Applicable to: Association and Club Administrators

Application(s): Admin Portal > Participants > [Participant name] > Invoices > View

Applicable Sports: Rugby Canada, Basketball England, Cricket Australia

This article will cover the following:

1. Overview
2. Viewing an Invoice Detail page
3. Issuing a refund against a line item (upfront payments)
4. Issuing a refund on an instalment invoice and cancelling the instalment plan
5. Cancelling a registration or expiring memberships as part of a refund

Related articles:

• Reviewing and actioning participant refund requests
• Request a Refund

⚠️ Important: Processing refunds through PlayHQ is currently only available to participants in Rugby Canada, Basketball England and Cricket Australia.

This feature is not available for AFL, Basketball Victoria or other sports in Australia and New Zealand. For these sports in Australia and New Zealand, clubs and associations are responsible for processing participant fee refunds outside of the PlayHQ platform. 

For refunds relating to state or national governing body fees, please contact your relevant sporting organisation via PlayHQ Contact Us.

Overview

Ad-hoc admin refunds allow organisation administrators to issue a refund directly against a participant's invoice without waiting for the participant to submit a refund request. Admins can refund any line item they own — in full or in part — at any time, with a mandatory reason recorded against each refund for audit purposes.

This feature is available for a wide range of payment types: competition registrations, program registrations, standalone memberships, products and merchandise, and one-off payment requests.

How you issue the refund depends on how the participant paid:

• Upfront payments — refund directly from the line item row on the invoice.
• Instalment payments — refund using the Action button, which opens a refund dialog with an extra option to cancel the participant's instalment plan so no further instalments are charged.

When an admin submits a refund, it is auto-approved immediately — there is no inter-organisation approval chain. PlayHQ processes the refund back to the participant's original payment method, and the participant receives an email confirmation.

💡 Tip: Know which refund flow to use. Ad-hoc admin refunds are best for resolving disputes, correcting billing errors, or proactively refunding in cases where no participant request exists. If a participant has already submitted a refund request, use the Admin Approval Flow instead.

Viewing an Invoice Detail page

The Invoice Detail page gives you a full breakdown of a single invoice. To access it:

1. Navigate to the participant's Invoices tab

   From the Participants section of the Admin Portal, open the participant's profile and select the Invoices tab.

2. Open the invoice

   Click View on the invoice you want to inspect. This opens the Invoice Detail page for that order.

3. Review the invoice header

   The page header shows the Order ID, payment method (last 4 digits of the card), payment type (Upfront or Instalments), total amount, total refunded, and balance owing.

    

4. Review the line items table

   Each line item shows the item name, organisation, item price, previously refunded amount, and Refund Available (the maximum amount that can be refunded for that item, accounting for all previous refunds including any currently processing).

   

5. Review the instalment plan (instalment invoices only)

For instalment invoices, the Invoice Detail page also shows an instalment plan section with the participant's plan and payments made to date.

Tip: View items from other organisations. By default, only line items owned by your organisation are shown. Toggle View other items to see all items on the invoice in read-only mode. This is useful for understanding the full invoice context.

Issuing a refund against a line item

Follow these steps to issue a refund:

1. Navigate to the Invoice Detail page

   Follow the steps in the Viewing an Invoice Detail page section above to open the relevant invoice.

2. Expand the line item row

   Click the row for the line item you want to refund. The row expands to show the previous refund history for that item and a new refund input section.

   

3. Enter a refund amount

   In the New Refund field, enter the amount to refund. The amount must be greater than zero and cannot exceed the Refund Available value shown for that item.

   Tip: Partial refunds are supported. You do not need to refund the full line item value. Enter any amount up to the refund available to issue a partial refund.

4. Enter a mandatory reason

   Complete the Reason field. This is required and forms part of the audit trail visible to any admin who views this invoice in future.

5. Apply optional side effects (if applicable)

   Depending on your organisation tier, you may see one or both of the following toggles. See the next section for details on when each applies.

   • Cancel Registration — available for Club administrators.
   • Expire Memberships — available for Rugby Canada and Provincial Union administrators (where enabled by your sport).

6. Submit the refund

   Click Update & Save to submit. PlayHQ processes the refund immediately — no further approval is needed. Once submitted:

   • The line item's Refund Available amount updates to reflect the new refund.
   • The invoice Payment Status updates (e.g. from Paid to Partial Refund).
   • The participant receives an email confirming the refund amount, line item, and reason.
   • The refund appears in the line item's previous refund history, attributed to your name.

Important: Service fees cannot be refunded. Service fees applied to an invoice are excluded from the refund available amount and cannot be returned to the participant via this flow.

Issuing a refund on an instalment invoice and cancelling the instalment plan

When a participant has paid via instalments, the refund is issued through the Action button rather than by expanding the line item row. The refund dialog includes a Cancel instalment plan option so you can stop any remaining instalments from being charged in the same step.

