This guide is for System Admins managing customer orders. Check your agreed cancellation terms before choosing the amount to refund or retain.
An order records the purchase. A registration gives a participant their place and course access. An invoice states the amount charged. A credit note records a reduction to that charge. Refunding money does not, by itself, cancel an order or registration.
Customers can cancel an eligible course booking themselves only when the provider’s account and course policy allow it. Orders with custom charges require the provider to handle cancellation and rescheduling. If an online cancellation is unavailable, or a customer needs a different refund, they should contact their course provider. This guide covers the System Admin actions for handling those requests; the final section explains how the account’s cancellation settings relate to learner actions.
Before you confirm: check the customer, order, amount and refund destination. A refund recorded in Cademy is not proof that the customer has received money in their bank account. If an action reports an error, check what has already changed before trying again.
Cancel a whole order
In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders and select the order. Select Manage Order > Cancel Order.
In Cancel this order?, wait for What happens to each invoice to load. Review every invoice, not only the first one.
For each paid invoice, choose the refund, credit or keep-money option. Labels include the amount, such as Refund £240 to card, Hold £240 as credit or Keep the money. The refund choice returns that invoice’s remaining paid amount. Check every destination if more than one payment method was used.
Enter an Internal Note (optional) if you need to record why you are cancelling.
Check Cancel participant registrations too. It starts ticked. Leave it ticked to cancel non-completed registrations and remove their course access. Registrations already marked completed are not cancelled.
Read the final button, including any amount, such as Cancel Order & Refund £240. Select it only when both the registration and money choices are correct.
Check the order’s cancelled status, its registrations and Invoices & Payments. Check the payment provider separately for the refund’s processing status.
If you untick Cancel participant registrations too: the registrations and their course access remain, but the cancelled order stops reserving those spaces on the course date. Do not use this choice expecting the spaces to stay reserved.
Cancelling the order also releases its discount uses, even if you keep the registrations or retain the money. Discount uses count purchased course spaces. See Create and Apply Discounts for how usage limits work.
What happens to invoices and money
Draft invoices are deleted. Unpaid issued invoices are voided, meaning they are no longer due.
Refund requests the refund through the selected destination. Stripe and PayPal process refunds against the original payment. Gift card refunds restore the original gift card when that destination is available.
For a Recorded manually or Xero destination, Cademy only records the refund. It does not transfer money; you move this money yourself.
Hold as credit does not return money. The credit first accounts for the unpaid balance; the amount shown as held remains available to the billed customer for a future invoice.
Keep the money keeps the paid amount and writes off any unpaid remainder. It does not leave that remainder for later collection.
Unless the order’s payment status is Abandoned (an online checkout that was started and not completed), the cancellation workflow addresses an order-cancellation email to the Order Contact. Guest emails depend on the registration-cancellation choice and the course’s setting to email guests. These automatic emails are blocked if email sending is disabled for the provider account. Financial documents and refund notifications are separate from the cancellation message.
If cancellation reports an error
An order can already be cancelled while a refund or credit step is incomplete. Check the order, registrations, credit notes, refund entries and provider status before doing anything else. Do not start a separate full refund to compensate for an unclear error. If the remaining amount is unclear, contact Cademy Support with the order reference, invoice reference and error message.
Remove only part of an order
Use this route when the rest of the order should remain. In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders, select the order and choose the relevant row menu:
Participant row > ⋯ > Remove Participant…: remove the participant from the order item. A financial adjustment also reduces the purchased space count. If you choose No Financial Change or The Invoice Stands, the participant is removed but the order keeps the purchased space and existing charge. A discounted space kept on the order still counts towards the discount’s usage. Removing the discounted purchased space releases its use.
Course row > ⋯ > Remove Course…: remove a course when another course or custom item will remain on the order. Use Cancel Order when it is the order’s only remaining item. The credit amount is calculated for you; a fee can reduce it. A financial correction is required.
Unassigned space row > ⋯ > Remove Space…: remove a space that has no participant. You can adjust the credit amount or deduct a fee, but cannot leave the invoice unchanged. If asked to choose an offer, select the offer whose space you are removing.
Read the confirmation’s description of the order and invoice changes. A draft can change directly; an unpaid invoice can be voided and reissued; a paid invoice can need a credit note.
If Amount is editable, enter the amount to credit within the displayed maximum. This is not necessarily the cash refund: an unpaid invoice balance is reduced first.
To retain a cancellation fee where offered, select Deduct a fee…, then complete Fee amount and Fee description. Check the revised refund or credit total.
