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Invoices, receipts, and refunds

These three pages handle the documents that flow between the parish and the requester after a stipend is offered. Invoices go out when payment is owed. Receipts go out when payment lands. Refunds go out when something needs to be returned. All three feed the same parish ledger, so the totals on your reports always reconcile back to the source documents shown here.

The three pages at a glance​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Finance and pick the relevant tab in the sidebar:

  • Invoices — outstanding and paid stipend summary invoices, with PDF download, reminder emails, and void support.
  • Receipts — every receipt issued for a payment, searchable by receipt number, requester, or payment method, with email, PDF download, and item-level refund actions.
  • Refunds — the queue of intentions that need a refund decision, including failed Stripe refunds and refunds that must be issued offline.

A live count next to Refunds in the sidebar shows how many items currently need attention. Clicking the tab refreshes the count.

Invoices​

The Invoices page is where you see the stipend summary invoices the parish has sent — typically one invoice grouping several Mass intentions for the same requester — and where you act on the ones that are still outstanding.

Browsing the invoice list​

Each row shows the invoice number, status, requester, issue date, due date, total, and balance due. The status badge is one of:

  • Draft — saved but not yet issued.
  • Open — issued and awaiting full payment.
  • Partially Paid — partially paid; balance due is still positive.
  • Paid — paid in full.
  • Void — cancelled and excluded from outstanding totals.

Use the search box to look up by requester name, email, or invoice number. The status dropdown filters the list to one status at a time.

Where invoices are generated

Invoices are created from the Payments view of the Mass intentions overview — select unpaid intentions for a single requester, click Payment Options, and choose the stipend summary invoice action. The Invoices page here is for managing what has already been generated.

Sending and reissuing an invoice​

From the actions menu on any row:

  1. View opens the invoice viewer with the full line-item breakdown, requester information, and payment status.
  2. Send reminder opens an email composer pre-populated with the requester's address. Use this when an invoice is overdue. Reminders are only available on Open and Partially Paid invoices that still have a balance due.
  3. Download PDF generates the printable invoice PDF, named stipend-summary-INV-NNNN.pdf. Hand this to the requester at the office, attach it to email, or keep it for records.
  4. Copy link copies the public invoice URL to your clipboard. The link works without a login — the requester can open it, see the full invoice, and pay online if Stripe is configured. Multi-tenant safety: the link includes the parish identifier, so it cannot be confused with another parish's invoice.
  5. Void invoice is available only on Draft and Open invoices that have not yet received any payment. Voiding requires a reason, which is stored in the audit trail for future readers.

Recording payment​

Payments against an invoice are recorded from the Payments view of the Mass Intentions page or directly from the public invoice link. The Invoices page reflects whatever payment has been recorded — when an invoice is fully paid, its status flips to Paid and the receipt for the payment becomes available on the Receipts tab.

Receipts​

The Receipts page is the system of record for every payment the parish has accepted, whether it came in as cash in the collection plate, a check at the office, a bank transfer, or a Stripe credit-card payment.

Filtering and searching receipts​

The page has four filters at the top:

  • Search — by receipt number, requester name, or email.
  • Payment Method — All, Credit card, Cash, Check, Bank transfer, or Other.
  • Review Status — All receipts, or Needs review only to focus on receipts the system flagged for follow-up (for example, a partially refunded receipt where the metadata could not be reconciled cleanly).
  • Date Range — a calendar picker that limits the list to issue dates inside the range.

Click Search to apply the filters or Clear Filters to reset to defaults. A "N receipt(s) need review" badge above the results table tells you at a glance how many items are flagged.

What each row shows​

The receipt list shows receipt number, issue date, requester, payment method, total amount, and a status group:

  • Valid (green) or Voided (red) — whether the receipt is currently active.
  • Needs review (amber) — informational badge for receipts the system has flagged.

Each row's actions column packs four icons:

  • Eye — open the full receipt viewer with line-item breakdown.
  • Download — download a PDF copy of the receipt for the parishioner or for parish records.
  • Mail — re-email the receipt to the requester. Only available when an email is on file. Useful when a parishioner says they never received it or lost the original.
  • Ban — issue a refund. The icon's tooltip changes based on payment method: Refund to Card for Stripe payments, or Cancel Payment Record for cash, check, or bank-transfer payments. Hidden when the receipt is already voided or when there is nothing left to refund.

