Applicable to: Association and Club Administrators

Applicable to: Rugby Canada and Basketball England organisations

Application(s): Admin Portal > Refund Requests

This article will cover the following:

1. Overview of the Admin Approval Flow
2. Understanding the Refund Requests inbox
3. Reviewing a refund request in detail
4. Approving a refund request
5. Declining a refund request
6. Expiring a membership (national and provincial bodies only)
7. Cancelling a participant's registration

Related articles:

• Request a Refund from Participant Profile
• Ad-hoc refunds

Overview

When a participant requests a refund, it is sent to the Admin Approval Flow for manual review. How a request reaches this flow depends on your sport:

Every organisation that receives a portion of the registration fee sees the request in its own Refund Requests inbox at the same time and decides independently. No organisation needs to wait for another before acting.

Approved refund slices are processed automatically through PlayHQ's payment gateway. The participant receives an email each time an organisation makes a decision, so they stay informed throughout the process without needing to contact Support.

Partial refunds are a normal outcome. A participant can receive a refund from one organisation while another declines and a third is still reviewing — all within the same request.

💡 Tip: This article covers the Admin Approval Flow only. For information about how a participant requests a refund, see Request a Refund.

Understanding the Refund Requests inbox

Navigate to Refund Requests from your Admin Portal to see all refund requests associated with your organisation.

[Screenshot: Refund Requests list view]

The list view displays one row per request and includes:

• Participant Name — the person who submitted the request
• Date Created — when the request was submitted
• Last Updated — when the most recent change was made
• Amount — the fee slice your organisation is responsible for reviewing
• Organisations — the organisations involved in the request
• Overall Status — the request's combined state across all organisations
• Our Status — your organisation's specific approval decision

Reading the traffic-light approvals indicator

Each request row includes coloured circles representing each organisation in the approval chain, shown left to right from the national body to the club:

• Yellow — decision is still pending
• Green — the slice has been approved
• Red — the slice has been declined

Hover over any circle to see the name of the organisation it represents.

Filtering and sorting

Use the Status filter dropdown to focus on requests that need attention. Available filter values are All, Pending, Completed, Failed and Cancelled.

Click any column header to sort the list by Participant Name, Date Created, Last Updated, Amount or Overall Status.

💡 Tip: Basketball England organisations Because every Basketball England refund request comes through this inbox, check the Pending filter regularly so participants aren't left waiting.

Reviewing a refund request in detail

Click any row in the list to open the refund request detail view.

The detail view contains:

1. Request Details — the participant's name (linked to their participant profile), registration details, membership category, and the fee amount your organisation is responsible for reviewing.
2. Approvals table — each organisation's slice with its current status, decision, and any reason or comments provided. The Requested row at the top shows the participant's original reason for requesting a refund.
3. Internal Notes — a shared space where administrators from all organisations in the approval chain can read refund context and notes left by other admins. Internal notes are visible to all organisations involved in the request but are not visible to the participant.
4. Action buttons — Approve and Decline appear at the top of the page. Done returns you to the list view without submitting a decision.

💡 Tip: Open the participant's profile in a new tab by clicking their hyperlinked name in the Request Details section. This lets you check their registration history or membership status without losing your place in the queue.

Approving a refund request

When you approve a refund request slice, your organisation's portion of the participant's fees is automatically refunded through the payment gateway. The participant receives an email confirming your decision and the reason you provided.

Follow these steps to approve a refund request:

1. Open the refund request

   From the Refund Requests inbox, click the relevant request row to open the detail view. Review the participant's reason, the approvals table, and any internal notes from other organisations before making your decision.

2. Review line items (if the Refund Composer is enabled)

   If an Items section appears below the action bar, you can see each line item on the order with the amount available to refund. Expand any row to see its refund history. The New Refund field is pre-populated with the full refundable amount.

   To issue a partial refund, edit the pre-populated amount in any row. To refund the full amount, leave the values unchanged.

3. Click Approve

   Click Approve at the top of the page.

4. Enter a mandatory reason

   Enter a reason for your decision in the required field. This reason is included in the email sent to the participant and recorded in the approvals table for other administrators to see.

5. Apply any additional toggles for your organisation tier

   Depending on your tier, you may see Expire Membership or Cancel Registration in the decision panel. See Expiring a membership and Cancelling a participant's registration below.

   [Screenshot: Decision panel with toggles]

6. Confirm your decision

   Click Confirm to submit your approval.

Once confirmed, the refund slice is processed automatically and the participant receives an email from PlayHQ confirming your organisation's approval and the amount refunded. If other organisations are still reviewing their slices, the participant may receive additional emails as those decisions are made.

Declining a refund request

When you decline a refund request slice, your organisation's portion of the fee is not refunded. The participant receives an email with the reason you provided.

Follow these steps to decline a refund request:

1. Open the refund request

   From the Refund Requests inbox, click the relevant request row to open the detail view.

2. Click Decline

   Click Decline at the top of the page.

3. Enter a mandatory reason

   Enter a clear reason for your decision. This is sent to the participant in the decline notification email and is visible to other administrators in the approval chain.

