Payments and Refunds

Once a request has charges, the Billing tab is where you record what the researcher has actually paid. A payment is money received against the request's balance — a check, a cash payment, a card transaction taken at the desk. Each payment you add reduces the Balance Due, and the running totals at the top of the tab update immediately.

A refund is the same workflow in reverse: when you give money back to a researcher (for example, they cancelled a photoduplication request after paying), you record it as a payment with a negative amount. That raises the balance back up by the amount returned, so the request's books stay accurate.

You don't have to wait for a particular status to take a payment. A payment can be applied at any time to any non-cancelled request that has an outstanding balance — you don't need the request to be at Awaiting Order Approval or Awaiting Order Billing first.

When you'll use this

• A researcher pays for a request — record the payment so the Balance Due reflects it.
• You took a card payment online and need to confirm it landed on the request — it appears here automatically as a Credit Card payment.
• You refunded a researcher (cancelled order, overcharge) — record the refund as a negative-amount payment.
• A payment was entered with the wrong amount, method, or date — edit or delete it.

Where payments live

Open request #12345 and select the Billing tab. Payments are managed in the Payments card, below the Charges card. At the top of the tab, a summary strip shows three running totals:

Summary tile	What it shows
Invoice Total / Estimate Total	Sum of all charges (labeled Invoice Total once an invoice has been generated, Estimate Total before that).
Payments	Sum of all payments recorded on the request.
Balance Due	Charges minus payments. Shows Outstanding (red) when money is owed, Paid in full (green) at zero, or Overpaid (amber) when payments exceed charges.

The Payments card header shows a count — for example, Payments (2) — and lists each payment as its own card showing the method, reference, date, and amount.

Recording a payment

1. Open request #12345 and go to the Billing tab.
2. In the Payments card, click Add Payment. A panel opens on the right titled Add Payment.
3. Fill in the fields:
   • Payment Method — choose from the dropdown (for example, Check, Cash, Credit Card). The options come from the PaymentMethod custom dropdown, configured in the Customization Manager. This field is required.
   • Amount — the amount received, for example 25.00.
   • Reference — optional free text such as a check number or invoice number. The placeholder reads Check number, invoice #, etc.
   • Date — defaults to today; change it if the payment was received on a different day.
4. Click Add.

The payment appears in the Payments card, the Payments total goes up, and Balance Due drops by the same amount.

Payment Method must be chosen from the list

Unlike the legacy desktop client, where you could type a new method directly into the field, the web client only lets you pick a Payment Method from the dropdown. To make a new method available (for example, Money Order), add it to the PaymentMethod custom dropdown in the Customization Manager first.

When a payment pays the balance in full

If a payment brings the Balance Due to zero (or below) and the request is in one of the photoduplication order-billing stages — Awaiting Order Approval, Awaiting Order Billing, or Awaiting Order Processing — Aeon automatically routes it forward to Awaiting Item Delivery. You'll see a confirmation message: "Request routed to Awaiting Item Delivery (balance paid in full)." No extra step is needed; the request moves itself along once it's paid.

Editing a payment

1. In the Payments card, find the payment and click its pencil (edit) icon.
2. The panel reopens titled Edit Payment with the current values filled in.
3. Change the Payment Method, Amount, Reference, or Date as needed.
4. Click Update.

The totals recalculate as soon as the change is saved.

Deleting a payment

1. In the Payments card, click the trash (delete) icon on the payment.
2. A confirmation dialog asks Delete Payment? and warns that "This action cannot be undone."
3. Click Delete.

The payment is removed and the Payments total and Balance Due adjust automatically.

Recording a refund

There is no separate "refund" button. A refund is recorded as a payment with a negative amount, which increases the balance back by the amount returned:

1. Open the request and go to the Billing tab.
2. In the Payments card, click Add Payment.
3. In the panel:
   • Payment Method — the method you used to return the money (for example, Cash or Check).
   • Amount — enter the refunded amount as a negative number, for example -25.00.
   • Reference — it's good practice to type Refund here so the entry is easy to identify later.
   • Date — the date the refund was issued.
4. Click Add.

The Payments total decreases by the refunded amount and the Balance Due rises accordingly. If the refund leaves the request overpaid or with money owed back, the Balance Due tile reflects that (Overpaid in amber, or Outstanding in red).

Make refunds easy to spot

Putting Refund in the Reference field — and using a negative Amount — keeps refunds clearly distinguishable from regular payments in the Payments list and on any printed invoice or statement.

Credit card payments are protected

When a researcher pays online by credit card, the payment is recorded on the request automatically and shows a Credit Card badge in the Payments list. These payments are deliberately locked down so the request stays in sync with what your payment processor actually charged:

You can't freely edit or delete a card payment

• A credit card payment cannot be deleted. Its delete icon is disabled, and hovering it shows "Credit card payments cannot be deleted."
• When you open a credit card payment to edit, only the Reference field is editable — Payment Method, Amount, and Date are locked. The panel notes: "Only the reference can be edited for credit card payments." If you attempt to change a locked field anyway, Aeon refuses with "Credit card payments can only have their reference updated."

To refund a card payment, process the refund through your payment processor, then record the refund here as a separate negative-amount payment (see above). Do not try to delete the original card charge.

Permissions

The Billing tab is governed by the Billing operational capability:

• View — see charges, payments, and balances, but no editing.
• Edit — add and edit charges and payments (the Add Payment button and the edit pencil require this level).
• Full — additionally delete payments and charges, generate or delete invoices.

If your role is view-only for Billing, the Add Payment and edit/delete controls are hidden or disabled.

Editor review — remove this callout (and the HTML comment below it) before publishing

A few things only an SME should confirm on this page:

• Refund convention: confirm that recording a refund as a negative-amount payment with Refund in the Reference field is the intended/recommended practice in V7 (carried over from the desktop client — there's no dedicated refund control in the code).
• Card refund guidance: confirm the recommended path for refunding a credit card payment (refund via the payment processor, then record a negative payment) matches your support guidance.
• Screenshots needed: (1) the Billing tab showing the summary strip and the Payments card with a couple of payments; (2) the Add Payment side panel; (3) a Credit Card payment showing the disabled delete icon / reference-only edit note.

The full generation metadata — sources, files read, and verifications, i.e. the detail a tool like Claude would need to regenerate this page — is in the HTML comment directly below this callout. When this page has been reviewed and approved, delete both this callout and that comment; a page with no Editor-review callout is one that's done.