Pulling funds
Last updated: August 27, 2021
What does “pulling funds” mean?
As part of the dispute process, the cardholder’s bank physically holds the disputed funds while determining the outcome of the dispute. To account for this on our end, we need to pull the same amount from our client’s account to be held in “escrow” (FH’s account) until the dispute has been resolved. As soon as a dispute is opened, a dispute email is immediately sent to our clients, informing them that we will be collecting the disputed amount from their bank account to be held in escrow.
Though we mention that the funds will be collected from their bank account, initially we attempt to collect the funds from their future payouts/refund reserve. If there are insufficient funds in their dashboard, we will proceed to collect through a bank debit. The following is in the initial dispute email sent to the client:
If the dispute is won, we (manually via an adjustment) transfer the held funds back to their account immediately.
How to pull funds
Important note: Before pulling funds, ensure that we have reviewed the ‘Refund on Booking” column as this ensures we are always pulling the correct amount from our clients.
Things to look out for:
- Partial refunds on bookings (if the disputed amount is greater than the actual value remaining on a booking, due to a successful refund, we only collect the remaining amount).
- Bank debits that are still pending are tracked on the follow up tab. We don’t pull until we know the outcome of the bank debit.
Pulling the funds through an ADJUSTMENT (client’s Escrow Balance should have sufficient funds – Column N) (date is 3 business days after dispute created):
- Copy syntax from column O (Debit Note).
- Open the transactions report in Column R.
- Click Create an adjustment.
- Enter amount.
- Paste the copied syntax under Note.
- Select ‘Transfer funds from Company XYZ’.
- Create adjustment.
- Copy the adjustment link and paste it under Bank Debits (Column J).
THINGS TO CONSIDER:
- If the client has multiple ledgers, go to the booking and determine the correct ledger the funds should be collected from.
Pulling funds through a BANK DEBIT (client’s Escrow Balance should have sufficient funds – Column N
- Copy syntax from column O (Debit Note).
- Open the bank debit link in Column S.
- Click ‘Transfer Money’.
- Select ‘FH – From bank to FareHarbor’s main account [External].
- Enter amount.
- Paste the copied syntax under ‘Note’.
- Click ‘Transfer’.
- Copy bank debit link and paste it under Bank Debits (Column J).
THINGS TO CONSIDER:
- If the client has no bank account connected to their dashboard, we leave the following note and the whole row to the Follow Up tab -> “follow up tab – no bank account’
- This process can’t be applied to International (i.e. Non-US clients) clients and so we place these on the follow up tab as well with the note: “follow up tab – insufficient funds”
- We don’t collect from clients that are on FHSPP (usually marked in purple