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Close an account when you’re done billing it: a family that left, a finished school contract. Closing settles its money in one step and keeps every invoice and payment on record.

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Before you start

  • Close is offered on accounts with financial history. An account with none is deleted instead; see Delete an account.
  • A bank payment that’s still processing blocks Close until it settles, usually within a few business days. So does an open dispute; respond to it in Stripe first.

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Steps

1

Open Close account

Open the account’s ⋯ menu (on its row in Finances → Accounts, or beside its name on its page) and choose Close account.
2

Read what closing will do

The dialog states what the account has and what closing will do, for example: This account owes 100.00.Closingwillapply100.00. Closing will apply 20.00 of credit and write off the remaining $80.00. Mia will need a new payer.Below it, a receipt adds it up: Owed on the account, then Unapplied payments and Studio credit applied, then Written off. When the account paid more than it owes, the receipt ends in Left over instead.
3

Confirm

The button names what happens:Refund and close returns card payments to the card. Money that came in by cash, check, or transfer asks for a Return method: how you’ll hand it back. Click Don’t close to leave everything as it was.
Reopening doesn’t undo a Close. The write-off, cancelled credit, refunds, removed billing rules and ended recurring charges all stay.

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What closing does

  • Applies payments and credit to what’s owed, then writes off the rest. The write-off shows as Written off on the invoice and as Uncollected in your reports. Charges dated after today that the family was never sent are voided instead.
  • Refunds or keeps any money left over, and cancels unused credit.
  • Discards unsent drafts and ends every recurring charge.
  • Removes every billing rule that names the account. Those students need a new payer; see Billing rules.
  • Keeps the Bill-to’s name, email and address as typed details, and removes the account’s other people.
A closed account moves to the Closed tab with a Closed badge. Its page is a read-only record. Its invoices read Closed, and the family still sees them in the portal, marked Closed, with nothing to pay. If money reaches a closed account later, it first pays off the write-off. Anything beyond that shows as a Money on a closed account warning with Refund. Issue refund works without reopening.

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Reopen an account

Open the closed account and choose Reopen account from its ⋯ menu. It moves back to Open, and nothing is billed for the time it was closed. To bill a person again rather than the typed details, choose Edit account and pick them under Bill to details. Add billing rules and recurring charges again as needed.

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Delete an account

An account with no financial history can be deleted outright: ⋯ → Delete account. This cannot be undone. Its people stay in your contacts. If any student’s billing rules still name the account, Harness lists them under Change billing rules first. Click a student to open their Billing tab, change the rule, then delete.

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FAQ

The account decides: one with history can only be closed, so its invoices and payments stay on record. One with none can only be deleted.
Only when the family asked you to keep the overpayment. Harness records it as an overpayment kept at close, and nothing goes back to them.
A bank payment is still processing, or a dispute is open. Close again once the payment settles or the dispute is resolved.