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 depends on how they paid. 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 (no money movement)	Fixing a billing error

A refund involves a real money transfer, fees (sometimes), and bank-statement entries on both sides. A credit is a ledger-only bookkeeping adjustment - HomeHerald’s Credit option is meant for fixing billing errors, never for recording real money.

When a resident simply overpaid, you often don’t need either: the overpayment already sits on their property as a credit balance and their next dues draw from it.

Refunding an online payment (Stripe)

Online card and bank payments go through Stripe and refund through Stripe, from inside HomeHerald.

Through HomeHerald

1. Go to Transactions in the admin sidebar
2. Open the original card or bank payment
3. Click Refund This Payment
4. Decide on Also cancel the charge(s) this payment paid for (checked by default - see below)
5. Type REFUND to confirm and click Issue Refund

What happens:

• HomeHerald refunds the payment through Stripe; the money comes back out of your HOA’s Stripe account and returns to the resident’s card or bank
• The refund is for the amount the payment put on the resident’s account - always the whole payment, never part of it
• A REFUND record is added to the ledger, and the payment is marked Refunded
• A refund reverses the cash, not the charge. With the box checked, the dues, assessment, or fine charges that payment covered are cancelled too, so the resident doesn’t owe them again. Uncheck it only if they should still owe those charges - then their balance goes back up by the refund amount.

Only admins and board members can issue refunds, and a payment can only be refunded once.

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

Not through Stripe directly

Always refund from HomeHerald. A refund made anywhere else doesn’t come back into HomeHerald, so the ledger wouldn’t show it and the resident’s balance would be wrong.

Fees and refunds

A refund returns the amount booked on the ledger, once, in full. The card fee is never refunded. Who carries it depends on your Pass convenience fee to resident setting.

Example: a $300 card payment. The card fee is $12.30 (4% + $0.30).

• Fee passed to the resident: the resident paid $312.30 - $300 toward their balance plus a $12.30 convenience fee. The refund returns $300. The convenience fee is not refunded, and your HOA gives back exactly the $300 it received.
• Fee absorbed by the HOA: the resident paid $300, and your HOA received $287.70 after the fee. The refund returns the full $300, so your HOA is out the $12.30.

There are no partial refunds. If a resident overpaid, refund the whole payment and have them pay the right amount, or leave the extra as a credit on their balance.

Refunding a PayPal, Venmo, or Cash App payment

Those payments never went through HomeHerald, so HomeHerald can’t refund them. Send the money back in that app, then fix the ledger the same way as an offline refund (below).

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, go to Transactions and open the payment you recorded when the money came in
3. If you’re returning all of it, click Delete Transaction and give the reason (Refunded by check #1289 on 4/22). If you’re returning part of it, edit the amount down to what you’re keeping and say why in the description.

Deleted payments aren’t erased - HomeHerald keeps them struck through in the property’s log with your reason, so the audit trail stays intact.

Partial refunds

HomeHerald’s Stripe refund always returns the whole payment. If you only need to give back part of one - e.g., resident paid $400 toward a $300 charge and wants the $100 back - you have two options:

1. Refund the whole payment with Also cancel the charge(s) unchecked, so they still owe the $300, and have them pay the right amount again
2. Send the $100 back yourself (by check or bank transfer), then add a charge to the property for $100 with a clear description, so the credit you paid back leaves their balance

Most communities find the first option cleaner for card payments.

Common situations

”Resident accidentally paid us instead of another HOA”

If they paid by card or bank in HomeHerald:

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. Delete the payment you recorded, with the reason: Check sent in error, refunded by check #X on [date]

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

Refund the whole payment and have them pay the correct amount, or send the difference back yourself - see Partial refunds.

”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 their most recent card or bank payment if it’s no larger than the credit, with Also cancel the charge(s) unchecked. The mechanism is a real Stripe refund. Cleanest.
2. Issue a check for the credit amount, then add a charge to the property for the same amount with a clear description. Simpler if there’s no recent online payment to refund.

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 payment with Also cancel the charge(s) this payment paid for checked, which cancels the fine it covered. (If that payment also covered dues they should keep owing, uncheck it and delete just the fine afterward.)

If the goal is “credit applied forward”: don’t refund. Delete the fine charge with the reason, e.g. Fine waived per [meeting minutes ref]. The payment they made then shows as a credit toward future dues.

”I refunded the wrong payment”

A Stripe refund can’t be undone. Add a charge to the property for the amount that shouldn’t have gone back, explain why in the description, and ask the resident to pay it again.

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, send the money back yourself and adjust the ledger as for an offline refund.
• Payments that have already been refunded - you can’t refund the same payment twice. Once it shows Refunded, 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