POST /invoices/{invoice-id}/record_refund

Record a full or partial offline refund for an invoice.

Use this API to record refunds processed outside Chargebee (for example, directly through a payment gateway or via offline methods such as bank transfers or checks) so you can reconcile them in Chargebee.

Important: This API does not process actual refunds for online payments or return money to customers through the payment gateway. To process refunds for online payments and return money to customers, use the Refund an invoice API instead.

Prerequisites & Constraints

The invoice must have a refundable amount. (See Implementation Notes for details.)

Impacts

Credit note

Chargebee creates a refundable credit note with status set to refunded.

Transactions

Chargebee records the refunds by creating transactions of type refund and links them to the credit note. The refund transactions are recorded in the following order:

linked_payments for offline transactions. This is recorded as linked_refunds[] in the credit note.
linked_taxes_withheld (if available). This is recorded as linked_tax_withheld_refunds[] in the credit note.
linked_payments for online transactions (after offline payments and taxes withheld are exhausted). This is recorded as linked_refunds[] in the credit note.

Example

Consider an invoice with the following payments and tax withheld:

Offline payments: $30
Online payments: $20
Tax withheld: $5

When you record a refund of $40, Chargebee allocates the refund as follows:

Refund against offline payments: $30
Refund against tax withheld: $5
Refund against online payments: $5

Implementation Notes

Before calling this API, perform the following checks:

The invoice must have a refundable amount. Specifically, the sum of issued_credit_notes[].amount for refundable credit notes must be less than the sum of:
- amount_paid
- credits_applied
- Sum of linked_taxes_withheld[].amount
Ensure the transaction[date] is on or after the invoice date and not in the future.
Include the transaction[amount] parameter to specify the refund amount. If you omit this parameter, the system records the entire refundable amount as refunded.
If reason codes are mandatory in Chargebee Billing, include the credit_note[create_reason_code] parameter with a value from the configured list of codes.

Servers

{protocol}://{site}.{environment}:{port}/api/v2
{protocol}://{site}-test.{environment}:{port}/api/v2

Path parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`invoice-id`	String	Yes

Request headers

Name	Type	Required	Description
`chargebee-request-origin-device`	String	No	The device from which the customer has made the request
`Content-Type`	String	Yes	The media type of the request body. Default value: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
`chargebee-event-webhook`	String	No	skip only webhooks Valid values: `"all-disabled"`
`chargebee-business-entity-id`	String	No	If the site has multiple business entities, you can use this custom HTTP header to specify the business entity for which Chargebee should perform the operation.
`chargebee-event-actions`	String	No	skip all actions to be done on the events Valid values: `"all-disabled"`
`chargebee-request-origin-user`	String	No	The email address of your customer/user. Use this when the email address has only ASCII characters.
`chargebee-request-origin-ip`	String	No	The IP address of the customer where the request originated
`chargebee-request-origin-user-encoded`	String	No	The Base64-encoded email address of your customer/user. Use this if the email address has UTF-8 characters. When this header is provided, the header chargebee-request-origin-user is ignored.
`chargebee-event-email`	String	No	skip only emails Valid values: `"all-disabled"`

Request body fields

Name	Type	Required	Description
`comment`	String	No	Remarks, if any, on the refund.
`transaction`	Object	No	Parameters for transaction
`transaction.reference_number`	String	No	The reference number for this transaction. For example, the check number when `payment_method` = `check`.
`transaction.custom_payment_method_id`	String	No	Identifier of the custom payment method of this transaction.
`transaction.amount`	Integer	No	The amount to be refunded (for online payments) or recorded as refunded (for offline payments). If not specified, the entire refundable amount for this invoice is refunded. The refundable amount is the total amount paid (and not already refunded) for the invoice. Note: Any `linked_taxes_withheld` associated with the invoice can also be recorded as refunded via this operation.
`transaction.payment_method`	String	Yes	The payment method of this transaction cash - Cash alipay - Alipay sofort - Sofort direct_debit - Direct Debit netbanking_emandates - netbanking_emandates klarna_pay_now - Klarna Pay Now payconiq_by_bancontact - Payconiq by Bancontact paypal_express_checkout - Paypal Express Checkout automated_bank_transfer - Automated Bank Transfer venmo - Venmo bancontact - Bancontact custom - Custom ideal - IDEAL check - Check upi - upi sepa_instant_transfer - Sepa Instant Transfer sepa_credit - SEPA Credit ach_credit - ACH Credit faster_payments - Faster Payments bank_transfer - Bank Transfer chargeback - Only applicable for a transaction of `type` = `refund`. This value is set by Chargebee when an automated chargeback occurs. You can also set this explicitly when recording a refund. unionpay - Unionpay apple_pay - Apple Pay dotpay - Dotpay amazon_payments - Amazon Payments wechat_pay - WeChat Pay google_pay - Google Pay card - Card other - Payment Methods other than the above types boleto - boleto giropay - giropay pay_to - PayTo Valid values: `"check"` `"chargeback"` `"other"` `"cash"` `"bank_transfer"` `"custom"`
`transaction.date`	Integer	Yes	Indicates when this transaction occurred.
`credit_note`	Object	No	Parameters for credit_note
`credit_note.reason_code`	String	No	The reason for issuing this Credit Note. The following reason codes are supported now[Deprecated; use the create_reason_code parameter instead] * service_unsatisfactory - Service Unsatisfactory * subscription_pause - This reason will be automatically set to credit notes created during pause/resume subscription operation. * order_cancellation - Order Cancellation * subscription_cancellation - This reason will be set automatically for Credit Notes created during cancel subscription operation * product_unsatisfactory - Product Unsatisfactory * subscription_change - This reason will be set automatically for Credit Notes created during Change Subscription operation when proration is enabled * other - Can be set when none of the above reason codes are applicable * order_change - Order Change * chargeback - Can be set when you are recording your customer Chargebacks * write_off - This reason will be set automatically for the Credit Notes created during invoice Write Off operation. * fraudulent - FRAUDULENT * waiver - Waiver Valid values: `"service_unsatisfactory"` `"chargeback"` `"other"` `"product_unsatisfactory"` `"order_change"` `"order_cancellation"` `"waiver"`
`credit_note.create_reason_code`	String	No	Reason code for creating the credit note. Must be one from a list of reason codes set in the Chargebee app in Settings > Configure Chargebee > Reason Codes > Credit Notes > Create Credit Note. The codes are case-sensitive
`customer_notes`	String	No	The Customer Notes to be filled in the Credit Notes created to capture this refund detail.

How to start integrating

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Search for the API you want to integrate with and click on the name.
- This loads the API reference documentation and prepares the Http request settings.
Click Test request to test run your request to the API and see the API's response.