⚠️ Important: If you do not select Cancel instalment plan, the participant's plan stays active and they will continue to be charged.

If the participant is leaving the registration (for example, you are also cancelling their registration), make sure you select Cancel instalment plan. A cancelled instalment plan cannot be reinstated.

Follow these steps to refund an instalment invoice:

1. Navigate to the Invoice Detail page

   Follow the steps in the Viewing an Invoice Detail page section above. Confirm the payment type in the invoice header shows Instalments.

2. Click Action

   Click Action on the invoice. A refund dialog opens.

    

3. Enter the refund amount and reason

   Enter the amount to refund (up to the Refund Available value) and complete the mandatory Reason field.

4. Choose whether to cancel the instalment plan

   Select Cancel instalment plan to stop all future instalments for this order. Leave it unselected if the participant is continuing in the registration and should keep paying their remaining instalments (for example, a partial refund to correct a billing error).

   

5. Apply optional side effects (if applicable)

   Select Cancel Registration or Expire Memberships if these options are available and appropriate. See the next section for details.

6. Submit the refund

   Confirm and submit the refund. PlayHQ processes the refund immediately back to the participant's original payment method, and the participant receives an email confirmation. If you selected Cancel instalment plan, no further instalments will be charged for this order.

💡 Tip: Check the instalment plan status after submitting. Review the instalment plan section on the Invoice Detail page to confirm the plan now shows as cancelled. If the plan still appears active, contact PlayHQ Support with the participant name and Order ID.

Cancelling a registration or expiring memberships as part of a refund

When issuing a refund, you may also want to cancel the participant's registration or expire their membership. These actions can be performed in the same step as the refund rather than as separate operations.

Cancel Registration (Clubs only)

Toggle Cancel Registration to ON to cancel the participant's registration on this order at the same time as the refund. The toggle is only available if the participant's registration is currently active. If the registration has already been cancelled, the toggle will be disabled.

Expire Memberships (Rugby Canada and Provincial Unions, Basketball England and Cricket Australia)

Toggle Expire Memberships to ON to expire the participant's membership(s) associated with this order at the same time as the refund. This toggle is only available if enabled by your sport and if the participant's membership is currently active.

Tip: Check the Registration and Membership Status field. The Invoice Detail page shows the participant's current registration and membership status. Review this before enabling either toggle to confirm the action is appropriate.

Frequently asked questions

Who can issue ad-hoc refunds? Association and Club Administrators with access to the Admin Portal can issue refunds against line items owned by their organisation. Admins can only refund items their own organisation owns; items belonging to other organisations on a shared invoice are visible in read-only mode.

Can I refund a partial amount rather than the full line item? Yes. Enter any amount greater than zero and up to the Refund Available value for the line item. Partial refunds are fully supported and reflected accurately in the Refund Available balance for any subsequent refunds.

How do I refund an invoice that is being paid in instalments? Open the Invoice Detail page and click Action. The refund dialog lets you enter the refund amount and reason, and choose whether to Cancel instalment plan. See Issuing a refund on an instalment invoice.

Do I always need to cancel the instalment plan when refunding an instalment invoice? No. Only select Cancel instalment plan if the participant should not be charged any further instalments — for example, if they are withdrawing from the registration. If you are issuing a partial refund and the participant is continuing, leave the plan active.

Can I reinstate an instalment plan after cancelling it? No. Once an instalment plan is cancelled it cannot be reinstated. Check with the participant before selecting Cancel instalment plan.

How long does the refund take to reach the participant? PlayHQ processes the refund immediately upon submission. The time for the funds to appear in the participant's account depends on their bank or card provider, typically 3–10 business days.

Can I undo a refund once it has been submitted? No. Refunds are processed immediately and cannot be reversed once submitted. Make sure the amount and reason are correct before submitting.

What happens if I accidentally submit the wrong amount? Once a refund is processed it cannot be undone. If the amount was too low, you can issue a second partial refund up to the remaining refund available amount. If the amount was too high, contact PlayHQ Support.

Can I refund service fees? No. Service fees are excluded from the refund available amount and cannot be refunded via this flow.

Will the participant be notified? Yes. The participant receives an email when an ad-hoc refund is processed, including the amount, line item, and reason provided.

How do I know if someone else has already issued a refund on this line item? Expand the line item row to see the previous refund history, including the date, amount, reason, and the name of the admin who processed it. The Refund Available amount already accounts for all previous and in-progress refunds, so you cannot accidentally over-refund.

What if the feature is not available to me? Ad-hoc admin refunds are being rolled out progressively per sport and organisation. If you cannot see the View action on invoices or the refund options on the Invoice Detail page, the feature may not yet be enabled for your organisation. Contact your sport's support team for more information.