Handling drops, transfers, and refunds mid-term

A family emails: "We're dropping." The roster part takes seconds — the part people get wrong is the money. This guide gives you the right order of operations for the three common situations, so nobody keeps getting billed for a class they left.

First, know your two money tools

• A refund returns money the family already paid. For online payments, answer How is the money going back? with Send it back through Stripe to actually send the money; I already refunded it another way only records it.
• A credit forgives charges without money moving — right for amounts they hadn't paid yet.

A refund does not remove the underlying charge. If you refund but leave the charge in place, the family owes that amount again. Dropping a student credits the charge for you, but it doesn't send money back — so a drop sometimes needs a refund as well.

Scenario 1: Dropping one class

1. Open the class, go to its Students tab, and choose Drop on the student's row.
2. Check Credit back. It starts at the class's charge after discounts, so leaving it credits the family in full; enter a smaller amount to keep part of the fee, or 0 to keep the whole charge.
3. Open the student's invoice (Billing → Invoices, searched by name) and look at the Charges table. The class's charge is still there, with a Dropped credit line under it for the amount you set. Adjust it there if you got the amount wrong.
4. If they prepaid, refund the class fee — and when a partial refund should count against that class specifically, open the refund and adjust its Items.

The freed seat is offered to the waitlist automatically — first family in line, 24 hours to claim, no action from you.

Scenario 2: Leaving the school entirely

Same moves, bigger scope:

1. On Enrollment → Students (with the term selected), choose Drop — dropping from the term drops all their class and program enrollments too, and credits every class in full. Dropping the term has no Credit back amount to set; to keep part of a class fee, drop that class on its own first.
2. Check their open invoices, then close any that are now settled (Manage → Close invoice on the invoice) so auto-pay and reminders stop.
3. Refund what they paid for the unused portion, or issue a credit and apply it to the open invoice if you're settling up on paper only.

Once they're not enrolled in any term, the student becomes inactive and stops counting toward your plan — the record stays, so re-enrolling next year is easy.

Scenario 3: Wrong term, or switching semesters

Don't drop-and-rebuild — use Move:

1. On the Students list (term selected), choose Move on the student's row and pick the destination term.
2. If they have class or program enrollments, you'll be asked to drop those first.

Move swaps their fees and discounts to the destination term's, updates open invoices, and carries payments over.

Deep dive: Dropping and Moving Students

Quick reference

Recommended reading, in order

1. Dropping and Moving Students
2. Invoices — editing charges and closing invoices.
3. Refunds
4. Credits
5. Waitlists