Refunding a gift

Sometimes a gift will be entered, and then you realize you need to issue a refund. For example, if the donor changes his or her mind about making the gift, the gift would need to be reversed and the open credit balance can subsequently be refunded. In order to do this, you will need to process the gift payment as a prepayment that your accounting team can then refund on.

To transfer the gift amount to an open credit that can be refunded:

1. For reference later, record the gift information from the donor’s record:
   1. From Customers, select Manage customers.
   2. Click Find.
   3. Search for and select the donor’s record.
   4. Record the donor's ID number.
   5. Select the AR/Cash tab.
   6. Record the transaction Date, Ref. Num., and gift amount.
   7. From the Fundraising tab, select Donor History.
   8. Record the Gift Distribution.
2. Open a new batch using the date of the original transaction:
   1. From AR/Cash, select Manage batches.
   2. Click New.
   3. Change the Date to the date the original transaction took place.
   4. Enter the rest of the batch information.
   5. Click Save.
3. Transfer the payment amount from the gift to a new “Prepay” open credit balance:
   1. From Fundraising, select Process payments.
   2. Click New.
   3. Enter the Ref. Num. for the original transaction in the Invoice Number field.
   4. Enter the original donor’s ID and press Tab.
   5. Since the goal is only to transfer the amount from the gift to a new open credit line, leave the Payment Amount field as 0.
   6. Be sure the PrePay line is selected.
   7. In the Amt Paid field, enter the amount of the original gift and press Tab.
   8. Select the Gift line.
   9. Enter a negative dollar amount equal to the original gift amount and press Tab.
   10. Click Save.

Now that the credit from the payment has been successfully moved from the Gift to the Prepay credit line, the system now views the open balance on the gift item as a pledge. You can proceed with processing a credit memo adjustment to reverse the gift entry.

4. Create a credit memo to reverse the gift:
   1. From Fundraising, go to Enter and edit adjustments > Pledge credit memos.
   2. Click New.
   3. Enter the original donor’s ID and press Tab.
   4. Click Find Pledge.
   5. Find and select the gift in the list and click OK.
   6. The Pledge credit memo window is populated with your selection.
   7. Select the Credit checkbox.
   8. Click Save.

With this credit memo, iMIS reverses the original gift. The credit balance that was transferred to the prepay line is now available to be refunded or to be applied as an open credit in lieu of payment to a future transaction. See Creating credit invoices for more information about how to issue and record refunds.