Choose from the financial options shown. For a refund, check Refund to and every allocated amount. For held credit, check the amount shown as held.
If an unpaid invoice is being replaced, check Email the updated invoice to the customer, which starts ticked. If open payment requests exist, unticking it also cancels those requests without creating replacements. It is not just an email preference.
Select the confirmation button with the intended result, then check the remaining order items, registrations and Invoices & Payments.
Completed registrations are not cancelled by an order edit. Check those participants separately instead of assuming that removing a commercial item has removed every registration or access entitlement.
To change an order’s courses, quantities, prices or billing details instead, see Change an Existing Order. To move a participant to another course or date, or to replace the person attending, see Move a Participant or Replace the Person Attending. When moving a registration that belongs to an order changes the order’s price, a second step shows the money change for you to confirm before the move is made.
If you start from a registration instead
Use this alternative when you are already working with one participant’s registration.
In the Admin Dashboard, open Registrations, select the registration, then select ⋯ > Cancel Registration. A completed registration cannot be cancelled through this action.
In Cancel this registration?, check Release the space from order [order ID] too, if shown. Leave it ticked to continue to the order-space change. Untick it if the order should keep its purchased space.
Select Cancel Registration. This cancels the registration first. If releasing an order space, a separate Remove Space, Remove Course or Cancel Order dialog follows.
Review and complete that second dialog if you intend to release the space and make its financial changes. Closing it does not undo the registration cancellation.
Check both the registration and its order. Do not assume the space or its discount use was released, or money refunded, solely because the registration says cancelled.
Remove a custom charge
A custom item is a charge under Other Items, such as room hire or catering, without participant spaces. To remove that charge while leaving the rest of the order, open the order as a System Admin, find the saved charge under Other Items, open its three-dot item menu and select Remove Item…. Review the invoice reduction and any credit or refund choice before confirming. Follow Change an Existing Order for the complete item-editing procedure.
If it is the order’s only remaining item, use Cancel Order instead. Removing the last course from a mixed order can leave the custom charges on an active order; it does not cancel the remaining charges. Customers cannot cancel or reschedule a booking themselves while its order includes custom charges, so the provider handles those changes.
Refund without cancelling
Use a standalone refund when the order and registrations should keep their existing status. A refund alone does not release discount uses, even if you refund the full amount: the discounted purchased spaces remain on the active order. For a refund limited to one specific payment, start from that payment inside the order.
In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders, select the order and find Invoices & Payments.
On the successful payment you want to refund, open the three-dot menu and select Refund….
Enter the amount in Amount, no higher than the displayed maximum. Check Refund to. This route is limited to the amount still refundable on that payment.
Enter the required Reason. Check the refund amount on the final button, then select Refund with that amount.
After Refund recorded, check the refund entry and updated invoice and credit note. For a provider refund, check its processing status in Stripe or PayPal; for a manual refund, arrange the actual transfer outside Cademy.
This payment-specific route uses available credit from existing credit notes first. If more credit is needed, it creates a credit note for the difference. The refund does not cancel the order or registrations.
When you need to choose across an invoice’s payments
The Payments page starts an invoice-level refund, not the payment-limited route above. Use it when you need to review the available destinations on the invoice.
In the Admin Dashboard, open Orders > Payments. Find a successful payment linked to the invoice, open its ⋯ menu and select Refund….
Check Amount and the displayed maximum. The chosen payment is preselected, but Refund to can include other payments on the invoice. Check the amount against each destination.
Enter the required Reason, then check and select the button showing Refund and the amount.
Check the new credit note, refund entries and provider status. This route issues a new goodwill credit note, which records this reduction to the customer’s invoice.
To start the same invoice-level flow from the document, open Orders > Invoices, select the invoice and select Refund…. It requires an issued invoice with paid value and remaining value that can be credited.
Refund credit already held on a credit note
To refund credit that is already held on a credit note, follow Manage Credit Notes and Customer Credit. That route uses the existing credit; it does not issue another credit note.
Check the refund destination and result
Stripe or PayPal: Cademy requests a provider refund. Check the original payment and refund in that provider account. A pending or failed provider refund is not money received by the customer. PayPal’s published refund window is 180 days from payment; an available Cademy action does not override the provider’s limits.
Gift card: the original gift card is credited when a gift card destination is available. This is not a bank transfer. If the gift card cannot be identified, do not assume a manual destination will restore it.
Recorded manually or Xero: Cademy records the amount only; you move this money yourself. You remain responsible for returning it outside Cademy and checking the transfer. Do not select Recorded manually merely to bypass a failed provider lookup. For a Xero payment, check the outside payment and accounting records first, so the same refund is not duplicated.
