Working with registration cancelations depends a great deal on your organization's accounting preferences and refund policies. Work with your accountant to determine the best processes to follow to minimize questions and possible discrepancies!

 

Here are several possible workflows for canceling an event registration depending on the circumstances.

 

IMPORTANT: Before following any of the steps below, verify if the Auto Refund Stop Date option is enabled for your event! This setting could automatically create refunds if enabled and active!

Canceling Registrations for an Event

Cancel a registration: no refund

If your organization has a no-refund policy for event cancelations, this is the simplest process. See Cancel an Event Registration for more details.

• If the registration was fully paid at the time of the invoice, no accounting actions will occur when you cancel the registration.
• If the registration fee was invoiced but not paid, when the registration is canceled the system will automatically write off the invoice/registration fee.

Steps:

1. Cancel the registration.

Cancel a registration: full or partial refund

If you are providing full or partial refunds to registrants canceling their registrations, you have several options.

 

For a full refund (AUTOMATED):

1. When creating your event, enable the Auto Refund Stop Date option. Enter your desired cutoff date for automated refunds.
2. The system will automatically create a full refund when a registration is canceled prior to the date specified in the Auto Refund Stop Date setting. If it is after the date specified in the setting, you will have to create a manual refund (see below).

• Credit Card payments: If you are using GrowthZone Pay or NAR Ecommerce as your processor, any credit card charges will be automatically processed and returned to the member. This process may take up to 10 business days.
• Cash or check payments: refund transactions will be created; you need to follow your organization's process for returning funds via cash or check.

 

For a full refund (MANUAL):

1. Cancel the registration.
2. On the Attendee Purchases tab, click the Actions button for the invoice in question and select "Create Refund".

• Credit Card payments: If you are using  GrowthZone Pay or NAR Ecommerce as your processor, any credit card charges will be automatically processed and returned to the member. This process may take up to 10 business days.
• Cash or check payments: refund transactions will be created; you need to follow your organization's process for returning funds via cash or check.

 

For a partial refund (MANUAL ONLY):

Partial refunds are a manual process. Follow the steps to manually create a refund and adjust the refund amount accordingly.

1. Cancel the registration.
2. On the Attendee Purchases tab, click the Actions button for the invoice in question and select "Create Refund".

• Credit Card payments: If you are using GrowthZone Pay or NAR Ecommerce as your processor, any credit card charges will be automatically processed and returned to the member. This process may take up to 10 business days.
• Cash or check payments: refund transactions will be created; you need to follow your organization's process for returning funds via cash or check.

Cancel and register with a different registration type

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There are two accounting scenarios possible when someone has registered for an incorrect registration type: unapplying the payment, or issuing a credit memo. Depending on your back office permissions, the amount of time between the purchase and the correction, the type of payment, and even your finance settings, you may be unable to unapply the payment to use toward the corrected registration invoice. In that case, best practice is to use a credit memo to get the money to the appropriate account and reflect in the event's revenue reporting.

 

If a registration needs to be changed to a different registration type:

1. Un-apply the payment from the registration invoice.
2. If the amount unapplied is more that the new registration type, issue a partial refund against that payment. 
3. Cancel the original registration
4. Create a new registration with the correct registration type
5. Apply the un-applied payment to the newly created invoice.
6. If there is a balance remaining on the invoice, send the invoice to the registrant for payment. 

If you are unable to unapply the payment, follow the steps for "Cancel and register for a new event: issue a credit" below.

Cancel and register for new event: issue a credit

If you wish to allow your member to use their paid event registration toward another event, issuing a credit memo is the best way to achieve this option.

Steps:

1. Cancel the registration.
2. If the amount of the old registration type is more that the new registration type, issue a partial refund against that payment for the difference. 
3. Create a credit memo for amount of registration fee
4. Register for new event (if invoicing is not enabled for the new event, staff will have to register the attendee in the back office)
5. Apply the credit memo to the new registration fee invoice
6. Send invoice or apply additional payment to any fees not covered by credit memo if needed

Cancel and register for new event: no charge for new event

If allowing members to register for a new event for no charge is a common occurrence, you may want to set up staff-only free registration types on all/most of your events. 

Steps:

1. Cancel the registration (take no accounting action! No refund, no credit, DO NOTHING)
2. In new event, create a free staff-only registration type
3. Register the attendee for new event using free staff-only registration type

Cancel and register for new event: full accounting separation

If your accountant prefers that monies from one event be fully separated from any other event, this is the best process to follow.

Steps:

1. Cancel the registration.
2. Refund the registration fee/invoice.
3. Register each attendee for the new event (either through the back office or allow them to register themselves online) to generate invoices/payments.

Canceling An Event

Despite best intentions, sometimes it is necessary to cancel an event. Depending on how you want your registrants to be handled, you have several options.

Cancel event: move attendees to new event (no charge)

If you simply wish to move previously registered attendees to the new event without generating invoices, you can use the Import function in the new event.

Steps:

1. Cancel the event (automated or manually).
2. Export list of attendees from cancelled event
3. Import attendees to new event; no invoices are generated and no transactions are created.

Cancel event: move attendees to new event (need invoices)

There is no "bulk" option to move attendees from one event to another and generate new invoices for them; this is a manual process.

Steps:

1. Cancel the event (automated or manually).
2. Perform any appropriate accounting actions (full/partial refunds, issue credits, or no refunds). Please note there is no way to refund in bulk due to differing payment methods. If you have a very large event- over 100 attendees- please reach out to the Support team for assistance.
3. Register each attendee for the new event (either through the back office or allow them to register themselves online) to generate invoices/payments.

Cancel event: no new event, cancel all registrations

1. Cancel the event (automated or manually).
2. Perform any appropriate accounting actions (full/partial refunds, issue credits, or no refunds). Please note there is no way to refund in bulk due to differing payment methods. If you have a very large event- over 100 attendees- please reach out to the Support team for assistance.