Frequently Asked Questions for Charges, Payments, and Refunds

Here are a few commonly asked questions around the topic of charges, payments, and refunds

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Charges

Payments

Refunds

Reservation Credit

Charges

  • How do I edit an ongoing/recurring charge? 

  • How do I find out what a guest is being charged? 

    • Under the reservation, you can see the unit charge breakdown by clicking on the "$" under the "Units tab" 
    • Under the reservation, you can also view the charges tab. This has various points that will show details about what the guest has been charged
    • Under the reservation, you can generate an invoice that will also show the unit breakdown and the charges
    • Under the reservation, you can see the history - this is helpful if anything has been deleted or edited and you are unsure of by whom or why
    • Here is a video to help: 

       

  • What is an overpaid charge, and why is it affecting my End of Day?

    • Reservation changes sometimes lower a stay's number of nights or the quantity of an add-on which automatically lowers the associated charge's price. If a charge is paid in full when Firefly lowers the charge price then the charge will show as overpaid. Firefly shares errors for overpaid charges when processing an End of Day batch to help you maintain accurate accounting records. The overpaid funds can not stay associated with the charge and its linked GL because the charge no longer requires the funds. The article There are errors on my End of Day update! provides this section to walk you through resolving your overpaid funds: Cannot post payment for overpaid charge..

 

Payments

  • How do I add a payment card "on file"? 

  • How do I change the card on File for a guest?

  • Is there a way for Firefly to hold an overpayment? 

    • Currently there is not, the over paid amount will need to be refunded to reservation credit or back to the guest. 
  • I see "Notes" under payments, are these visible to guests? 

  • What do I do with a failed payment?

    • If a scheduled payment has failed, Firefly will attempt the payment again after 3 days automatically, and will re-attempt every 3 days, 3 times. 
    • There are lots of reasons payments fail. While there isn't much we can do from the Firefly side of things, we do recommend taking these steps: 

      1. Check for any Error Messages - sometimes these will say what the issue is. It could be insufficient funds, incorrect address information. The error message may appear as a quick pop-up in the lower right corner of the page or may be underneath the failed payment. Both will be a red box with red writing.
      2. Re-enter the Information and try to run the card again. Remove the payment method on file and add it again then make another payment attempt.
      3.  Check in your payment processor portal for any kind of "pending" transactions, or indication that the payment is attempting to process.
      4. Have the guest call their bank. When traveling, it is common for banks to block a transaction in an unusual location. Sometimes the bank can see the attempted transaction and offer guidance to the guest.
      5. Call your payment processor for more details about the failed transaction. Your processor may be able to offer additional information or guidance if they see a more specific reason why the transaction is failing.
  • A guest's check bounced, what do I do?

    • First, you must address the invalid payment. You may be able to use the payment's Options dropdown to delete the payment. If you do not have the option to delete or you would like to keep the payment record, you can enter a refund for the payment. We recommend including a note of applicable details on the refund and/or the reservation's Notes tab.
    • Next, add any applicable fees you need to charge the guest. You may choose to apply late payment fees, administrative fees, or bank fees. These may be added as a one-time manual charge or through an add-on.
    • Finally, you will want to take a new payment for the balance due or mark the charge as uncollectable if you do not expect to receive additional funds from the guest.
  • Why did a payment split between multiple GL's?

    If the payment is for a reservation unit charge, one possibility is the unit's rates are linked to different financial accounts. To start investigating here, check the rate calculation method in Property Settings. Go to Settings > Property > Reservations tab. If you see the Waterfall method will divide a charge so each rate's portion applies to each respective financial account. This is especially noticeable if different rates are associated with unique financial accounts. For example, if your daily, weekly, and monthly rates each have their own financial account then a 16 day stay will apply 2 weeks to the weekly rate's financial account and 2 days to the daily rate's financial account. You can read more about financial accounts here: Linking Financial Accounts: Units.

  • How do I handle a payment chargeback or disputed payment?

Refunds

Reservation Credit