Say Goodbye to Confusing Workarounds: Refunds Are Here in Billing Management 🎉

Julia Meseck

If you've been managing student billing for any length of time, you know the drill. A family overpays. A student withdraws. Someone needs their money back. And instead of doing something that sounds as simple as "issuing a refund," you've had to create an offsetting charge — which, let's be honest, makes zero sense to the student or parent staring at their statement wondering why they're being charged when they're owed money. We heard you. We felt the pain. And we fixed it. Refunds are now live in Billing Management, and they work exactly how you'd expect them to.

Issue Refunds Directly from a Student's Account

No more workarounds. No more head-scratching from payers. From the Activity tile or the Work with transactions page, just select Add → Refund and you're off. The new Add refund modal keeps it simple: pick a refund date (it defaults to today — you're welcome), choose a refund type, and add a description or comments if needed. The best part? The modal shows you all unapplied payments and credits on the student's record right there, so you can select exactly what you're refunding. No hunting, no guessing. Once saved, the refund gets its own record page — complete with a refund number, owner, date, amount, distribution details, and a full list of the payments and credits applied. Everything in one place, clean and clear.

Set Up Your Refund Types in Billing Years

Before your team starts issuing refunds, you'll want to set up your refund types in your Billing year settings. Head to the new Refunds section in the billing year navigation and add the types your school uses — things like "Overpayment," "Tuition Refund," or "Activity Refund" — along with a GL distribution account. And when it's time to roll over to a new billing year? Just hit Copy to bring all your refund types forward. One click, done. ✅

Post Refunds to Your General Ledger

For those of you connected to Financial Edge NXT, refunds are now a fully supported transaction type when posting to GL. Filter by Refund in the Transaction type filter when configuring a GL post, and your refund distributions will show up right in the Distributions list. Refunds are also available as journal references. The GL account lookup works the same way as every other account field in the system — familiar and consistent.

Find Refunds Anywhere You Look

Refunds now show up everywhere they should: the Transaction list, the Work with transactions page, and the Distribution list. Use the Type filter to narrow down to refunds, and click any refund to open a detailed flyout. No more wondering where a refund ended up or whether it posted.

This Is Just the Beginning

Consider this Phase 1 of our refunds journey. Right now, refunds work as a standalone transaction type — perfect for recording and tracking refunds your school issues outside the system. But we know many of you process payments through Blackbaud Integrated Payments, and we're already working toward the ability to issue a refund tied directly to a BBIP transaction. That means even more automation, less manual reconciliation, and a fully connected refund experience from end to end.Stay tuned — there's more coming. 👀

Ready to Get Started?

Here's the quick-start checklist:

1. Define your refund table entries under Settings → Tables → Refunds
2. Add refund types to your Billing year(s)
3. Issue your first refund from a student's Activity tile

That's it. Your billing office runs cleaner, your GL stays accurate, and — most importantly — students and families see a refund on their statement instead of a confusing charge.

Go give it a try and let us know what you think. We're already excited for you to never have to explain an offsetting charge again. 😄