Plans change - Cademy gives you the tools to cancel orders, remove individual participants, and refund payments (in full or in part), and keeps your customer informed at each step.
Your cancellation policy
Go to Settings → Cancellation Policy to control whether customers can cancel bookings themselves:
Allow Cancellations turns customer self-cancellation on or off.
Days sets how many days before the course a customer can cancel.
When self-cancellation is allowed, customers see the cancellation option on their booking in their Cademy profile. This applies to bookings made under the previous system - orders created under the current billing system are cancelled by admins, so customers should contact you to cancel and you use the Cancel Order flow below.
Cancelling an order
Open the order and choose Manage → Cancel Order. The dialog shows what happens to each invoice before you confirm:
Draft invoices will be deleted.
Unpaid issued invoices will be voided.
For each paid invoice, you choose what happens to the money:
Refund - the default. Money goes back the way it came: card and PayPal payments are refunded automatically; payments recorded against Xero or manually are recorded as refunded, and you move that money yourself. If an invoice was paid by more than one method, the dialog lists each destination and what happens to it (gift card payments are restored to the voucher).
Hold as credit - no money moves; the amount is held as credit on the customer's account, ready to apply to another invoice.
Keep the money - the amount paid stays with you and any unpaid remainder is written off.
Cancel participant registrations too controls what happens to the people on the order. Ticked, every non-completed registration is cancelled, content access is revoked, and spaces are released - and the participants are emailed. Unticked, only the commercial order record is cancelled and registrations, spaces, and course access are preserved.
The confirm button always states the money consequence - for example Cancel Order & Refund £240 or Cancel Order & Hold £120 as Credit - so there are no surprises. You can also add an internal note before confirming.
Cancelling part of an order
You don't need to cancel a whole order to remove one person or course. In the order's edit flows you can remove a participant, remove a course, or remove an unassigned space (and move or replace participants). Each removal shows the same money choices - refund, hold as credit, or keep - for the amount being removed, and issues a credit note that names the affected participant.
Refunding a payment
Payments tab, or on the invoice - open its ⋯ menu, and choose Refund….
You can refund any amount up to what's left unrefunded on that payment, so partial refunds are supported - there's no need to use the Stripe or PayPal dashboards.
A Reason is required. It appears on the credit note, so write it for the customer - for example "Wrong card used - rebooked".
The dialog shows where the money goes. Stripe and PayPal refunds are sent back automatically to the original payment method; for other payment methods Cademy records the refund and you move the money yourself.
To refund against an invoice without picking a payment - a goodwill gesture, for example - open the invoice and choose Refund… there. A goodwill credit note is issued and emailed to the customer, and the money sent back.
Every refund is backed by a credit note: if the customer already holds credit from this invoice, the refund draws on it first; anything above that issues a new credit note. Issuing refunds inside Cademy keeps your records, invoices, and credit notes in sync.
Refund times and fees
Stripe (card) payments: the customer receives a refund of the amount you choose, up to what they originally paid. Stripe does not return the original transaction fee. Refunds typically take 5 to 10 days to appear in the customer's account.
PayPal payments: the customer receives a refund of the amount you choose, up to what they originally paid. PayPal does not return the original transaction fee. Refunds typically take 7 to 10 working days.
Credit notes
Whenever you refund, cancel with a refund or hold, or remove something from a paid order, Cademy issues a credit note against the corrected invoice. The customer automatically receives a credit-note email with a Download Credit Note link to the PDF, stating the amount credited and exactly what happened to the money - refunded to their card, returned to PayPal, restored to a gift card, recorded as a manual refund, or held as credit on their account with you.
What your customer receives
Cancellation: an "Order Cancelled" email. If they had paid and a refund was issued, it says so, with a note about how long the refund takes to appear. Participants and guests are emailed only if you ticked Cancel participant registrations too.
Refund: a "Refund issued" email stating the amount, plus the credit-note email with the PDF.