Refunds, waivers & reminders
Money mistakes happen — a duplicate charge, a cancelled plan, a late fee that deserved grace. This page covers undoing charges that shouldn’t stand and nudging members about balances that should.
Refund a payment
Section titled “Refund a payment”Refunds are owner-only; managers don’t see the refund actions. A payment must be completed to be refunded.
- Click Money, then Payments (or open the payment on the member’s profile).
- Open the ⋯ menu on the completed payment.
- Click Refund to send the money back where it came from, or Refund to account credit to issue the amount as credit on the member’s account instead.
What happens next depends on how the payment was made:
- Card or bank payments are refunded through Stripe. If Stripe refuses the refund, nothing changes on your books — the payment stays completed so the records never claim a refund that didn’t happen.
- Manual payments (cash, check, and so on) are marked refunded in Memberley; returning the money is up to you.
- Refund to account credit skips Stripe entirely and issues the amount as account credit the member can spend with your organization. Walk-up payments with no member attached can only be refunded to the original method.
After the refund goes through:
- The payment’s status changes to Refunded, and its receipt stays downloadable for the member’s records.
- Any account credit the member spent on the original payment is restored to their balance.
- Memberley emails the member — a refund notice for the original-method path, or a credit notice when you refunded to account credit.
Waive a late fee
Section titled “Waive a late fee”When a season’s dues deadline passes, Memberley assesses the late fee as a pending charge on the member’s balance — it’s never auto-charged. Waiving forgives that charge before it’s paid.
- Find the pending late fee — filter the payments list by type Late fee and status Pending, or open the member’s profile.
- Open the payment’s ⋯ menu and click Waive late fee.
The charge is removed from the member’s outstanding balance, so it stops counting against their standing at check-in. The waiver is recorded in the activity log, and the same membership won’t be assessed another late fee for that season.
In short:
- Fee still pending — waive it. The charge disappears from the member’s balance without any money moving.
- Fee already paid — waiving is no longer possible; refund the payment instead, as described above.
How and when fees are assessed is covered in Renewals & late fees.
Remind a member about an outstanding balance
Section titled “Remind a member about an outstanding balance”For balances that should be paid rather than forgiven:
- Send reminder — from the member’s profile, emails them about a pending or failed membership payment and points them to sign in and pay.
- Send payment request — emails a secure pay-by-link for the invoice, no login needed.
Both are covered step by step in Recording & collecting payments.