CLINIC HQ

18.10. Refunds

Understanding Refunds

Use cases: Why would you offer a refund?

There are generally two common reasons for performing refunds. The client has overpaid for an appointment or the client needs to cancel an appointment and the clinic policy allows for refunding deposits with notice.

1) Overpayment – Refund
An overpayment occurs on an appointment where the services or prices change. This could happen when a surgery is declined, services or no longer needed, a subsidy discount is applied, or one-offs such as comped services for an unhappy client.

Repurpose or Refund overpaid amounts on the Financial tab

Overpayments to create “Change Due” is not the same as a refund.
If the client’s total is $18 and they give you $20 – the extra $2 given back to the client, is not a refund. This is the change due amount. In Clinic HQ, you would enter the payment amount as $18, not $20.

2) Cancelled Appointment – Refund Deposit
If the client contacts the clinic to cancel their appointment and a deposit was made, the clinic may offer a refund to the client.
NOTE: Discuss your clinic policy with a manager – some clinics may have a no-refund policy for canceled appointments.
Before the appointment can be marked as canceled, the deposit would need to be managed and the action taken to refund the payment. Once an action is taken with the deposit the appointment can be cancelled.

Things to note about Refunds

• Discuss with your manager your clinic’s policy on refunds.
• MX Merchant has a refund threshold in place to prevent fraud. The default is 50 refunds in 24 hours or 10 within 2 minutes.
If your clinic exceeds the threshold, you will see an error banner with “Rapid Refund Activity Detected” If you are constantly getting this message, please call MP Group at 770-818-6188 to review your account. It’s possible there is a lock on your account.

  • Process all refunds through Clinic HQ. Do not process refunds via MX Merchant directly.

How to Refund?

Every payment will have an action menu. From the action menu, you can opt to repurpose or refund the payment.

Locate the Payment
Payments can be viewed and managed in any of the following places:
Deposit Management
Go to Clients > Deposits > Locate the payment and click Action
Appointment Financial Tab
Go to Clients > Check In/Checkout > Edit appointment > Financial
Client Profile Payment History
Go to Clients > Search Clients/Animals > Locate the client via Search > View profile > Payments
Reconciliation Report
Go to Accounting > Reconciliation > Choose a date range and Search > Locate payment and View Details

Payment Actions

CASH, CHECK

  1. In Clinic HQ, locate the payment and edit the payment.
  2. Click the Action menu and choose Refund Payment.
  3. From the refund screen confirm the payment type and refund amount: is it a full refund or partial refund of the original payment?
  4. Save the refund details by clicking the red Refund Payment button.
    Choose how much to refund and refunt payment method.

CREDIT CARD

NON-INTEGRATED CREDIT CARD (MANUAL)

Review the original payment type. If it is Credit Card (Manual), then the refund will also be manual.
Refunding as Credit Card (Manual): This option does not use the integrated MX Merchant system. Your clinic will need to process the refund on the card outside of Clinic HQ manually and record in Clinic HQ that the refund was processed. Using the refund tool will simply notate in Clinic HQ that the refunds occurred.

  1. User your clinic’s merchant platform to process the refund transaction.
  2. In Clinic HQ, locate the payment and edit the payment.
  3. Click the Action menu and choose Refund Payment.
  4. From the refund screen confirm the payment type, card details, and refund amount: is it a full refund or partial refund of the original payment?
  5. Save the refund details by clicking the red Refund Payment button.

INTEGRATED (POS) or CREDIT CARD (E-PAYMENT)

If the original payment was processed through MX Merchant as Credit Card (POS) or Online through E-payments, the card is not needed to process the refund. The system will utilize the original transaction to refund the client.

  1. In Clinic HQ, locate the payment and edit the payment.
  2. Click the Action menu and choose Refund Payment.
  3. From the refund screen confirm the payment type, card details, and refund amount: is it a full refund or partial refund of the original payment?
  4. Save the refund details by clicking the red Refund Payment button.

Refund Credit Card POS or Online uses the orignial card

Refund with a different payment type

If the original payment was made via credit card your clinic should by default refund to the same card. Alternative refund methods are available but should be used only when there is an issue with the original card.
Why? If your clinic issues a cash, check or even a different credit card refund the client can dispute the original payment and issue a chargeback on the original payment. Ultimately they are refunded twice. Once from the chargeback on the original payment and a second time from the alternative refund payment you used. Sticking with the same refund method and original credit card payment is a safer policy. However, in some cases, it is unavoidable and your clinic will have to refund a different way.

  1. From the refund window, the default refund method will be the same as the original payment.
  2. Choose the option next to this to refund using a different payment method.
    Refund with a different payment method

If you refund a client using cash or check and the original payment was Credit Card POS or Online:
Refunding as Cash or Check will cross-post the transaction to MX Merchant since the original payment was processed there. This simply notates in MX Merchant that the credit card was refunded using a different payment type. Once refunded, the transaction details cannot be revised or voided.

Unable to refund a credit card?
Read about credit card refund errors what they mean and what you should do if you get an error, HERE.