How do I cancel an event or refund a ticket?

Cancel a whole event with automatic refunds and emails, refund a single ticket, and understand customer self-cancellation rules.

Both flows live on the Events page (available on Pro plan and above, and with the Tickets product). Refunding needs the events-refund permission, and every money-moving step asks you to confirm your password or approve with a manager's PIN.

Cancelling a whole event

• On the Events page, click the event's card to open it, then click Cancel event in its action bar (it sits apart from the other buttons).
• Read the warning — for an upcoming paid event it explains that all sold tickets will be cancelled, all payments automatically refunded via Stripe, and every ticket holder emailed.
• Confirm with your password (or a manager's PIN approval).

The event moves to the Cancelled tab, which keeps its refund history — how many tickets were refunded, pending or failed, and the amounts. A very large event is processed in the background: it shows a "Cancelling…" state and the figures keep updating for a few minutes. A failed refund is checked by automatic recovery every few minutes. If it needs a decision, the customer’s row in the Attendees tab shows Refund needs attention. Retry refund may start a new card refund and its confirmation explains that money action. An uncertain earlier provider request must be reconciled before another attempt.

One important exception: deleting an event that has already taken place refunds nobody — attendees and no-shows alike keep their charge; tickets are still cancelled, holders emailed, and the event archived.

Refunding one ticket

• Open the event and go to its Attendees tab, then choose to cancel the customer's ticket, with or without a refund — the confirmation states the exact amount and where it goes back to: the original payment card, or, where a gift card paid part or all of the ticket, back onto that gift card (a fully-gift-paid ticket shows Cancel + refund to gift card). The Paid column shows the true amount for gift-paid tickets too — never "Free".
• Confirm with your password or a manager's PIN.

A customer who has already checked in is skipped by the refund by default (the ticket still cancels) — refunding an attended customer is deliberately an explicit choice. If you do want to refund them, choose Cancel + refund anyway when cancelling (the confirmation spells out that they attended), or click Refund anyway on their row afterwards — either way it's done in ResoFlow, never in Stripe.

Customer self-cancellation

Customers can cancel their own tickets only if you allow it (see event defaults); refunds follow your refund policy and cut-off, and self-cancellation is blocked entirely once any ticket in the order has been scanned in. If you reschedule an event, you can offer holders a full-refund cancellation regardless of the usual cut-off.

Related: What are the event defaults (refunds, cancellation, check-in)? · How do I manage ticket holders? · How do I publish an event and sell tickets?

A closed gift card leaves value still owed

Cancelling a paid ticket keeps card refunds and gift-card returns separate. A closed original gift card must not be labelled as a completed refund. Staff can see the amount returned to the payment card, credited to the original gift card, issued on a linked replacement, and still owed.

Where the cancellation already authorises a refund, an owner or authorised manager with both event-refund and gift-card-refund permissions can review the exact gift amount and original expiry, then confirm with a fresh password or authorised PIN. Both the person acting and the PIN approver need the relevant permissions. An explicit “Refund anyway” decision remains necessary for a ticket whose refund was previously withheld; replacement does not change that policy.

A linked replacement returns only the verified gift amount still owed. Previous gift credits and purchase refunds are checked first, and repeated confirmation cannot issue more value. The original expiry is preserved, including an expiry that has already passed. Access is shown once for staff to give to the guest; it is not automatically emailed. Lost access can be replaced from the ticket details without changing its balance or expiry.

The card portion must first be fully settled: confirmed provider returns, or verified records of bank/cash repayments the venue has already completed. A venue repayment never changes the failed provider refund into a successful card refund. Pending or uncertain provider outcomes and incomplete repayment evidence remain in review. If a later provider update reverses an earlier card refund, the linked gift value remains recorded and the card amount becomes outstanding again. Existing sold-ticket refund care remains available after an event-selling plan entitlement ends.

Recording a completed bank or cash repayment

If an authorised card refund has failed and the provider evidence confirms that the money returned to the venue’s balance, an owner or explicitly authorised manager can choose Record completed bank or cash repayment on the ticket row. Both the person acting and any PIN approver need Cancel / refund tickets and Record completed ticket repayments. Existing sold-ticket care remains available after the ticket-selling entitlement ends.

Use this only for money the venue has already returned to the customer, with their agreement. Enter the exact amount, method, payment date, unique transaction or receipt reference and reason. Review repayment checks the original payment, previous returns and remaining amount. Confirm the reviewed record with a fresh password or authorised PIN. ResoFlow records the completed repayment; it does not send a bank transfer, hand over cash or issue another card refund. A lost reply can be retried without recording the same repayment twice.

Provider card returns, venue-recorded bank/cash repayments, gift-card value and the amount still owed remain separate on the ticket and payment history. Check provider status only checks existing provider evidence. After a venue repayment has been recorded, the old full-card refund retry is unavailable. A later provider return does not delete the venue receipt; any excess or contradiction stays visible for review. No message promises when money will reach a bank account.

Pending or uncertain provider outcomes, missing original authority, disputed payments and incomplete evidence cannot be recorded as settled. You can record the exact completed card repayment while gift value remains separately owed. This immediately blocks the old full-card retry. Recording card money does not issue gift value: use the separate linked gift replacement review once the card portion is proved fully settled. That review checks all existing returns, the original gift purchase and expiry again before issuing only the gift amount still owed. Attributable repayment references and reasons are available only through authorised receipt review and are blanked when the customer’s details are erased; financial amounts remain with the existing account-life payment records.