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Administrator Guide
Last Updated: 2026-03-13
Steps: Set Up Refund Recovery Charges

Steps: Set Up Refund Recovery Charges

Financial aid awards or student sponsor contracts can reduce for various reasons. These changes can include an expected family contribution change, or financial aid eligibility changes. When the awards or contracts reduce after you issue a refund, Workday retrieves the overpaid funds through existing charges and, when necessary, a refund recovery charge. You can configure a refund recovery charge to enable Workday to recover the excess funds when the recovery amount exceeds the existing charges.
When you use journal grouping, Workday creates student charge transaction groups for refund recovery charges.
  1. Create a student charge item with a
    Type
     of
    Refund Recovery
     and associate it with an academic unit. All institutions must have charge items for refund recovery.
  2. Add the refund recovery charge to a precedence group.
  3. Configure account posting rules and dimensions for refund recovery transactions.
When you reduce amounts of financial aid or student sponsor contracts, Workday attempts to recover the reduced (difference) amount in the following order:
  1. From the unapplied portion of the payment source.
  2. From the portion of the payment source applied against charges.
  3. From the portion of the payment source issued as a refund. In this case, Workday posts a refund recovery charge for the recovered amount.
Workday details the refund recovery charges in the payment adjustment and not separately. You can view them on the
Payment
,
Adjustment
, or
Outstanding Charges and Payments
 tabs.
Example 1: Full Refund, No Existing Charges
Scenario: Erin receives a 1,500 USD financial aid award. All her semester charges are already paid with other funds, so the full 1,500 USD is refunded directly to her.
Award Reduction: After the refund, the award reduces to 0 USD.
Refund Recovery: Because there are no existing charges on her account, Workday posts a 1,500 USD refund recovery charge to reclaim the amount.
Example 2: Partial Refund, Existing Charges Sufficient for Recovery
Scenario: Kenny receives a 1,500 USD scholarship, which pays his 1,000 USD tuition charges. This leaves an excess of 500 USD, refunded to him.
Award Reduction: After the refund, the scholarship reduces to 800 USD, creating a difference of 700 USD.
Refund Recovery: To recover 700 USD, Workday posts a tuition charge adjustment. Since existing charges cover part of the amount, Workday does not post a refund recovery charge.
Example 3: Partial Refund, Existing Charges Insufficient for Full Recovery
Scenario: Sonny receives a 1,500 USD grant, which pays his 1,000 USD tuition charges. The remaining 500 USD is refunded to him.
Award Reduction: After the refund, the grant reduces to 250 USD, creating a difference of 1,250 USD.
Refund Recovery: Workday posts a 1,000 USD tuition charge adjustment and a 250 USD refund recovery charge to recover the full amount.
Example 4: Multiple Awards, Partial Refund, Insufficient Existing Charges for Full Recovery
Scenario: Amanda receives two awards totaling 1,500 USD (600 USD Grant and 900 USD Scholarship). These awards pay her 1,000 USD tuition charge (600 USD from the Grant and 400 USD from the Scholarship), leaving 500 USD refunded to her.
Award Reduction: After the refund, the scholarship reduces to 300 USD, creating a difference of 600 USD.
Refund Recovery: Since her existing charges only cover 400 USD, Workday posts a 400 USD tuition charge adjustment and a 200 USD refund recovery charge to recover the full 600 USD.