When you move to WaveRez, upcoming reservations from your previous booking system are transferred into WaveRez during onboarding. Partners also call these transferred orders, migrated orders, imported orders, or bookings from the old system. A transferred order is a placeholder that holds the reservation in WaveRez so the date, time, equipment, and guest are blocked and visible to your staff. The money for that booking was collected in your previous system, not in WaveRez. That means the financial records and any refunds for a transferred order stay in your previous system.

You need access to WaveRez Admin, and you need access to the system or payment processor where the original payment was collected.

Because the guest paid in your previous system, a transferred order can show a total, paid amount, or Balance due that does not match what the guest actually paid. This is expected. Treat your previous system as the record of what the guest paid, and do not use the WaveRez figures on a transferred order to decide what is owed or what to refund.

Step 1 — Look up the original payment in your previous booking system or payment processor to confirm what the guest paid.

Step 2 — Issue the refund through the original payment processor that collected the money, or refund the guest by cash or check. Do not process the refund from the Payments tab in WaveRez. WaveRez did not collect that payment, so there is nothing in WaveRez to refund it from.

Step 3 — If the guest is canceling, cancel the reservation in WaveRez so the time and equipment open back up. Open the order, click the status badge in the upper-left of the order header, set New Status to Canceled, and complete the cancellation dialog. The Send customer cancellation email and Send SMS text message toggles are on by default, so turn them off if you do not want the guest notified. For full steps, see Cancel and Refund Orders in WaveRez.

Step 4 — Record what you did. Click the order's Notes tab and add an Internal Comment, for example "Refunded $150 through previous processor on 6/12." Guests do not see internal comments.

Symptom: A transferred order shows a balance due even though the guest already paid.

Cause and resolution: The guest paid in your previous booking system, so WaveRez does not have that payment. Check the original booking in your previous system to confirm what was paid.

Symptom: The guest's original payment is not on the order's Payments tab, so you cannot refund it in WaveRez.

Cause and resolution: This is expected for transferred orders. Refund through the original payment processor, or by cash or check.