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Give money back with a settlement

When there is no damage — travel time, slow movers, a complaint — make a settlement on the order. The customer signs the Settlement and Release on their phone, you pay it, and it comes off the order's total as "Settlements".

6 min readChecked November 7, 2026
Owner & adminDispatcherSales

Sometimes you give a customer money back when nothing was damaged: the travel time was longer than quoted, the crew was slow, or the customer complained. A settlement does it properly: the customer signs a Settlement and Release on their phone (no printer needed), you pay it, and it comes off the order's total. It is separate from damage claims.

Before you start

  • You need Settlements on your Permissions tab (in the Claims card). Everyone who can manage claims has it until an admin changes it; admins always have it.
  • The order needs an email address, a phone number, or both.

Make a settlement

  1. Open the order and press Settlement in the window's top strip, next to Claims (in the ⋮ until the order has one).
  2. Type the Amount to give back, for example 150.
  3. Pick the Reason: Travel time, Crew speed, Service complaint or Other.
  4. Write Notes — what happened, what you agreed on the phone. Notes are needed for Other. The box has the AI sparkle and the microphone.
  5. Press Create settlement. It is a Draft.

The reason and the notes are for your office only. The customer's form never shows them, and lists no items.

Send it to sign

Tick Email, Text or both and press Send to sign. The customer gets your company's short link. The settlement is now Sent. Press Send again to send the same link again, or Change to correct the amount before they sign.

What the customer sees

The Settlement and Release with your logo and contact, filled in for the order: their name, the order number, the move date, where they moved from and to, and the amount. Below it they type their full name, sign in the box and press Accept & sign. The time, their IP address and their device are recorded with the signature.

Once signed, the order's Settlement says Signed, the signed PDF is in the order's documents and the order's log has a line. Your admins are told:

  • the notification Customer signed a settlement (on for Admin / Owner with App and Email; anyone can switch it on or off in Settings › Notification settings, under Bookings and payments);
  • one Urgent task for the admins: Refund Jane Smith $150.00 — settlement signed, on the order.

See every settlement: Claims & settlements › Settlements

Open Claims & settlements in the menu and press the Settlements tab (next to Damage claims). Every settlement shows from the moment it is made: the customer, the order number, the amount, when it was made and sent, and its status, which changes by itself:

Not sent → Sent → Viewed (the customer opened their link) → Signed → Refunded (or Paid when it was paid another way, or Canceled).

Filter by status with the buttons, or search by settlement number (ST-0007), order number or the customer's name. On a phone each settlement is a card. Press a settlement to open it. The order number on each settlement is a link: double-click it (or press Enter on it; double-tap on a phone) to open the order instead.

Refund it to the card

MoveBoard never refunds a settlement by itself. Open the signed settlement (from Claims & settlements › Settlements, or the order's Settlement):

  1. Under Refund $150.00 to the customer's card, pick the card payment (each shows how much it can still give back).
  2. Press Refund $150.00. The card is really refunded, the same way a claim's Refund now works.

The settlement is now Refunded, the admins' task is done, and the refund shows in the order's Payments as a Settlement payout — it never lowers what the customer paid and never makes a balance due.

  • You need Settlements and Can process a refund.
  • No card on the order with money left? Pay it another way and record it (below).
  • "The card processor did not answer": do not press Refund again. MoveBoard checks and records the refund by itself if it went through; the settlement stays Signed until then, and Refund and Cancel wait.

Give the money back — a check, cash, a refund you already made in Payments — then, in the settlement, under Paid another way? Record the payout:

  1. Pick how it was paid (Refund to card, Check, Bank transfer, Zelle, Cash, Other), the amount and the date. Add a reference (a check number) or a note if you like.
  2. Paid in two ways? Press Another way. The ways must add up to the settlement.
  3. A refund you already made in Payments? Pick it under Refund to card: it is named for the settlement ("Settlement ST-0007 — …"), so it never shows as a balance due.
  4. Press Record payout. The settlement is Paid (Refunded when every way was a refund to card) and the task is done.

Where the money shows

A Paid settlement comes off the order's total exactly like claims settled:

  • Profit card: a Settlements step between the closing total and the revenue.
  • Payroll and commissions: every percent of the total is of the total less the settlement. In a commission's What's included, it is its own line, Settlements, beside Claims settled. Press Update payroll from closing to pay on it. On a closing drawn day by day it goes on the first day.
  • The closing's Quote Details shows Settlements where your branch's Claim payouts and settlements on the closing says: under Taxes, taken off the Total Cost (the default), or at the bottom, not part of the balance. Total Due is $0.00 either way.
  • Reports that read the closing's total, and Settings › Advanced › Export data (the Settlements file).

A draft, sent, signed-but-unpaid or canceled settlement changes nothing.

Cancel

Press Cancel…, write why, and press Cancel the settlement. You can cancel any time before it is paid; a paid settlement can't be canceled. Nothing is ever deleted: a canceled settlement stays on the order with its note, and its link tells the customer it is no longer available.

Change the form's words

Each branch writes its own form in Settings › Documents & bill of lading › Settlements: click the words to edit, and use Variable to put in the customer's name, the order number, the move date, from and to, the amount, your company's name and phone, or today's date. Preview with a sample settlement shows it as the customer will. Until you change it, MoveBoard's words are a general release: the customer accepts the amount as full and final settlement of any and all claims related to the move.

Ask Ed

"Which settlements are not signed yet?", "Settlements waiting to be refunded", "Has the customer opened their settlement?", "How much did we give back in settlements?" — Ed answers for someone who has Settlements.

If something goes wrong

  • "You do not have permission to work settlements" — ask an admin to turn on Settlements for you.
  • "Pick email, text, or both." / "The order has no email address." — add the customer's contact on the order first.
  • "The ways to pay add up to $100.00, not the $150.00 settlement." — fix the amounts or add another way.
  • "A paid settlement can't be canceled" — it is money already given back.
  • "Refunding a settlement to a card needs “Can process a refund”." — ask an admin, or record the payout once someone who can has refunded it.
  • "A refund of this settlement is already going through" — wait a minute and look again; never refund it twice.
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