If you charged a customer through Adfin and now need to give that money back, this guide explains how. The short version: you refund your customer directly from your own bank account, the same way you'd send any other payment.
Adfin doesn't process refunds
Adfin collects payments from your customers, but it doesn't send money back out to them. There's no refund button in the console, and Adfin can't reverse a completed charge.
To return money to a customer, you send it to them yourself from your own bank account.
Why refunds work this way
Adfin doesn't hold your money. Once a payment succeeds, the funds settle and are paid out to your nominated account on the normal payout timeline, usually within a couple of working days of the customer being charged.
Because the money has already reached your account, there's no Adfin-held balance to reverse the charge from. That's also what keeps payouts fast: Adfin moves your money to you as quickly as the payment scheme allows rather than sitting on it. The trade-off is that giving money back is something you do from your side.
For more on payout timing, see How long do payments take to settle by payment method.
How to refund your customer
Confirm the payment actually succeeded and reached your account. You can check this in the Transactions tab.
Send the refund to your customer from your own bank account, for the amount you want to return.
Keep a record of the refund on your side. The invoice stays marked as paid in Adfin, because the original payment did go through, so the refund won't appear in Adfin.
This works the same whatever method your customer paid with, whether that was card, Pay By Bank or direct debit. The refund always comes from you, not from Adfin.
Before you refund: has the payment actually gone out?
If the collection hasn't happened yet, you may be able to stop it instead of refunding money that hasn't really left.
If the collection date is still more than 2 working days away, you can pause collection so it never goes out. See How to pause reminders and collection in Adfin.
If the payment is already Submitted, it can't be stopped, so let it complete and then refund your customer directly. See Why can't I cancel, stop or edit a direct debit payment?
A note on disputes and chargebacks
A refund is different from a payment being reversed by your customer's bank through a dispute. See What happens if my customer raises a dispute.
Customers or their banks can initiate a chargeback on Direct Debits under the Direct Debit Guarantee, this is different from a refund. See Chargebacks and refunds.