Student payments: charges, subscriptions, refunds and access

This guide is about following up on payments once you're selling. To connect Stripe and create coupons, see Get paid with Stripe; to create access plans and set up checkout, see Sell access to your courses with Stripe.

Where to find it

Go to My academy → Payments → Student payments. It's only available to academy administrators: teachers don't see payments, plans or refunds.

At the top, Collected per month shows a bar for each of the last 12 months, net of refunds. Failed charges aren't included, and if you sell in more than one currency each month shows one total per currency.

The Charges tab

Every payment collected on your Stripe account appears here: a one-time purchase, the first payment of a subscription and each renewal. Each row shows the date, the student (name and email), the plan, the amount and the status. When part of a payment was refunded, the refunded amount appears under it.

Use the filters above the list: Status, Plan, From and To dates, and Student (name or email). Click Filter to apply them.

The Purchases and subscriptions tab

One row per purchase: a one-time payment or a subscription. It's the place to answer "does Ava still have an active subscription?". Here you can filter by Plan and Student.

• Amount: with /mo or /yr for subscriptions.
• Status: see the table below. Cancels at period end appears under it when the subscription was canceled but the paid period hasn't ended yet.
• A Yes/No column tells you whether that purchase is giving the student access right now.
• Renewal: the end of the current period for subscriptions.
• From: the date of the purchase.

What happens to access

Access follows the payment automatically:

• Renewal paid: a new Paid row appears in Charges and the student gets an email, "Your payment receipt: …".
• Renewal failed: the purchase goes to Payment pending, access is paused and the student gets "We couldn't charge your … plan" with an Update payment method button. As soon as Stripe collects the payment, access comes back on its own.
• Subscription canceled: if it's canceled at the end of the period, the student keeps access until the Renewal date; then the status changes to Canceled and access ends.

When access ends, Acatudy only removes what that payment gave: the course enrollment or the subjects of the plan, and the paid status. If you had enrolled the student by hand, marked them as paid yourself, or they have another active purchase that gives the same access, they keep it.

Refund a payment

Example: Liam paid $59 for SAT Math prep and asks to cancel after one class.

1. Find the payment

   In the Charges tab, type the student's name in Student and click Filter.

2. Click Refund

   In Amount to refund, leave the field empty to refund everything that's left, or type a smaller amount for a partial refund (for example 30).

3. Decide about access

   Tick Also remove the student's access if the student should lose what that payment gave them. If you don't tick it, they keep access.

4. Confirm

   Tick I confirm the refund: it can't be undone. and click Refund. You'll see "Refund of $59.00 made on your Stripe account." The money is returned from your Stripe account.

The Refund button only appears while there's an amount left to refund and your Stripe account is connected. A failed charge can't be refunded. If you see "This payment can't be refunded." or "Stripe isn't configured: refunds can't be made right now.", check your account in Payments → Stripe account and coupons.

Refunds made in your Stripe dashboard

They also show up here: the refunded amount and the status are updated. But Acatudy doesn't remove the student's access in that case. If they should lose it, refund from Acatudy with the access box ticked, or click Mark as unpaid on the student in Users.

Invoices and receipts

• Subscription payments have an Invoice button that opens the invoice issued by Stripe.
• One-time payments don't have that button: look them up in your Stripe dashboard.
• Students find the same invoices in My payments (see below).

Export to CSV

Click Export CSV at the top right. The file uses the filters of the Charges tab (for example, only Refunded from September 1 to September 30) and has these columns: Date, Student, Email, Plan, Amount, Refunded, Currency, Status and the Stripe ID of the payment, so you can match it with your Stripe reports.

What students see

Students who have bought a plan get My payments in their user menu:

• My plans: each plan with its amount, status and renewal date (Ends on … if they canceled).
• Manage subscription and invoices: opens Stripe's customer portal to update their card, download invoices or cancel.
• Payment history: each payment with a Receipt link when Stripe issued an invoice.

Frequently asked questions

A student says they paid but has no access

Look them up in Purchases and subscriptions. Expired means the payment was never completed; Payment pending, that the last renewal failed. If the purchase is Active and the access column says Yes, go through A student can't see a subject or its content.

Can I pause a subscription?

No. You can cancel it from your Stripe dashboard, and the student can cancel it from My payments.

Can a teacher refund?

No. Payments, plans and refunds are only available to academy administrators.