How do I Issue Bulk Refunds?

Modified on 24 August


How do I Issue Bulk Refunds?


RunSignup gives the ability for Race Directors to initiate refunds in bulk, right from the Race Dashboard.This way you will not need to individually refund each and every participant if you need to issue refunds for a large group of your participants.


Bulk Refund can be found via Race Dashboard > Participants > Participant Management > Bulk Refunds.



To refund a single registration or if you just prefer to issue refunds one at a time, please see our guide on How To Issue a Registration Refund. If you would like to enable refunds for your Race so that participants will have the option of initiating a refund themselves, please see our guide on How To Enable Refunds For Your Race


You will need to ensure you have adequate reserve funds before refunds can be issued. You are able to see your current reserve balance right on the Bulk Refund page or by going to Race Dashboard > Participants > Participant Management > Chargeback/Refund Reserve.  For more information on funding the reserve see How do I add funds to the Refund Reserve.


Registration IDs


Before you can begin issuing refunds in bulk you will need to obtain a list of Registration IDs that belong to the registrants that you would like to refund. 


Registration IDs can be found by using either of the Download as CSV options found under the Export Options menu of the View Participants report as explained in How To View Participant Reports. Once you have this list you can begin the Bulk Refund Process by copying the Registration IDs column on your CSV file and pasting the IDs in the Registration IDs field.





Tip: If you are looking to bulk refund a specific group of participants, then please Customize your Participant report to show the specific group of participants via Report Options > Customize View > Select/remove fields > Customize. For more information, see Customize View here.




Bulk Refund Options


Include Processing Fees

By default, the processing fee is paid by the participant based on their total checkout price shown here. If you plan to issue a Full Refund to participants, then please check the box Include Processing Fees. Otherwise, leave this box unchecked.  If you are not sure which you prefer, you can click this toggle, review the refund totals and then unclick it and review again.  



Leave Participants in Race

Registrants are removed by default after refunding. Use this option if you would like to issue refunds, but not remove these registrants from the Race. A use case for this if you are wanting to issue Partial Refunds for a group of participants but do not wish to remove the participants as registered runners. 

Max Refund Amount

This option sets a Max Refund amount for each refund transaction. You can use this to issue Partial Refunds to the group of participants. For instance, if you would like to issue a $5 refund to this group of Registration IDs, set this value to $5.


Registration Statuses

This option allows refunds to be issued even if one or more of the listed registration numbers is no longer active.  This can be helpful if you have transferred or removed one or more registrations and later realize you need to issue a refund. 


New! - Refund a specific amount per refund.

By default, the tool refunds the full refundable registration amount OR a maximum refund amount for each refund as set in the Max Refund amount box (see above).  This new option allows you to designate a specific dollar amount to refund for each registration listed.  This allows you to control exactly the refund issued by registrant while still enjoying the convenience of issuing multiple refunds at once.  To use this option you will enter the registration id followed by a colon and the amount to be refunded. Do not include any spaces.  This can be typed into the textbox or updated in a spreadsheet to cut and paste. For Example 123456:27.50 would issue a refund of $27.50 to registration number 123456.  Note that this amount can not be more than the total amount of the original registration but CAN include the fees paid for that registration.  This would allow you the option to issue a full refund including fees to specific registrations without refunding fees for all.  If that is your plan you would not click the Include Processing Fees checkbox.  Do not include Marketplace sales tax collected and paid by RunSignup.  That amount will be added by the system



Review Refund Amount

Once you believe you have the settings you want, click the Review Refund Amount button to move to the review page.  Don't worry!  You will be given an opportunity to review your refunds to be sure everything looks right before they are issued.


Error Messages


On occasion you might get an error message when trying to issue bulk refunds.  This might occur if you mistakenly included a registration that was imported, paid with a 100% coupon or that has already been fully refunded.  You can either go back to your spreadsheet to verify your data and re-paste the list or you can just find and delete those lines. If you are trying to refund an inactive registration and did not click the button to Allow refunds on non-active registration status you will get the lower message below.  You can just return and click that button if you are sure you want to issue that refund.  When you are ready, try again by clicking Review Refund Amount.



Review Refunds and Issue.


The following page will load the refunds for your review.  Here you can verify that the number and amount of the refunds looks correct.  If you are trying to determine how much you would need to fund your reserve for full refunds vs partial refunds you can run this review multiple times. Just use the back button to go back to the previous page and change your settings until you think everything looks correct.  


Total Refunds: Total amount to be refunded to the registrants.


Race Credit: This is any amount included in the refunds that is not being charged to the race.  This is usually sales tax that was collected and paid by RunSignup in Marketplace states.


Required Refund Reserve Amount: This is the total amount that must be available in the race reserve for these refunds to be successfully issued.  This is a great way to determine how much you may need to add to your reserve for your refunds. 


Important!  Confirm and Issue Refunds:   Once you are ready, don't forget to click Confirm and Issue Refunds. This will finish up your work and issue the refunds to your registrants.  When it's done you will receive a confirmation message and your registrants will be sent email notification of the refund and their status in the race.