29. Account Balances - Self Service Refunds

Allow customers to refund eligible orders directly to their account balance from the ticket shop, without needing to contact staff.

Self service refunds let customers refund their own orders directly to their account balance from the ticket shop. Instead of contacting support and waiting for a manual refund to their original payment method, customers can instantly move the value of eligible order items into their account balance - ready to spend on future purchases.

This is different from a cash out, which withdraws existing balance back to the original payment method. A self service refund moves money into the balance from an order, while a cash out moves money out of the balance to a payment method.

The self service refund flow works as follows:

1. Customer views a completed order in their account

2. They click Refund on the order

3. They select which items to refund (only ticket items are eligible)

4. The refund amount is credited to their account balance immediately

5. The transaction appears in their balance history as Refund to account

The refunded value goes directly into the customer's account balance for the order's currency. From there, the customer can spend it on future purchases (if balance spending is enabled) or it remains available in their balance.

Self service refunds require several settings to be enabled, all found in Settings > Payment Settings > Balance settings:

1. Enable balance refunds in admin - the master toggle that enables refunding to account balance (for both admin and self service)

2. Enable self-serve refunds in shop - exposes the refund flow to customers in the ticket shop

Both must be turned on for customers to see the refund option. If only the admin toggle is enabled, staff can refund to balance from the admin panel but customers cannot self-serve.

The Account Balances feature and the Account Balance Refunds feature must both be enabled for your company. The self-serve refunds setting only appears in the admin panel when these features are active.

When self service refunds are available, a Refund button appears on the customer's order page. This button is only visible when:

• The order is complete

• The order is not currently being modified (not frozen)

• There is no pending payment link on the order

• The customer is the order owner

After clicking Refund, the customer sees:

• A list of refundable items from their order

• Their current balance and the projected balance after refund

• Items that have passed the cutoff window are shown as unavailable

• A Refund button to confirm

The Self-serve refund cutoff time setting controls how close to an event's start a customer can still request a refund. This prevents last-minute refunds.

The cutoff is calculated from the event's start date. For example:

Items past their cutoff are excluded from the refund - the customer cannot select them. If all items in an order are past cutoff, the refund option is no longer available.

The cutoff is set in hours but can be configured using hours, days, or weeks in the admin panel. Setting the cutoff to zero means there is no time restriction - customers can refund right up until the event.

Two settings control whether fees are included in the refund amount:

When these settings are disabled, the corresponding fees are not returned to the customer - only the base item value is refunded to their balance.

Fee refund settings only apply to self service refunds. Admin-initiated refunds may handle fees differently depending on the refund configuration used.

Only ticket items can be refunded through self service. Other item types - including top ups, fees, and add-ons - are not eligible.

Additional item requirements:

• The item must not already be cancelled

• The item must be within the cutoff window (not past the event's refund deadline)

• Bundle items can only be refunded if the lead bundle item is also included in the refund

Some order conditions affect whether self service refunds are available:

When an order uses discount codes and contains only ticket items, the customer can still refund - but they must refund all items, not a selection. This prevents scenarios where partial refunds could exploit discount pricing.

If Enable balance refunds in admin is turned on but Enable self-serve refunds in shop is turned off, staff can still refund orders to a customer's account balance from the admin panel. The customer simply does not see the self-service refund option in the ticket shop.

This gives you the flexibility to offer balance refunds as a support tool without exposing self-service to customers.

Self service refunds appear in the customer's balance history as Refund to account. The transaction is linked to the original order, providing a full audit trail.

In the admin panel, the refund appears in:

• The customer's wallet transaction history

• The Account Balances > Transactions list (filterable by Refund to account type)

• The original order's refund history

Create and manage top-up items that customers purchase to load funds onto their balance.

Withdraw funds from an account balance back to the original payment method.