Sometimes money has to go back: an artist paid an entry fee for a call they could not enter, a buyer's order fell through, or a card was charged twice. Crafted Call refunds entry-fee payments and artwork orders to the original card through Stripe, records what happened, and emails the artist. This guide covers where the action lives, what the amount defaults to and why, and what a refund does to a submission that was part of a multi-piece checkout.
Who can do this: organization Owners and Admins, and team members with Finance access. Refunds are a finance action, not a general admin one.
Refunding an entry-fee payment
Open the payment. You can reach it from Payments (Admin → Finance → Payments) or from the transaction record itself.
Choose Process Refund, from the row's menu in a list or as a button on the detail page.
Check the Refund Amount. See the next section before you change it.
Pick a Reason: Requested by customer, Duplicate charge, Fraudulent, or Other.
Add an Internal note (optional) if the amount needs explaining later. The note stays inside your organization.
Confirm with Process Refund.
If you are refunding the full amount, the dialog also offers Set submission status back to DRAFT, so the artist can correct the entry and submit again. It is off unless you tick it, and it does not appear on partial refunds.
Why the amount is not the full charge
The Refund Amount is pre-filled with the payment net of processing fees, not the whole charge. The card networks and Stripe keep their fee whether or not you refund, so refunding the full charge means your organization absorbs that fee on top of returning the entry fee.
Under the field you will see the ceiling and the reason, for example:
Maximum refundable: $35.00 · default excludes $1.32 processing fees
To return everything anyway, use Refund full amount ($35.00) next to that line. Either choice is legitimate. Returning the full charge is the kinder answer when the mistake was yours; the default is the right answer when an artist simply changed their mind.
You can never refund more than was charged, and repeat partial refunds are allowed up to the original total.
Multi-piece checkouts
An artist who submits several pieces in one cart pays once. Crafted Call keeps a payment record per submission but there is a single card charge behind them.
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Refund any one of those submissions and Crafted Call finds the shared charge and refunds against it, so the money genuinely moves. You do not need to find a "lead" submission or refund the whole cart to release one piece. Refund the sibling you actually mean to refund.
Refunding an artwork order
Open Orders (Admin → Sales → Orders) and select the order.
Choose the refund action. The dialog, Issue refund, shows Already refunded and the Refundable balance before you enter anything.
Choose Refund full balance or Refund partial amount, and enter the Amount if partial.
Give a Reason and confirm.
A fully refunded order shows Order Refunded; a partial one shows Partial Refund Issued.
What the artist sees
Every refund sends the artist a confirmation email automatically, with the subject Refund processed for the submission title. It lists the amount, the submission, the call, the refund reference and your reason if you gave one, and tells them to expect the money in five to ten business days depending on their bank. There is no way to suppress this email, and there should not be: an unexplained deposit is worse than an explained one.
An artist checking their own account sees the refund reflected against that submission.
What your records show
Open the transaction (Admin → Finance → Financial Reports → the transaction) and the overview carries a Refunded figure with a note that says which case you are in:
Full refund
Entry fee returned; $1.32 in fees retained, when you took the fee-excluding default
$12.00 still refundable, when a balance remains
The Fee Breakdown card adds a Net After Refund line, and a Refunds table lists every refund against the payment with Date, Reason, Status and Amount, each linking out to the matching refund in Stripe. The artist's name and email sit at the top of the same page, so the record answers what was refunded, to whom, and how much, in one place.
Refunds also flow into your reports. Net revenue deducts refunds, and the Refunds figure appears in its own right in Payout Reports and your financial statements.
What you cannot refund
A payment that is not completed. Pending, already fully refunded and never-settled payments have nothing to reverse.
A payment with no Stripe charge behind it. A fee you recorded as paid outside Crafted Call has to be returned the way it came in.
A charge the buyer has already disputed. Resolve the dispute in Stripe instead; refunding as well returns the money twice.
Troubleshooting
The refund failed. Stripe rejected it. The payment is left as it was, so you can retry. If it keeps failing, open the charge in Stripe before contacting support.
Two people refunded at once. Refresh the page to see the current refunded total, then refund the remaining balance if one is still owed.
Stripe shows the refund but Crafted Call does not. Crafted Call reconciles refunds from Stripe, so the record usually catches up on its own. If it does not, contact support with the payment reference and the Stripe refund reference.
