Refund

Customers who stop a subscription with a positive account balance are eligible for refunds. Refunds must be entered on their own—they are not automatically produced by the stop transaction. They can be entered in batches in Accounting | Subscriber | Batch Refunds, or individually using this option. Once a refund is entered, it will be added to a suspended batch of refunds, which must then be reviewed and accepted using the Batch Refunds option.

Cash, credit card, and bank draft refunds will be added to separate batches, and separate batches are also created for each refund date. The batch name will use the same “CSMMDDYYxx” format as payment batches (see Payment). If there is already a suspended batch for this date and bank, the payment will be appended to it; if not, a new suspended batch will be created. In addition, separate batches can be created for each publication, depending on Business Rules.

Business Rules also determine:

• The number of days a refund should be kept available

• The maximum variance from the available amount an operator may enter for a refund (if the subscriber has a refund available).

Note: A cancellation fee can be charged to subscribers to reduce the amount of a refund. Cancellation fees are based on the stop reason, and the amount can vary by stop reason and delivery schedule. They can be used only with marketing-term promotional rates.

To enter a refund for an individual customer:

• Find the subscriber for whom you are entering a refund.

• Click the Refund button ().

• Complete the fields described below.

Field	Type	What to enter
PRODUCT	setup	Select the appropriate publication for this refund, or leave the default. For combo subscriptions, select a component publication (you cannot select combos directly). The refund will reduce the balance of all the products in the combo proportionally so that the expire dates stay in sync. The primary product will be the last product whose balance is refunded.
REFUND TYPE	predefined	Indicate whether this refund is a cash, bank draft, or credit card refund. If it is a bank draft or credit card refund, a window will appear for more detailed information. See Payment for information about the fields in this window.
REFUND DATE	date	Enter the date for this refund. This is typically the current date.
SOURCE	setup	Enter the source code for this refund transaction. A source code is required.
REASON	setup	Enter the reason code for this refund transaction. A reason code is required.
REQUESTED	display	Circulation indicates whether the refund was requested by the subscriber at the time of the subscription stop.
REFUND AMOUNT	display	Circulation displays the calculated refund amount owed to the subscriber. This includes the subscriber’s wallet amount, if they have paid for undelivered premium days (see Paying for Premium Days).
AMOUNT PAID	decimal (7)	Enter the refund amount to be sent to the subscriber.
BANK	display	The bank will be displayed for bank draft refunds.
MANUALLY ISSUED	yes/no	This checkbox will be selected only when viewing Customer Service-entered refunds after they have been added to a batch.
BATCH	display	The batch to which this refund belongs will be displayed only when viewing the refund after it has been added to a batch.
REMARKS	unlimited	Enter any desired remarks about this transaction.

• If the refund should be sent to an address other than the subscriber’s address, click the Refund Address button and enter a new address.

• Click OK to add the refund to a batch.