Payins can be canceled the same day it was processed and before the daily cutoff. After the cutoff, the payin can be partially or fully refunded.

The payin can be canceled or refunded via the void or refund endpoint in the API or within the reporting components on the Payin Details Component with the "Refund" button. Rainforest will handle the logic on if the payin is eligible for a void or refund.

Cancel a payin

A payin can be canceled, also known as voided, when the payin status is Processing and before the daily cutoff defined by the payment method type and explained in the deposit timing for payments guide.

Canceling a payin will void the full amount of the payin and the fee applied at the time of processing. There is no additional fee for canceling a payin.

In the refund modal, the amount of the payin cannot be updated because a payin can only be canceled in full.

The payin status will be Canceled and a payin.canceled webhook will be triggered.

Refund a payin

A payin can be partially or fully refunded after the cutoff time for canceling. Refunding a payin will incur a fee if defined on the merchant's billing profile for each payment method type, card or ACH.

Listen to the refund webhooks for the result of the refund.

Refundable amount

In the refund modal, the amount of the refund can be updated to be less than or equal to the refundable amount. The amount will default to the full amount eligible to be refunded and can be less than the full amount of the payin if there are existing refunds, chargebacks, or an ACH return.

The refundable amount is available via the get payin endpoint in the API. For example, a $3.00 payin with a partial refund of $2.00, would return a refundable amount of $1.00:

{
  "amount": 300,
  "refundable_amount": 100
}

Non-refundable reasons

If the refund cannot be funded, then the refund modal will display an error message with an explanation.

If the refundable amount is $0, then a non-refundable reason is available via the get payin endpoint in the API that will explain why the payin is not eligible for a refund. For example, a $23.35 ACH payin was returned and the refundable amount is $0 with a non-refundable reason code of HAS_ACH_RETURN:

{
  "amount": 2335,
  "refundable_amount": 0,
  "non_refundable_reason_code": "HAS_ACH_RETURN"
}

Nonrefundable reasons

ACH refunds with return window

In order to prevent a refund from being initiated on an ACH payin that ultimately will result in an ACH return, Rainforest does not allow refunds on ACH payins for T+4 from processing time, where T equals the first banking day after processing and 4 equals the number of banking days until the payin is eligible for a refund. For example, an ACH payin processed on Monday would be eligible for a refund on Friday. This allows for the ACH return to be processed prior to the payin being available for a deposit for most of the common return reasons.

Refund metadata

If the payin is refunded, then the metadata defined on the payin will be stored on the associated refund. Additional metadata can be included in the void or refund request. The metadata provided in the request will be merged with the metadata stored on the payin by the top-level key. If the same top-level key is passed in this request, it will overwrite the original value from the payin metadata.

For example, if the payin metadata includes:

{
  "k1": "A",
  "k2": {
    "k3": "B"
  }
}

And the void or refund request metadata is:

{
  "k2": "C",
  "k4": "D"
}

Then the resulting merged metadata would be:

{
  "k1": "A",
  "k2": "C",
  "k4": "D"
}

Sandbox simulation

If the payin is in the status of Processing, canceling the payin via the Payin Details Component or the void or refund payin endpoint will result in canceling the payin and moving the payin to the status of Canceled.

To simulate a refund, the payin will need to move to the status of Succeeded. This can be done by simulating a merchant deposit. Once the payin is Succeeded, refunding the payin via the Payin Details Component or the void or refund payin endpoint will result in refunding the payin and creating a refund with the status of Processing.