Refund Process

The impact of COVID-19 has been unprecedented and continues to cause challenges for any organisation A school, multi-academy trust (MAT), single academy trust (SAT), club, nursery or organisation that uses the software., student, person A parent, legal guardian, carer, or someone responsible for a student. responsible for a student, and those supporting the education sector. Due to the current circumstances, IRIS ParentMail have found the volume of refunds being requested has reached unprecedented levels across the country due to the cancellation of trips, events, and so on.

The normal refund collection process will also be amended. Currently refunds are settled directly by IRIS ParentMail when requested and the refund then deducted from your next settlement payment. IRIS ParentMail carries the cost of the refund between the date of refund until payments received for your school are sufficient to recover this cost. However, given the exceptional volume of refunds currently, this process is not sustainable.

The IRIS ParentMail refund limit is set at £5,000 for primary and £10,000 for secondary organisations, which means refunds up to this value can be processed. IRIS ParentMail collects the refund from your organisation by Direct Debit after the refund has been processed.

Standard Direct Debits take up to 3 to 5 working days to be processed. When IRIS ParentMail receives the funds for the processed refunds, further refunds can then be processed.

For an organisation with a high value of refunds, we recommend a BACs or Faster Payment for the value of the refunds that need to be processed is made to IRIS ParentMail. When IRIS ParentMail receives the payment, it is added as a credit to your organisation account. Refunds can then be processed the following day.

If you are sending a BACS or Faster payment for the value of refunds, you must log a support ticket (a Service Cloud account is required) or select Live Chat to contact the Technical Support Team. The team sends a unique reference number for the payment and the bank details to which the payment must be made.

The IRIS ParentMail refund process has two stages:

  1. IRIS ParentMail asks you to confirm you have sufficient funds to cover the value of the refunds you are processing available in your organisation bank account before we collect the payment by Direct Debit.
  2. Your current payments balance is checked.

    • If you have a low negative balance, your refund(s) is processed and the value of the refund(s) collected from the bank account by Direct Debit.
    • If you have a high negative balance, you need to contact IRIS ParentMail so we can arrange the best solution to process the refund(s).

The following IRIS ParentMail and IRIS PlusPay processes must be used to make sure refunds are processed effectively: 

  • Only refund item if funds to the value of the refund(s) is available in your organisation's bank account. If refunds are processed for a value that exceeds the available amount in the account, IRIS ParentMail collects the funds from the account by Direct Debit. A BACS remittance is sent the day IRIS ParentMail request the funds.
  • Cash, cheque, and subsidised payments must be refunded manually — the details must be processed in IRIS ParentMail.
  • PayPal refunds can only be given for payments made in the last 365 days and cannot be made to expired debit or credit cards. Refunds that need to be made in these circumstances must be made manually by cash or cheque.
  • If a credit or debit card used to make the original payment has expired or the payment was made before 2nd June 2021 using a credit or debit card, you need to Process a Manual Refund.
  • If claiming on insurance for costs relating to a cancelled trip or event, do not process the refund until the settlement has been made by your insurance company and you have received the payment.

    If a trip or event has an insurance claim, keep any person owed a refund informed and updated on the progress of the claim.

  • Do not encourage any charge back facility through PayPal or if a card provider is used as it incurs administration costs and requires additional processes to be followed for both your organisation and IRIS ParentMail.
  • If you are processing a high value of refunds, you might be asked to contact IRIS ParentMail.

For more information about processing refunds, go to Refund Orders or Process a Manual Refund.

Our dedicated refund team are available to help. Call 0344 815 5518 or by email at pluspayrefunds@iris.co.uk for support with refunds.