---
title: How To Process A Refund With Stripe In Exterio
description: Issue a full or partial refund in Exterio from the project’s payment history. Processed through Stripe and returned to the customer’s card in 5–10 days.
---
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October 28, 2026
# How To Process A Refund With Stripe In Exterio
## Refunds are issued directly from the project’s payment history, processed through Stripe, and recorded automatically against the project.
#### When would I use this?
- A customer overpaid or was invoiced twice
- A deposit needs returning on a cancelled job
- A payment was taken against the wrong project
- A change order reduced the scope after the customer paid
#### Before you start
- **Requires Owner or Admin permissions** to enable and issue refunds.
- **Stripe required refunds come out of your Stripe balance, not your bank account.** Your available Stripe balance must be greater than the refund amount for the refund to go through.
- **Refunds cannot be undone.** Once issued, there’s no reversing it.
- **You don’t get the processing fee back.** The fee charged when the customer originally paid is not returned when you refund. On a $1,000 card payment, that’s roughly $32.30 you absorb.
#### How do I enable refunds?
Go to **Settings → Payments** and turn on **Enable Refunds**.
#### How do I issue a refund?
1. Open the project with the payment you want to refund.
2. Navigate to the Financials tab of the project and click **Payments (Receipt Icon)** of the invoice you are looking to do a refund on.
3. Find the payment and click **Refund Payment**.
4. Confirm the **refund amount**, enter a **reason**, and click **Refund Payment**.
The refund appears in the project’s payment history.
Refunds will now appear in the payment history of that invoice
#### Can I refund part of a payment?
Yes. Change the refund amount at the confirmation step to refund less than the full payment.
#### What happens to the invoice?
It depends on whether the refund was full or partial:
| Refund | What happens to the invoice |
| --- | --- |
| **Full** | Voided. Moves to the **Voided / Cancelled** group with a **Refunded** status, showing the refunded amount beneath the original. |
| **Partial** | Stays active, marked as partially refunded |
Your project financials update either way.
#### When does the customer get their money?
Stripe returns the refund to the customer’s **original payment method**. Most customers see the funds within **5–10 business days**, depending on their bank or card issuer.
**The customer receives a confirmation email automatically** when the refund is processed, the same way they do when they pay an invoice.
#### Tips and gotchas
- **Refunds are permanent — confirm the amount before you click.** There’s no undo. On a job with a deposit, progress payments, and a final balance, check the payment date and amount before issuing, because a refund sent against the wrong payment can’t be pulled back.
- **A refund costs you the processing fee.** You absorb the original fee on anything you refund. Refunding and re-charging a $20,000 payment to fix a mistake costs around $640 in fees twice over. Where you can, fix the problem with a credit on the next invoice instead.
- **Refund the difference, not the whole payment.** If a customer overpaid by $400, refund $400. A partial refund leaves the invoice active, keeps the history readable, and costs you a fraction of the fee that refunding the full amount would.
- **Keep a minimum balance in Stripe.** Refunds draw from your Stripe balance, so a refund can fail simply because you’ve swept the account. Setting a minimum balance means you’re never unable to refund a customer who’s waiting.
- **Tell the customer about the 5–10 day window.** They get an automatic confirmation email when the refund is processed, but that confirms it was issued — not that the money has landed. A homeowner expecting funds the same day will call you on day three. One sentence about timing when you refund prevents that call.
- **Write a real reason.** “Refund” explains nothing six months later. “Duplicate payment — invoice 1043 paid twice” is what makes the payment history readable when someone’s reconciling.
- **Check your P&L after refunding on a costed job.** The refund updates project financials, which changes revenue and therefore margin. If the job has commissions already created, those don’t recalculate — see *How To Create, Track, and Approve Commissions*.
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