A new credit-note email is addressed to the Order Contact, with a copy to the billing email used for the invoice when one is recorded. Refunding existing credit uses a separate notification addressed to the Order Contact, without that billing-email copy. A payment-specific refund that uses existing credit and creates more credit can involve both emails. These automatic emails are blocked if email sending is disabled for the provider account. An email is not proof that the customer has received the money.
If only part of a multi-destination refund succeeds, that completed part is not undone by the error. Check the recorded amounts and each provider before retrying. Contact Cademy Support if you cannot identify the remaining amount.
If you refunded directly in Stripe or PayPal
Prefer starting in Cademy when its refund route is available. If you already refunded in Stripe or PayPal, do not issue the same refund again in Cademy.
For a payment in the current Orders system, automatic recording requires a linked issued invoice with enough remaining paid value and enough value not already covered by credit notes. Before issuing a refund, if an existing credit note has money available to refund, use Cademy’s existing-credit refund route. If you have already refunded through Stripe or PayPal, do not refund again in Cademy. A direct provider refund can need investigation even when the payment is linked to an invoice.
Check the refund’s status and reference in the provider account. Use the provider’s current Stripe refund guidance or PayPal refund guidance for its controls.
In Cademy, open Orders, select the order and check Invoices & Payments for the refund and credit note.
If the provider confirms the refund but Cademy does not show it, contact Cademy Support with the order, invoice, provider payment and refund references. Do not create another refund while the difference is being investigated.
Refund timing and fees
Stripe gives approximately 5 to 10 business days for a card refund to appear after submission to the customer’s bank. This is an estimate, not a guaranteed arrival date. Pending refunds and failed refunds need separate attention. See Stripe’s refund status and tracing guidance.
PayPal timing depends on how the customer paid: balance refunds can arrive the same day, while bank and debit-card refunds generally take up to 5 working days and can take up to 30 days. Credit-card refunds can take one or two billing cycles. Check the actual status and PayPal’s refund timing guidance.
Returning the payment does not guarantee that processing fees are returned to you. Stripe states that original processing fees are not returned. PayPal’s UK commercial-payment terms also retain the original receiving fee. Check your provider’s account terms and PayPal’s merchant fees before calculating your costs.
What the Cancellation Policy setting does
As a System Admin, open Settings > Cancellation Policies. The Cancellation Policies page controls eligible learners’ online cancellation and rescheduling. These settings are separate from the staff cancellation and refund actions described above.
A course uses the account’s default policy unless another is selected under Settings > Booking Options > Cancellation Policy in its course editor. Each policy sets the allowed actions, deadline and cancellation fee or no-refund rule. Only eligible Stripe card payments are refunded automatically through learner cancellation. Other paid methods need the provider to arrange any agreed refund. An enabled policy does not make every booking eligible. Follow Set Cancellation and Rescheduling Policies for setup, refund limits and the effect of changing a policy on existing bookings.
Online changes do not apply to on-demand or on-request courses, or individually booked sessions of a block. They are unavailable after attendance or lesson progress has been recorded, or once the registration is cancelled or completed or a certificate or CPD award has been issued. An order with custom items cannot be cancelled or rescheduled by the customer. For a booking linked to an order, only its order owner can cancel it online. A participant booked by somebody else can reschedule their own eligible place, but must ask the order owner or provider to cancel it. Online cancellation is also unavailable for monthly-instalment or separate-course-invoice orders. For an unavailable action, use the staff procedure that matches the request. These learner policies do not apply a deadline or cancellation fee to your staff actions. See Cancel or Reschedule Your Course Booking for the learner’s steps and results.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Refund… missing?
On the Payments list it is offered for successful, invoice-linked Stripe, PayPal, gift-card and manually recorded payments, not Xero payments, pending or failed payments, or refund rows. A payment for a membership is not linked to an invoice, so Refund… is not offered for it; to refund a membership payment, contact Cademy Support. Individual payment and document screens also check whether an amount remains refundable. If the available amount is unclear, check the invoice, credit notes and previous refunds before contacting Cademy Support.
Can I make a partial refund without removing the participant?
Yes. Use Refund without cancelling and enter the amount to return. The order and registration retain their existing status. Cancelling or removing a participant is a separate action.
Does cancelling my Cademy subscription cancel my customers’ orders?
No. Your provider subscription and customer orders are separate. Use the order’s cancellation controls only when you intend to cancel that customer order.