Recording a chargeback manually

Overview

When a customer charges back an invoice they had already paid — as a SEPA direct debit return or a card chargeback — Kyvento normally learns about it automatically from your payment provider. There is one case where that notification never arrives: Unzer communicates chargebacks in live operation through its merchant portal and by email, that is, directly to you and not to Kyvento. Until you record it, the invoice still counts as paid, the subscription keeps running and dunning stays silent. This article shows how to record such a chargeback by hand.

When you need this

Only when your payment provider reported a chargeback that has not reached Kyvento. The typical case:

• You receive an email from Unzer, or you see a chargeback in the Unzer merchant portal.
• You open the matching payment in Kyvento — it is still “Successful”, and the invoice is still “Paid”.

With Stripe and PayPal the notification usually arrives automatically via webhook. So always check first whether the payment is already recorded as disputed — if it is, there is nothing to do.

Before you start

• Permission: you need write access to invoices (account owner, administrator, full access or accountant).
• Evidence: have your payment provider’s notification at hand — do not record anything on suspicion.
• Amount: Kyvento always books the full payment amount with the current date. A partial chargeback cannot be represented here.

Step by step

1. Open Payments and click the payment in question. You can also find it on the invoice detail page under “Payments”.
2. In the detail panel, scroll to the “Chargeback” section. It only appears for a successful payment that has no chargeback recorded yet.
3. Click “Record chargeback”.
4. Read the confirmation prompt and confirm it. It states the amount once more and what the booking triggers.

What Kyvento does then

Recording it by hand has exactly the same effect as the automatic processing of a chargeback — it is the same operation, just triggered manually:

• The payment moves to “Disputed”.
• The related invoice is reopened and appears as an outstanding receivable again.
• An active subscription of that customer is suspended until the case is settled.
• For a SEPA direct debit return, dunning additionally resumes for the reopened invoice.

Your own Kyvento contract is not affected. A chargeback by one of your customers says nothing about whether you pay your Kyvento subscription — your access remains fully intact.

What if the notification arrives after all?

Nothing is duplicated. If your payment provider later reports the same case by webhook, Kyvento recognises it as already recorded. No second entry is created, and the invoice is not reopened twice. The same applies if you press the button twice by accident.

If the button does not appear

• The payment was never successful (open, failed or cancelled) — there is nothing to charge back.
• A chargeback is already recorded — the payment is then already “Disputed”.
• You lack write access to invoices — ask the account owner.

And if the case is settled in your favour?

If you win the case with your payment provider, the chargeback is resolved there and the payment is treated as successful in Kyvento again; the suspended subscription resumes. If that notification does not arrive automatically, contact our support — we will correct the record together with you.

Next steps

• Check that your provider’s webhooks are fully configured — see “Accepting credit card payments” and “Setting up SEPA direct debit”
• Understand how the reopened invoice proceeds — see “Enabling automated dunning”