# Refund a payment

Refund a card or bank payment in full from Admin > Payments, and see what is taken back and what the customer receives.

Canonical URL: https://www.naayya.com/help-center/refund-a-payment
Category: payments
Last updated: 2026-11-10T10:30:00Z

# Refund a payment

Staff who can manage payments, which by default means owners and managers, can refund a payment the customer made by card or bank debit. Refunds started in **Admin > Payments** are always for the full remaining amount. Staff who can only view payments see the refund history but cannot refund.

## Start a refund

1. Open **Admin > Payments** and select the payment. **Payment details** opens on a desktop browser, not on a phone.
2. In **Refunds**, check **Available to refund**.
3. Enter an **Audit reason** of 3 to 500 characters. It stays in the refund history.
4. Select **Refund**, which shows the amount, review the costs, then select **Confirm refund**. A refund cannot be undone here.

The confirmation shows **Customer receives**, **Taken from your payments balance**, **Non-refundable payment fee already paid** and **Total cost of this refund to the business**. The refund comes out of your payments balance, and the payment fee is not returned. If the balance is too low, the dialog says how much to add. Add it, then retry.

For a SEPA Direct Debit payment the dialog also warns that the customer can still dispute the debit, which can result in two credits.

The **Refunds** list shows each refund with its amount, status, date, reason and who started it. If the payment provider does not confirm a refund, the button changes to **Retry refund**. Retry uses the original request, so it does not refund the customer twice. If a card refund does not go through, the amount can go to the customer's wallet instead. See [Refund a customer's wallet balance](/help-center/refund-a-customer-wallet-balance#when-a-card-refund-does-not-go-through).

## What is taken back

When refunds cover the whole payment, the payment becomes **refunded** and what it bought is taken back:

- Class credits from the payment: the credits left are set to zero.
- Bookings: upcoming bookings paid by it are cancelled. A class that has already started keeps its booking.
- Shop orders: orders that are still pending or processing are cancelled.
- A gift card the payment bought: an unspent card is cancelled.
- A membership payment: the membership period it paid for is cancelled.

A refund made directly in Stripe is recorded in Naayya too. A refund of the whole payment takes back the same things. A partial refund leaves them as they are.

## Credit note

If the sale has a VAT invoice, each refund gets a credit note for the refunded amount. It is numbered in the same sequence as your invoices and refers to the invoice. You find it under **Fiscal documents** in **Payment details**. The customer finds it in **Account > Payments**. See [Invoice vs Receipt](/help-center/invoice-vs-receipt).

## What cannot be refunded

You cannot refund part of a payment here. A payment already refunded in part can have the rest refunded.

Naayya makes no refund for these payments and shows a message:

- A payment with no card or bank payment on file. Payments recorded as cash, a card reader of your own, bank transfer, cheque or other show **Correct amount taken** instead. See [Record offline payments](/help-center/record-offline-payments).
- A payment that a gift card or account credit paid for, in part or in full.
- A payment that is still settling.
- An account top-up. Use **Refund balance** on the customer's wallet instead.
- A payment that bought a gift card that has been used. See [Gift Cards](/help-center/gift-cards).

## What the customer sees

When a refund succeeds, the customer gets a **Refund confirmed** email. It says the business refunded the amount to the original payment method, and that it can take several business days to appear. It names the item and the refund date, and gives the payment reference when there is one.

## Related articles

- [Gift Cards](/help-center/gift-cards)
- [Refund a customer's wallet balance](/help-center/refund-a-customer-wallet-balance)