Reissuing a lost receipt​

When a parishioner asks for a copy of a receipt they cannot find:

  1. Search by their name or email.
  2. Click the eye icon to confirm the right receipt.
  3. Click the download icon to save the PDF, or click the mail icon to email the receipt directly to them.

Both actions leave a record in the audit trail showing who reissued it and when.

Item-level refunds from a receipt​

The receipt viewer supports refunding individual line items rather than the whole receipt at once. This is useful when one Mass on a multi-Mass receipt needs to be cancelled but the others should stand. Open the receipt, select the items to refund, enter a refund reason between 10 and 500 characters, and confirm. Stripe refunds the cards automatically; non-card refunds drop into the Refunds queue for offline handling.

Refunds​

The Refunds page is the queue of refund work that needs administrative action. Most refunds in Sacramentum are automatic — when a Stripe-paid intention is rejected or cancelled, Sacramentum tells Stripe to refund the card and the queue item closes itself. The queue is for the cases where automation is not enough.

When a refund lands here​

A refund shows up in this queue when one of the following happens:

  • Manual Required — a cash, check, or bank-transfer refund. There is no automatic path to return the money, so an admin must hand the parishioner cash, write a check, or initiate a wire transfer outside Sacramentum.
  • Failed — Stripe rejected the refund attempt (insufficient balance, expired card, or another error). The admin needs to resolve the underlying issue and either retry through Stripe or mark the refund as complete after handling it offline.
  • Needs Action — a catch-all for refunds the system flagged for human review.
  • Requested — a refund that has been initiated but not yet confirmed by the payment processor.
  • Succeeded — a refund that completed successfully. Visible for audit purposes when the Refunded filter is selected.

The default filter is "Needs Action" so the most common case — refunds waiting on you — is what you see first. Switch to All to include the last 30 days of every refund status.

Processing a manual refund​

When a row shows Manual Required, Failed, or Needs Action:

  1. Hand the requester their refund offline — cash from the petty cash drawer, a parish check, a bank transfer, or whatever your normal refund path is.
  2. Click Mark as Refunded on the row in Sacramentum.
  3. In the dialog, choose the Refund Account that the money came out of:
    • Operating Account (1000) — the parish bank account, for refunds you wrote a check against or wired from the bank.
    • Undeposited Funds (1100) — for cash refunds drawn from the till before deposit.
  4. Add Refund Notes explaining the situation — for example, "Returned $25 cash on 2026-04-15" or "Issued check #1492 from operating account."
  5. Click Mark Refunded to post the refund to the ledger.

The refund is recorded against the right account, the receipt is updated to reflect the refund, and the Refunds queue item closes. The audit trail captures who marked the refund, when, and from which account.

warning

Always record offline refunds in Sacramentum the same day you issue them. The ledger does not learn about cash, checks, or bank transfers automatically — leaving a refund unmarked means your reports overstate liabilities and understate cash outflows. The Refunds queue is the single place where the parish ledger and the real world get reconciled for non-Stripe refunds.

Stripe refunds you do not need to process​

Most Stripe refunds happen automatically and never land in the queue. When a parishioner cancels an intention, an admin rejects a request, or someone refunds a receipt from the Receipts page, Sacramentum calls Stripe and Stripe refunds the card. The Refunds queue only surfaces a Stripe refund when something has gone wrong — typically a "Failed" status — at which point you investigate in Stripe directly, fix the underlying issue, and either retry or mark it as handled.

Audit trail​

Every refund — automatic or manual, successful or failed — is recorded against the receipt and against the source intention. You can review the full history from the receipt viewer or from the View History action in the Mass Intentions list. Nothing in this queue is deletable; voids and reversals create new entries rather than erasing old ones.

What's next​

  • Reports — see refunds, receipts, and outstanding invoices rolled up across the period
  • Payouts — settle the priest stipend obligations that paid receipts create
  • Pending approvals — the rejection workflow that sends most refunds into this queue