Issuing refunds

Sometimes you need to give money back. The resident overpaid. They double-paid. The board voted to waive a fine after they’d already paid it. The reason varies; the mechanic is the same. This article covers both online and offline refunds.

When you’d refund

The legitimate reasons:

• Overpayment — they sent more than they owed
• Duplicate payment — they paid twice for the same charge (online + check, both spouses paid, etc.)
• Charge reversal — board voted to waive a fee or fine that was already paid
• Sale or move-out settlement — leftover credit going back to the seller
• Mistaken payment — they paid the wrong amount or the wrong property

Don’t refund unless you’ve talked to the resident and confirmed what they want. Sometimes a credit applied forward is preferable (no fees, no friction).

Refund vs. credit

Two different actions, not interchangeable:

Action	What it does	When to use
Refund	Money physically returns to the resident’s bank / card	They want their money back
Credit	Reduces their balance going forward (no money movement)	They’re fine applying it to future dues

A refund involves real money transfer, fees (sometimes), and bank-statement entries on both sides. A credit is a ledger-only entry.

When in doubt, ask the resident which they prefer. Most prefer credits for small amounts (just shows up on next month’s bill); larger amounts usually need a real refund.

Refunding an online payment (Stripe)

Online card or ACH payments go through Stripe and refund through Stripe.

Through HomeHerald

1. Go to the property’s ledger (or Transactions in the admin sidebar)
2. Find the original PAYMENT record
3. Click Refund (or Issue Refund)
4. Choose Full or Partial and enter the amount if partial
5. Add a reason (required, for audit)
6. Confirm

What happens:

• HomeHerald processes the refund through Stripe
• Stripe pulls funds from your HOA’s Stripe balance and pushes them back to the resident’s card / bank
• A REFUND record is added to the ledger
• The property’s balance increases by the refund amount (since the original payment is reversed)

Timing:

• Card refund: appears on the resident’s card statement in 5-10 business days
• ACH refund: appears in the resident’s bank in 3-5 business days

Through Stripe directly

You can also refund from your Stripe Dashboard if you prefer. The REFUND record will sync back to HomeHerald automatically. But it’s cleaner to do it from HomeHerald so the audit trail is consistent.

Stripe fees and refunds

When you refund a Stripe payment:

• The resident gets their full original payment back
• Stripe does not refund the processing fees they originally took
• Your HOA absorbs the fees you already paid

Example: $300 payment, Stripe took $9.30 in fees, you netted $290.70. When you refund $300:

• Resident gets $300 back
• Your Stripe balance drops by $300
• The original $9.30 fee is gone — Stripe keeps it

This is industry-standard. If the refund is the resident’s mistake (they paid the wrong amount), you can choose to refund only the over-payment, or refund the whole thing and re-collect, depending on what’s friendlier. Most communities just absorb the small loss.

Refunding a PayPal payment

PayPal has its own refund flow:

1. Go to the property’s ledger
2. Find the PayPal PAYMENT record
3. Click Refund
4. HomeHerald processes the refund through PayPal
5. PayPal returns the money to the resident

Same timing as Stripe (a few business days). Same fee behavior — PayPal doesn’t refund the original processing fee.

Refunding an offline payment (check, cash, bank transfer)

There’s no automated mechanism — the original money came in outside the system, so it has to go out the same way.

The flow:

1. Write a check to the resident (or send a bank transfer, however your HOA does it)
2. In HomeHerald, add a REFUND record to the property’s ledger
3. Memo it clearly: Refund check #1289 written 4/22 for [reason]

The REFUND record reverses the original PAYMENT in the ledger so the property’s balance reflects what’s owed correctly.

Partial refunds

Sometimes you only refund part of a payment — e.g., resident paid $400 toward a $300 charge, you refund the $100 overpayment but keep the $300.

Through Stripe:

1. Click Refund on the original payment
2. Choose Partial and enter $100
3. Confirm

The original payment record stays intact; a new REFUND record is added for $100. The remaining $300 still counts as paid.

Don’t over-think partial refunds. They’re just like full refunds with a different amount.

Common situations

”Resident accidentally paid us instead of another HOA”

If they used Stripe / PayPal:

1. Refund the full payment through HomeHerald
2. They’ll get their money back in a few days
3. The transaction is reversed on both sides

If they sent a check:

1. Write them a check for the same amount (assuming it cleared)
2. Add a REFUND record memo’d: Check sent in error, refunded by check #X on [date]

”We over-charged a resident’s card and need to refund part of it”

Partial refund through Stripe. They get the over-charge back; the rest stays as a valid payment.

”Resident moved out with a credit balance — they want their money back”

This is a refund for a credit balance, not a refund of a specific payment. Two ways:

1. Refund the most recent payment partially or fully (until the credit balance is gone). The mechanism is a real Stripe / PayPal refund. Cleanest.
2. Issue a check for the credit amount, and add a REFUND ledger entry. Simpler if there’s no recent payment to refund against.

Whichever, the goal is getting the property’s balance to zero and getting the resident their money.

”Board voted to waive a fine after the resident paid it”

If the goal is the resident gets the money back: refund the original FINE-related payment. The fine itself stays in the ledger as a charge, but you’d void it for clean accounting.

If the goal is “credit applied forward”: don’t refund. Add a CREDIT for the fine amount with a memo: Fine waived per [meeting minutes ref], credit applied to property balance.

”I refunded the wrong amount”

Don’t refund again on top of it — that compounds the issue. Two corrective options:

1. If you over-refunded: charge the property for the difference (a manual transaction). They’ll see a balance and pay it back.
2. If you under-refunded: issue another refund for the missing amount.

Memo both records clearly so the audit trail explains what happened.

What you can’t refund

A few cases the system doesn’t support:

• Stripe payments older than ~180 days — Stripe’s refund window. After that, you’d have to issue a check manually and record a REFUND ledger entry.
• Payments that have already been refunded — you can’t refund the same payment twice. Partial refunds add up; once the total refunded equals the original, that’s it.
• Payments where the underlying card / bank is closed — sometimes Stripe will route to whatever the customer’s bank tells it; sometimes the bank rejects it and the customer has to call us. Rare, but happens.

If you hit any of these edge cases, contact support@homeherald.ai.

Where to go next

• How the ledger works — refund records in the bigger picture
• Recording a manual payment — the inverse flow
• Move-ins and move-outs — where refunds at closing fit in