A visitor buys four timed tickets online for Saturday, then emails Monday morning: one child is sick, can they get their money back? Refunding that order should take two minutes. In practice it often turns into a question of who touches what: the admissions lead in Altru, the finance office in the payment processor, or both. Do it in only one place and your revenue reports and bank deposits stop agreeing.
This guide covers how online refunds work in Altru in general terms, the decisions to make before anyone clicks anything, and the mistakes that cause reconciliation headaches later.
The core rule: refund in Altru, against the original order
An online purchase made through your Altru web forms lands in Altru as a sales transaction tied to a constituent, with the payment and the items (tickets, memberships, donations, merchandise) attached. The cleanest refund starts from that same transaction. Find the order, select the items being returned, and process the refund from there.
Working from the original order matters for three reasons:
- Revenue stays accurate. The refund offsets the original revenue in the right designation, program, or ticket type, so your reports don’t show a sale that no longer exists.
- Capacity is released. For timed or event tickets, returning the items should put those spots back into availability. A refund handled only at the processor leaves the tickets sold in Altru.
- The constituent record tells the true story. Anyone who looks up the visitor later sees the purchase and the refund together.
Does the money go back to the card automatically?
This is where most confusion lives, and the honest answer is that it depends on your setup.
When online payments run through Blackbaud’s payment processing integration, Altru can often send a credit card refund back to the original card as part of the refund workflow. Whether that works for a given order can depend on how the payment was captured, how long ago it was, and how your merchant account and payment settings are configured. Some organizations find that refunds on older transactions, or on payments taken a certain way, have to be issued on the processor side instead.
Don’t assume. Before you write your procedure, test it:
- Place a small real online order with a staff card (or use a sandbox if you have one).
- Refund it in Altru from the original transaction.
- Check the payment processor’s portal and the card statement to confirm the money actually moved.
- Repeat with a partial refund, since that is the more common case.
If the money didn’t go back to the card, ask Blackbaud support what your configuration supports before you build a workaround. The answer determines whether your process is “one step in Altru” or “two coordinated steps.”
When the refund has to happen in two places
If you end up issuing the money back through the processor directly, still record the refund in Altru against the original order. Use a refund payment method your finance team recognizes for this case, and note the processor’s refund reference on the transaction. Without both halves, your Altru revenue and your merchant deposits drift apart, and someone spends the end of the month hunting for the difference.
Make one person or role responsible for each half, and agree on how they hand off. A shared checklist or ticketing inbox works better than “I told them in the hallway.”
Item-specific details to decide up front
Tickets
Decide whether you refund, exchange, or offer credit. Exchanges to another date or time often serve the visitor better and keep the revenue. If you do refund, confirm the returned tickets are no longer valid at the door, so a printed or emailed barcode can’t be used after the money comes back.
Memberships
Refunding a membership purchase raises questions beyond money: does the membership get cancelled, does it revert to the previous term, and what happens to benefits already used? Settle the policy first, then check in a test record how the refund affects the membership’s status and dates in Altru. If the result isn’t what you expect, adjust the membership record by hand and add a note.
Donations
A refunded gift should not leave behind an acknowledgment that says the donor gave. If a receipt has already gone out, coordinate with whoever handles acknowledgments so year-end summaries and tax statements reflect the refund.
Fees and add-ons
If your online checkout adds service fees, decide whether they’re refundable and state that in your policy. Make sure staff know whether to include the fee line when they select items to return.
Batches, deposits, and timing
Refunds touch your financial batches and bank deposits just like sales do. A few habits keep finance happy:
- Process refunds in the period they actually occur, and don’t back-date them into a closed period.
- Keep refunds visible in your daily or weekly reconciliation so they’re not discovered at month-end.
- Run a recurring query of refunded online transactions with refund date, amount, payment method, and staff user. It doubles as an audit trail and a training tool.
Write the policy where staff can find it
Most refund problems are policy problems in disguise. A one-page document should answer: who can approve a refund, deadlines (for example, before the visit date), refund versus exchange versus credit, how fees are handled, and the exact steps in Altru and, if needed, the processor. Post the same terms on your ticketing and membership pages, so visitors see them before they buy.
Quick answers
Can I refund just part of an online order?
Yes, refunds are generally processed per item, so you can return one ticket out of four. Test a partial refund with a real card to confirm the amount that goes back matches what you expect.
Should I just void the transaction instead?
Treat voiding and refunding as different things. Talk with your finance team and Blackbaud support about when each applies in your setup, rather than using whichever button is closest.
The visitor already got their money back from the processor. What now?
Record the refund in Altru against the original order so revenue, capacity, and the constituent record all match what really happened.
