Setting up refund policies

If you don't set up Refund Policies, you will need to manually keep track of and adjust a student's charges for tuition and fees whenever one withdraws from courses!

Refund Policies automatically calculate refunds for invoiced charges when a student withdraws from courses. Here's how they work:

1. You create a refund policy, specifying refund details within the policy's brackets and other options.
2. You add the policy to a student account, whether on an individual student's profile, or by making it the default for a particular tuition schedule.
3. The student enrolls in courses, generating tuition charges (and other fees). You invoice those charges.
4. At a certain point in the term, the student is withdrawn from some or all of his courses.
5. When the withdrawal occurs, if it's within the timeframe of the refund policy, a pending credit is created for the refundable charges (tuition and any fees marked refundable).
   • Refunds are only calculated for charges that were generated by a tuition schedule or fee rules—so, if you manually add a fee, the refund policy won’t catch it.
6. You then invoice those credits, and either apply them to the student's charges or record an outgoing payment.

If a student withdraws before the term start date, he will receive a 100% refund of all refundable charges. Refund Policies let you enforce a maximum number of days into the term in which a student can get a refund (see below).

Creating a new refund policy

The refund policies you create here should be reflected in the Refund Policy setting in Financial > Settings > Online Payments.

Here's how to set up a new Refund Policy.

1. Go to Billing > Settings > Refund Policies
2. Click Add a Refund Policy.
3. Give it a name and select the Type:
   • Prorated refunds let you offer an automatically-calculated amount back to the student.
   • If you offer a 100% refund a certain number of days into the term, you can choose when to begin the proration—after the 100% period ends or on the term start date.
   • To limit the maximum pro-rated refund, enter a number of days into the term after which refunds are prohibited.
   • Custom refunds let you offer a specific percentage back to the student based on whether he withdraws a certain number of days into the term. For each bracket, enter the maximum days into the term and a Refund %. The minimum days for the next bracket is automatically filled in for you.
   • To be very clear: days refers to calendar days, NOT business days!
4. A 100% refund will automatically be offered before the term start date and no refund will be offered after the term end date.
5. In the above example, assuming a 100-day term (to make the math simple to understand):
   • Prorated: A withdrawn student receives a 100% refund 7 or fewer days into the term. From 7 days to 60 days, he receives a prorated refund. After 60 days, he receives no refund.
   • Custom: A withdrawn student receives a 100% refund 7 or fewer days into the term. From 8 days to 21 days, he receives an 85% refund. From 22 to 42 days, a 70% refund, and from 43 to 60, a 50% refund. After 60 days, he receives no refund.
   • It's worth mentioning that Min. days into term, "Day 0" refers to the first day of the term!
6. When you’re done, click Save.

The Refund Policy is now available to be attached to tuition schedules and student accounts.