4. Confirm your decision

   Click Confirm to submit your decline.

⚠️ Important: Declined decisions are final from this screen

A declined decision cannot be reopened from the refund request. If a refund was declined in error, process it through the ad-hoc invoice refund flow.

Expiring a membership (national and provincial bodies only)

National and provincial administrators can choose to expire a participant's membership as part of their approval decision. The Expire Membership toggle appears in the decision panel for these tiers only:

When you can expire a membership

Expire Membership is only available when the participant has no other active registrations in the same role. If they do, the toggle is disabled and you'll need to expire the membership manually. Examples include:

• The participant is registered in another competition using the same membership (e.g. a season permit)
• The participant is registered as a player in multiple competitions
• The participant has purchased multiple memberships in the same season (e.g. upgraded, and both are active)

When the Expire Membership toggle is disabled

If the toggle is greyed out because the participant has other active registrations:

1. Open the participant's profile

   Click the participant's name in the Request Details section.

2. Cancel the other active registrations

   Cancel the other active registrations from the participant tab.

3. Return to the refund request

   Go back to the refund request and revisit your membership decision.

⚠️ Important: Expiring a membership can't be reversed from the refund request

Review the participant's full registration history before enabling the toggle.

Using the Expire Membership toggle

When the toggle is available:

1. Enable the toggle

   In the decision panel, toggle 'Expire Membership' to ON. A notification banner confirms that the participant's membership will be expired as part of this decision.

   [Screenshot: Expire Membership toggle and confirmation banner]

2. Enter your reason and confirm

   Enter your mandatory reason, then click Confirm.

On approval, the refund slice is processed and the membership is expired on the same date.

Cancelling a participant's registration

You can cancel a registration in two ways: as part of an approval decision, or independently from the participant tab.

Cancelling a registration as part of an approval decision (Club Administrators)

Club Administrators in both Rugby Canada and Basketball England see a Cancel Registration toggle in the decision panel when approving a refund request. Enabling this toggle cancels the participant's registration at the same time as processing the fee refund.

The toggle is optional. You can approve the refund without cancelling the registration — for example, to resolve a fee dispute while keeping the player on the roster.

To cancel a registration as part of your approval:

1. Enable the toggle

   In the decision panel, toggle 'Cancel Registration' to ON.

2. Enter your reason and confirm

   Enter your mandatory reason, then click Confirm.

On approval, the refund slice is processed and the registration is cancelled. The participant receives both a refund confirmation email and a registration cancellation email.

💡 Tip: Club Administrators cannot expire memberships. Membership expiry is managed by Rugby Canada and Provincial Union administrators (Rugby Canada) or Basketball England administrators (Basketball England).

Cancelling a registration independently of the refund decision (all tiers)

Any authorised administrator can cancel a participant's registration directly from the participant tab, whether or not a refund request is in progress. This is useful when you need to free up a roster spot before all refund slices have been decided.

Cancelling a registration from the participant tab does not affect any pending refund slices — each organisation still needs to act on its portion of the request.

Frequently asked questions

Who can review and action refund requests? Association and Club Administrators with access to the Admin Portal can review and decide on refund requests for their own organisation. Each administrator only sees requests where their organisation receives part of the fee.

Why are all of our Basketball England refund requests coming to the inbox? Basketball England does not use automatic approval. Every refund request a participant submits is sent to the Admin Approval Flow for each organisation in the chain to review. In Rugby Canada, only requests that aren't eligible for automatic approval (registered more than 15 days ago, or already played a game) reach the inbox.

Do I need to wait for other organisations to decide before I can action a request? No. Each organisation in the approval chain acts independently and at the same time. Your decision does not depend on — and does not affect — the timing of other organisations' decisions.

Can I approve a refund for a different amount than the participant requested? Yes, if the Refund Composer is enabled for your organisation. In the detail view, expand each line item in the Items section and edit the pre-populated refund amount before confirming your decision. The participant's originally requested amount is not kept separately; the record shows the amount actually approved.

What happens if I approve the refund but don't enable the Cancel Registration or Expire Membership toggle? The participant is refunded for your organisation's fee slice, but their registration remains active and their membership is unchanged. If this was an oversight, action the registration or membership separately from the participant tab.

What if the Expire Membership toggle is greyed out? The participant has other active registrations that use the same membership. Cancel those registrations from the participant tab first, then return to the refund request to revisit the membership decision.

Can I add a note for other administrators without making a decision? Yes. Use Internal Notes in the refund request detail view to leave context or coordinate with other organisations. Notes are visible to all administrators in the approval chain but not to the participant. Adding a note does not count as a decision.

What happens if a participant requests a refund for a registration that has already been cancelled? The request goes through the Admin Approval Flow as normal. Each organisation still needs to review and decide on its fee slice.

Can a participant cancel a refund request once it's submitted? Not currently. There is no option for a participant or administrator to cancel a pending refund request once submitted.

Is this feature available to all PlayHQ organisations? Not yet. Refund Requests (Admin Approval Flow) is currently live for Rugby Canada and Basketball England organisations. Availability for other sports is planned as part of the ongoing refunds rollout.