Create credit notes and process refunds

The following article describes how to create credit notes and process refunds in the Arlo platform. It also describes how to cancel orders created in error.

While Arlo Support can try to assist with the management of your orders, it's important that the person responsible for looking after your financial records inside of Arlo has a good knowledge of basic accounting practices, as the financial advice we are able to provide you is limited.

Cancel an unpaid order raised in error

You can cancel unpaid orders that have been raised as an administrative mistake. If you don’t want to see any details from it in any reports, you can also delete it from Arlo completely. Cancelling an order will cancel all registrations associated with it.

Once the order is cancelled in Arlo, if it exists in an external accounting system, such as Xero, you will need to mark it as void in that system manually.

If the order is unpaid and was not raised in error, you should not cancel it. You should create a credit note instead.

If the order has had any payments recorded against it, you should not cancel it. You should process a refund instead.

Open the Orders menu.

Find and select the order you wish to cancel.

(Optional) If the order is connected to Xero, click Disconnect.

Press Cancel Order.

Confirm the communication to send, and press Cancel Order.

The order will be marked as cancelled. The cancelled record will remain in Arlo for reference.

If you want to purge the record completely, press Delete Order. This will purge the record entirely from the platform.

Deleting an Order cannot be reversed.

Reduce the amount due on an unpaid order

In Arlo, you can reduce the amount due on an unpaid order. You may wish to do this because you have cancelled some (or all) of the registrations, or because of an administrative mistake. To reduce the total due for an order, you need to add a credit note to reflect the adjustment.

This is not a refund (which apply only to payments), but a credit to adjust the sales revenue from the existing invoice for your bookkeeping.

Open the Orders menu.

Find and select the unpaid order you wish to adjust.

Press Add credit note. This will create a draft credit note using all of the lines from the original order. The amount of each of the lines will reflect the unpaid portion of the invoice.

Click X to remove any lines that you don’t want to credit. You should be left with a line that represents the cancelled registration/s that you would like to credit.

(Optional) If you only want to refund a portion of any of the registrations, remove the registration line from the credit note, and press Add Credit Line.. Then select the registration you would like to generate a partial refund for and enter a description for the refund (e.g. discount not applied correctly) and amount to be refunded.

(Optional) You can add a cancellation fee to the credit by pressing Add Cancellation Fee Line... and selecting the registration to associate the cancellation fee to.

(Optional) Enter the cancellation fee amount, and press Update. This will reduce the amount of credit which is to be applied for that registration.

Press Save.

The credit note will be automatically applied to the original invoice, reducing the amount due. If you are connected to Xero, the credit note will be exported automatically.

The remaining balance of the original order can be paid as per your existing processes.

Process a refund on a paid order

Open the Orders menu.

Find and select the order you wish to make a refund for.

Press Make a refund.

Press Select all.

Press Create credit note.

Press Save.

Process the refund immediately

Tick Pay this as a cash refund now, and press Create credit note. You will be directed to the Refund Payment screen.

Select all payments on the credit note then press Add refund payments. If the payments were made via credit card in Arlo, the refunds will be processed automatically. Arlo will only refund up to the amount that has been paid, e.g. a deposit amount.

Non-credit card payments, such as those made by bank transfer, will need to be manually processed outside of Arlo.

The refunded balance will be marked as paid against the credit note.

If you are connected to Xero, remember to export the credit note to Xero.

Process the refund at a later date (or credit a separate order)

Untick Pay this as a cash refund now and press Create credit note.

If you are using Xero (and the order has not been paid for using Credit Card in Arlo), you should export the credit note to Xero. Management of the credit note should then be handled in Xero. Refunds and credits applied in Xero will synchronise back to Arlo and reduce the credit balance.

If the order was paid using a Credit Card in Arlo you can pay the refund at a later date in Arlo and then export it.

If you are not using Xero you can pay the refund at a later date using Arlo or allocate the unpaid balance to another order (use this as a credit balance to pay another order).

Create a partial refund (charge cancellations or only partially refund registrations)

Open the Orders menu.

Find and select the order you wish to make a refund for.

Press Make a refund.

Select the lines from the order you would like to refund and Press Create credit note.

If the tick box won't select, click the line text instead.

(Optional) You can add a cancellation fee/s to the credit by pressing Add Cancellation Fee Line... and selecting the registration/s to associate the cancellation fee with.

(Optional) Enter the cancellation fee amount, and press Update. This will reduce the amount of the refund for that registration.

(Optional) If you only want to refund a portion of any of the registrations, remove the registration line from the credit note, and press Add Credit Line.. Then select the registration you would like to generate a partial refund for and enter a description for the refund (e.g. discount not applied correctly) and amount to be refunded.

Press Update and ensure the Remaining Credit balance matches what you would like to refund.

Press Save.

Once you have created the credit note, when you press save, you have the option to select whether you want to process the refund now and mark it as paid or you want to pay the balance at a later date (or use it against a separate order).

Process the refund immediately

If you use PayPal as your payment provider, you won't be able to process the partial refund via Arlo (by using the Pay this as a cash refund now button). Partial refunds will need to be processed directly in your PayPal account and recorded in Arlo as manual payments. See the Add a manual payment to an order help article for information on how to do this.

Tick Pay this as a cash refund now, and press Create credit note. You will be directed to the Refund Payment screen.

Select the refund payments on the credit note that you would like to mark as paid and press Add refund payments. If the payments were made via credit card in Arlo, the refunds will be processed automatically. Arlo will only refund up to the amount that has been paid, e.g. a deposit amount.

Non-credit card payments, such as those made by bank transfer, will need to be manually processed outside of Arlo.

The refunded balance will be marked as paid against the credit note.

If you are not using Xero and have completed a partial refund only, there will be a Remaining Credit which you can either pay it out at a later date or leave available for use on a separate order as credit using Arlo.

If the order was paid using a Credit Card in Arlo, you can process any remaining credit on the credit note at a later date in Arlo, and then export it.

Process the refund payment at a later date (or credit a separate order)

Untick Pay this as a cash refund now and press Create credit note.

If the order was paid using a Credit Card in Arlo, you can process any remaining credit on the credit note at a later date in Arlo, and then export it.

If you use PayPal as your payment provider, you won't be able to process the partial refund via Arlo (by using the Refund payment button outlined in the linked article. Partial refunds will need to be processed directly in your PayPal account and recorded in Arlo as manual payments. See the Add a manual payment to an order help article for information on how to do this.

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