issuing refunds

issuing refunds

Sometimes you might need to refund your members for something they have purchased. This guide will help you navigate how to do this.

 

Refunding members for items purchased through the SU website (products like hoodies, tickets to events, and memberships)

 

Tickets and products

If a member of your student group wants a refund for a ticket or product sold via the website, they need to contact the committee and request a refund. When making this decision, take into account your budget and current financial situation to ensure you do not go overdrawn by issuing refund. If someone is requesting a refund for a product like a hoodie, consider if the order has already been placed. 

• Once the committee are happy to provide a refund, one of your three signatories (President, Treasurer or Secretary) should send an email to [email protected] requesting the refund and include details of the refund. For example:
  • Email subject line: Gymnastics Taster Session Ticket Refund, £5, Rob Roberts
  • Email body: As [committee position] of [club or society name] I authorise a refund of [£amount] for [name of person requesting refund] for [ ].
  • If you are refunding lots of people for the same product/ticket, please include a list of names and UEA usernames (e.g. abc19def) and details of the item being refunded (e.g.name of product/ticket, ticket/product code, price of the item being refunded)  
• You should CC the other two signatories in your email. One of the other two signatories should then use the reply all function and reply to the email saying 'I (committee position e.g. secretary) authorise this refund.
• We only require two approval emails, so once we have received two signatory authorisations via email, we will process the refund within 7 – 10 days. For example, if the president sends in the intitial email, and the secretary responds saying they approve the refund, we will action the refund without authorisation from the treasurer. This helps speed up the process and ensure everyone gets paid quickly.

We will not issue a partial refund unless individuals are being partial refunded is over £5 or more. 

 

Memberships

Automatic Membership Refund Entitlement

If a member requests a refund within 14 days of purchasing their membership to your club or society, they are automatically entitled to a full refund. In this scenario, please ask the member requesting a refund to email [email protected] for the opportunities and finance teams to process the refund. For more guidance on refund entitlements, see here. 

 

Membership Refund Approval Process 

If a member requests a refund later than 14 days after their purchase, the member is not entitled to an automatic refund. In this scenario, committee members need to decide if they are happy to authorise a refund. When making this decision, take into account your budget and current financial situation to ensure you do not go overdrawn by issuing refund.

• If the committee are happy to authorise a refund, one of your three signatories (President, Treasurer or Secretary) should send an email to [email protected] requesting the refund and include details of the refund. For example:
  • Email subject line: Men’s Rugby Membership Refund, £40, Sally Smith
  • Email body: As [committee position] of [club or society name] I authorise a refund of [£amount] for [name of person requesting refund] for [ ].
• You should CC the other two signatories in your email.
• One of the other two signatories should then use the reply all function and reply to the email saying 'I (committee position e.g. secretary) authorise this refund. 
• We only require two approval emails, so once we have received two signatory authorisations via email, we will process the refund within 7 – 10 days. For example, if the president sends in the intiial email, and the secretary responds saying they approve the refund, we will action the refund without authorisation from the treasurer. This helps speed up the process and ensure everyone gets paid quickly.

 

Partial refunds due to membership price changes

We do not offer partial refunds for members if you change your membership prices after the academic year has started, unless there is exceptional circumstances. Please ensure you let us know how much you would like to charge for memberships well before the new academic year commences to ensure people are purchasing your memberships at the correct cost. 

 

Refunding members for items not purchased via the SU website

The expenses365 app is used to track the financial situation of your club or society, and to reimburse your members who may have purchased something on behalf of your club or society.

For example, if Rob, the Event Officer  bought balloons for an event their Society were running with their personal money, they could make a claim on the expenses365 app to be reimbursed with money from the society's subs account. For Rob to receive this reimbursement, the President, Treasurer and Secretary would have to approve the claim.

For a full guide on how to use the app to reimburse members, see here.