Refunds are issued from inside the order, and each organization refunds only its own fees. This article covers the policy decisions and limits to settle first, how to refund all or part of an order, and how clubs, provincial and national organizations hand a refund request up the chain.
This article is for administrators with financial access at a club, an event, a provincial or territorial sport organization (PTSO) or a national sport organization (NSO), and for anyone who handles withdrawal requests. Refunds start from the order, not from a refunds screen: find what the person bought, open it, and refund from there, in whole or item by item. It applies to membership, registration and product purchases alike.
Who this is for: Administrators with financial access at any level: club, event, PTSO or NSO.
Where in Uplifter: Admin Dashboard → Financials → Orders; or a user profile → the registration → Order; or Club Dashboard → Affiliate tab. Whichever route, find the order first; the refund is issued from inside it.
Time: About five minutes once you have found the order, plus one email if another organization's fees are on it.
Before you begin
Know your refund policy
The refund form asks you two policy questions, and the answers should come from your organization's written refund policy, not from whoever is on shift. Settle both before you open the order:
- Who absorbs the transaction fee. The processing fee on the original payment is not returned automatically. Either the member absorbs it and gets back slightly less than they paid, or your organization does. Whichever you choose, apply it consistently, because this is what the follow-up questions are about.
- Whether the registration stands. A refund can leave the registration in place (Complete) or cancel it and free the spot (Refunded (Cancelled)). Your policy should say which applies to a withdrawal.
If your policy does not answer these, decide now and write it in. The next request will ask the same questions.
Check the two hard limits
⚠️ Orders can only be refunded within 365 days of being created. Past that limit the refund cannot be issued from the order, and you will need to arrange it another way.
If Paysafe is your processor, wait 24 hours. An order placed the same day cannot be refunded until a full day has passed.
Check which fees on the order are yours to refund
One order can carry fees for several organizations: a club program, a provincial membership and a national membership can all be bought in a single checkout. Each organization refunds only the fee that was paid to it. Everyone works from the same place, the Admin Dashboard: what you can see and refund there depends on your role on the financial account (owner, controller, admin or process-only). You cannot refund another organization's fee, and they cannot refund yours.
| Fee on the order | Who refunds it | How |
|---|---|---|
| Program, event registration or club membership | The club or event organizer | From the Admin Dashboard of the club or event, following the steps in this article. |
| Provincial or territorial membership | The PTSO | From the PTSO's Admin Dashboard, following the same steps. A club asks for it by email; see Hand off fees that belong to another organization below. |
| National membership | The NSO | From the NSO's Admin Dashboard. The PTSO passes the request on by email. |
| National portion of a cost-split membership | The NSO, always | When cost splitting is active, the national portion is paid directly to the NSO as its own order. The PTSO refunds its own portion only, then emails the member with the NSO's membership team in copy so the NSO refunds theirs. |
You will also need something that identifies the order: the purchaser's name, their email address, the order ID or the gateway ID. If you already have the user's profile open, the registration itself links to its order, and on the Club Dashboard the Affiliate tab lists each membership with a link to its order.
Quick steps
- Confirm the order is less than 365 days old, and at least 24 hours old if you use Paysafe.
- Find the order by any of three routes: Financials → Orders, searching by the purchaser's name, email address, order ID or gateway ID; the user's profile, opening the registration and selecting Order; or Club Dashboard → Affiliate, where each membership links to its order.
- Open the order, go to the Transactions section, and select Refund.
- If the order has several items, use Include Item on each one you are refunding. Include only the fees that belong to your organization.
- Set the status of each item to Complete or Refunded (Cancelled), according to your policy.
- Adjust the amount if this is a partial refund. It defaults to 100%.
- Choose who absorbs the transaction fee: the user or the organizer.
- Enter your name in Requested by, choose who is emailed, and add a note for the record.
- Check the Net Refund figure, then select Submit Refund.
- If the order also carries provincial or national fees, send the refund request to that organization (below).
The refund form, field by field
The Refund Details page opens with a summary of the original transaction at the top. Everything below it is the refund itself.
- Items to be refunded
- A single-item order preselects its one item. If the order has several items, use the green Include Item button on each one you are refunding; the button turns orange once the item is included. Leave another organization's fee out; it is theirs to refund.
- Status
- For each included item, choose Complete or Refunded (Cancelled). This is the decision that determines whether the registration survives; see the next section.
- Amount
- Defaults to the maximum refundable amount, 100%. For a partial refund, enter the percentage you are returning.
- Transaction fee
- Choose who absorbs the processing fee on the original payment: the user or the organizer. Apply your policy.
- Requested by
- Enter your own name. This is the audit trail for the refund.
- Send email notification to
- Choose whether the purchaser, the organizer, or both receive an automated email about the refund.
- Notes
- Record the reason for the refund. The note appears in the refund report, so write it for whoever reconciles the books later.
- Net Refund
- Calculated for you, and it changes as you change the items, the amount and the fee decision. It is the figure that will actually leave your account. Read it before you submit.
When every mandatory field is filled, select Submit Refund, bottom right.
Complete or Refunded (Cancelled)
Pick according to whether the person is still coming.
| Status | What it does |
|---|---|
| Complete | Returns the money and leaves the registration standing. Statistics and reports are unchanged. |
| Refunded (Cancelled) | Returns the money and cancels the registration, freeing the spot. The item is removed from statistics and reports. |
Hand off fees that belong to another organization
When a member withdraws from something bought in one checkout across a club, a PTSO and an NSO, each organization refunds its own fee and the request travels up the chain. The club, or a PTSO assisting it, starts the process.
- Club: refund the program or club membership with the status Refunded (Cancelled), then email the refund request to your PTSO representative using the template below.
- PTSO: refund the provincial membership the same way, then forward the club's email to your NSO representative. If the PTSO is starting the request itself, send the template to the NSO.
- NSO: refund the national membership, then confirm by email to the PTSO and the club so everyone knows the chain is complete.
Cost-split memberships. When cost splitting is active, the NSO's share of a provincial membership is paid directly to the NSO as a separate order, and the PTSO can only refund its own share. After refunding the PTSO portion, email the member and copy the NSO's membership team so the NSO refunds theirs and the member is not left waiting. See Cost Splitting of PTSO / NSO Memberships.
Email template
To: PTSO or NSO representative Subject: (club or PTSO name): Cancellation / refund request Hello, My name is (your name) and I am an admin for (club or PTSO name). Could you kindly cancel and refund the (PTSO or NSO) membership for the following participant: Participant's full name: User email: Date of birth: Current membership type: Reason for cancellation / refund: Thank you in advance,
For several participants at once, attach a spreadsheet with the same fields, one row per person, instead of sending one email each.
What happens after you submit
The refund typically takes 5 to 7 business days to appear on the purchaser's credit card. Tell the member this when you confirm, or they will contact you again on day two. The people you selected receive the automated notification straight away, and the refund, with your note, appears in the refund report.
Export a refund report
Refund reports are exported per item type, as Excel or CSV. Open the menu for the item the refund belonged to (Memberships, Events or Clubs), open its Reports sub-tab, and submit an updated report request. The report is generated in the background: you receive an email notification when the updated file is ready, then return to the same tab and select download. For the on-screen Refunds list, see How to track refunds that have been processed.
Your next steps
- Confirm the refund to the member, including the 5-to-7-business-day wait and, on a multi-organization order, which fees are still with another organization.
- If you sent a hand-off email, watch for the confirmation from the PTSO or NSO and chase it if the member comes back first.