Book the remainder to the customer

Limited availability
Currency conversion in currently in pilot phase. Some of the processes and documentation may change as the feature evolves. If you are interested in piloting currency conversion or have any feedback, reach out to your Adyen contact.

When you refund a payment with currency conversion, the refund amounts may not match the amounts in the original payment request, resulting in a remainder. You can choose to book this remainder to the customer.

When you book the remainder amount to the customer:

• The refund amount is fixed in the settlement currency.
• Your user is debited the exact amount they received in the payment.
• The customer is credited a different amount than what they originally paid. This new amount is the sum of the original payment amount and the remainder.

How it works

You process a payment with currency conversion on behalf of your user. The customer is debited in the processing currency and your user is credited in the settlement currency.

When refunding this payment, you want to book the remainder to the customer. This means that the refund amount is fixed in the settlement currency, and any mismatch is booked to the customer in the processing currency. To refund this payment:

1. You calculate the amount the customer is refunded in the processing currency using the Foreign Exchange API.
2. You send a refund request, specifying the refund amount in both currencies.
3. When Adyen receives the request, we credit the customer and debit your user in their respective currencies. The customer receives a different amount in the refund than what they originally paid.

Requirements

Calculate the refund amount in the processing currency

To calculate the exact amount the customer is refunded in their currency of choice (the processing currency):

1. Contact our Support Team to:

   • Enable the use of the Foreign Exchange API for your merchant account.
   • Configure the required currencies for your merchant account.
     

2. Make sure that you have the API key for the Foreign Exchange API. Your credential has the format ws@BalancePlatform.[YourBalancePlatform].

3. Make a POST /rates/calculate request with an exchangeCalculations array. Each item in the array defines a currency and value for which you want to perform a calculation. In each item of the array, specify:

   Parameter	Required	Description
   type		Set to splitRefund
   sourceAmount.currency		The settlement currency.
   sourceAmount.value		The refund amount in the settlement currency, in minor units.
   targetCurrency		The processing currency.
   exchangeSide		The operation performed on the currency provided in the sourceAmount.currency field. Set this to buy.

4. In the response, pay attention to the following fields:

   Parameter	Description
   type	Returns splitRefund
   exchangeSide	The operation performed on the currency provided in the sourceAmount.currency field. Returns buy.
   sourceAmount.currency	The settlement currency.
   sourceAmount.value	The refund amount in the settlement currency, in minor units.
   targetAmount.currency	The processing currency.
   targetAmount.value	The refund amount in the processing currency, in minor units. This is the amount the customer receives in the refund.
   appliedExchangeRate	The exchange rate to convert the settlement currency to the processing currency that includes Adyen's markup.

Send a refund request

To book the remainder to the customer

1. Make sure that you have the API key for the Checkout API. Your credential has the format ws@Company.[YourCompanyAccount].

2. Send a POST /payments/{paymentPspReference}/refunds request, specifying the following fields for the currency conversion:

   Parameter	Required	Description	Example
   amount.value		The amount to be refunded to the customer in the processing currency, calculated in step 1.	amount.value: 19543
   amount.currency		The processing currency.	amount.currency: "PLN"
   splits.amount.value		The refund amount in the settlement currency. In case of multiple splits, the sum of the split amounts in the splits array must equal the original cost of the goods in the settlement currency. Any mismatch is booked to the balance account you specify in the split item with type Remainder.	splits.amount.value: 100000
   splits.amount.currency		The original settlement currency.	splits.amount.currency: "CZK"
   splits.type		The type of the split item. We recommend to always add a split item for the type Remainder.	split.type: BalanceAccount split.type: Remainder

3. You receive the following response:

The splits are guaranteed, and the refund is booked according to the data you provide in the splits array. Any mismatch or miscalculation is booked to the balance account you specify in the split item with type Remainder. You can reconcile these mismatches per transaction using the Balance Platform Accounting Report.