also remove this student's access from all products associated with this payment box. This will unenroll the student from the product when the refund is processed
Click Refund. The student will receive an email with a refund receipt, if enabled.

Refunds will be listed as separate transactions in the Transaction table.

Issue Refunds from the Orders Report

From your Admin Dashboard, select Sales
Select Orders
Click Refund next to the order you want to refund

Note that only transactions processed through Thinkific Payments will have the refund button available in the Orders Table.
The Refund amount will default to the full refund amount for a particular transaction you selected. See Types of Refunds below if you would like to adjust the amount.
Select the Reason for Refund (Duplicate, Fraudulent, Requested by Customer). If you do not wish to enter a reason for a refund, you can skip this step.
Optionally and recommended: Check the Also remove this student's access from all products associated with this payment box. This will unenroll the student from the product when the refund is processed.
Click Refund. The student will receive an email with a refund receipt, if enabled.

Types of Refunds

Thinkific Payments allows you to issue full and partial refunds

Full Refunds: refund the full amount paid by the student. This includes a refund of sales tax / VAT if one was collected / calculated.
Partial Refunds: refund a portion of the amount paid by the student. If you've previously given a partial refund for a transaction, the refunded amount will be shown in brackets in the refund pop-up menu and 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.

Full and Partial Refunds will be listed as separate transactions in the Transaction table as the Refund transaction type. The Status of transaction will be listed as a Refunded (for full refunds) or Partially refunded (for partial refunds), and the refunded Amount will be shown as a negative transaction.

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 a 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 follow-up - 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 be reflected in your Transactions Report and Payouts Report.

Unenroll a Student from a Product

When you issue a refund, you have an option to also unenroll a student from a product. You can do that by checking the Also remove this student's access from all products associated with this payment box.

If you processed a refund without unenrolling the student, you can also remove the student's access to a product at any time manually. For instructions, please refer to: How to Unenroll Students and Process Refunds.

Progress will be saved for unenrolled students in case they wish to re-purchase a product in the future.

Email Notifications

Order and refund receipts are enabled on your account by default. Students will automatically receive an email including a refund receipt once a refund has been issued.

The refund receipt will include:

Order Number
Issue Date
Payment Method, to which a refund was made
Student Information
Refund Amount
Product details
Refunded Sales Tax or VAT amount (if applicable)
Contact Information

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.
When you provide a full or partial refund, the associated Sales Tax or VAT will be refunded to the student as well. In the case of a full refund, the full tax charge is refunded. In the case of a partial refund, only the proportional amount of the tax charge is refunded.
Fees collected on a transaction are not refunded to you when you refund the transaction to a student.
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 in the Orders Report 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 beupdate to reflect this.
Looking to export your refund data to QuickBooks? Check out our Auto-Sync with QuickBooks functionality!

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 your Orders 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, both the Transaction and Orders table in your Thinkific dashboard will show refunds as separate transactions 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 happens to the sales tax collected or VAT calculated when I refund a student?

When you provide a full or partial refund, the associated sales tax or VAT will be refunded to the student as well. In the case of a full refund, the full tax charge is refunded. In the case of a partial refund, only the proportional amount of the tax charge is refunded.

For example, a student buys a $100 course and is charged a $6 tax. If you decide to provide a partial refund of 50%, your student will receive 50% of the tax charge as well. In this case, they will receive 50% of a $6 tax charge, i.e. $3.

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.

How do I refund products purchased as a gift?

Gifted products can be refunded to the buyer upon their request, with the refund process varying based on whether the gift has been redeemed or not. Check out the refund process for gifts.

How do I refund Group Order purchases?

Group Order purchases can be refunded to the buyer upon their request, with the refund process varying based on whether all of the seats have been redeemed or not. Check out the refund process for Group Orders.