# Refund a plan payment

Source: https://help.mucka.ai/service-plans/refund-a-plan-payment
Category: Service Plans
Last updated: 2026-08-28

> How to give a customer back some or all of a monthly plan payment, why the button sometimes is not there, and the seven-day wait.

Sometimes a plan payment needs giving back. You took a month off someone who had already
cancelled, you agreed to knock a month off after a bad job, or the same month went out
twice. If Mucka collected it, Mucka can refund it.

## Doing it

Open the customer's plan on the **Clients** tab of [**Service Plans**](/service-plans) and
scroll to **Payments**. Every month since they joined is listed. Next to a month that has
been paid you will see an undo arrow — tap it.

The box that opens is pre-filled with everything left on that payment, because a full
refund is what almost every refund is. Change the amount if you are only giving part of it
back, then tap **Refund**.

<Callout icon="info">
  **This one is not reversible.** Every other button on that sheet can be undone or was
  only ever wrong on paper. This moves real money out of your bank account and towards the
  customer, and GoCardless cannot un-refund it. Read the amount before you tap.
</Callout>

The refund shows on the month straight away — *£18.00 refunded* alongside the month's own
state. You can refund the same payment more than once in parts, and Mucka keeps track of
how much is left.

## The month still says paid, and that is deliberate

A refunded month does not flip back to unpaid. It **was** paid — the money came in, and
you chose to send it back. If Mucka marked it unpaid it would land in your arrears list
and start chasing a customer you had just refunded, which is the last thing anybody wants.

## Why the arrow is sometimes missing

<Bullets>
  - **The payment has not cleared yet.** A Direct Debit sits in the banking system for
    about four working days and can still fail in that time. Refunding one that then
    bounces leaves you out twice. Wait for it to show as paid.
  - **You recorded the payment by hand.** A standing order or a bank transfer never went
    through Mucka, so there is nothing here to reverse. Pay them back however you took it.
  - **It has already been refunded in full.** Nothing left to give.
  - **Refunds are switched off on your GoCardless account.** See below.
</Bullets>

## Turning refunds on

GoCardless keeps refunds switched off on new accounts as standard — it is not something
Mucka controls. If [**Settings → Money → Getting paid**](/settings/money/payments) says refunds are
switched off, ask GoCardless to turn them on for your account. It appears in Mucka on its
own once they have.

## The seven-day wait

GoCardless will not let a payment be refunded within seven days of it being taken. This is
their rule and it is a sensible one: it stops you refunding a payment that is about to
fail, which would leave you down twice over. If you try inside that window you will get
told, and you just try again once the week is up.

If it genuinely cannot wait — a customer in real difficulty, say — ring GoCardless. They
can lift the seven-day hold on your account.

## Refunding is not cancelling

Giving a month back does not stop the plan. Their cover carries on, next month still comes
out, and their Direct Debit is untouched. If they are leaving, cancel the plan as well —
that is the **Cancel plan** button on the same sheet.