Canceling a membership with prorated credit
When canceling a membership effective immediately, Capitan offers three refund options:
- No refund: the membership ends and no money moves.
- Refund last billed amount: refunds the membership's most recent invoice back to the payment method it was paid with.
- Refund prorated credit for remainder of billing period: issues account credit covering the part of the current billing period the customer has paid for but will not use.
Refunding the prorated credit is helpful when upgrading a customer to a new membership type: the unused portion of what they already paid comes back as credit they can put straight toward the new membership.
How prorated credit works
The amount is calculated for you. Capitan works out the unused share of the current billing period and shows the figure on the option itself, so you can see what the customer will receive before you confirm the cancellation.
The credit goes to the membership's owner, not necessarily to the member. On a youth membership managed by a parent, the credit lands on the parent's account, the same account that was billed.
Once issued, the credit applies automatically to that account's future recurring membership payments, and is available for anything the account buys in the Climber App.
On the size of the credit: Capitan will not issue more credit than the membership has actually taken in, net of any refunds already given against it.
When the option appears: the prorated option is shown only when there is unused time left to credit. Canceling a membership on or after the last day of its billing period leaves nothing to prorate, so the option is not offered.
Recurring and prepaid memberships
The three options behave the same way whether you are canceling a recurring membership or a prepaid one.
Example: a customer halfway through a three-month prepaid membership wants to move up to an annual recurring membership. Cancel the prepaid membership with Refund prorated credit for remainder of billing period, and the unused half of what they paid becomes credit on their account that the new membership's first payment draws from.
When Capitan cannot refund the last payment
Some payments are not Capitan's to refund. When the membership's most recent invoice was paid with an Offline Payment, or through Lightspeed POS or Square POS, the Refund last billed amount option is shown greyed out, with a warning above the options explaining where the refund has to be issued instead: in the retail platform that took the payment, or outside Capitan entirely for an offline payment.
Prorated credit is still available in that case. Account credit moves no money at a payment processor, so it can be issued however the membership was paid for, and the warning says so when there is a prorated amount to offer.
Example: a member bought a prepaid membership at the front desk through Lightspeed and cancels partway through. Capitan cannot reverse the Lightspeed sale, so Refund last billed amount is unavailable; issuing the prorated credit keeps the value on their account, and if they want cash back instead, that refund is processed in Lightspeed.