Using HOLD Funds

How Do I Use Held (on HOLD) Funds?
What are HOLD funds and how are they created?

What are HOLD Funds
HOLD funds are created as a part of the refund process.  They are most commonly used for the purpose of transferring a payment from one individual to another.  The use of held funds maintains a paper trail for the movement of money.  The process of transferring funds is explained here. 

Where is the Money
When you choose the refund method to "Hold Funds" the balance is maintained as a kind of "virtual transfer."  The money was originally managed by the initial payment.  For example, attendee one pays $100 by credit card.  That money was already deposited into your bank account with the original payment. If you choose to refund the $100 to held funds, it is taken away from attendee one and simply sits as a HELD fund for use with a second attendee.  Unused held funds will show up on your data validation as an error.  The intent is not for these funds to remain out there for an indefinite period of time.  If your intent was to hold money from a cancelled attendee, you should instead assess a cancellation fee.

Can't Find Your HOLD Funds
One of the biggest areas of confusion is how to apply a held fund.  As a security measure, held funds are only available from the "Multi-Person Payment" method.  This is done so that someone with "cashier" access doesn't incorrectly apply held funds.  It is only available to someone who has money action permission.  

HOLD Funds and Unique Items, Cart Entries and Housing
The use of HOLD funds does get complicated when you have unique items, cart entries and housing payments. Because the use of hold funds requres an exact match of amounts (see below), that sometimes is not possible when you have these other items in the record. In that case, you may need tier 2 assistance in order to accomplish the desired result. This normally is not an issue if you are truing to use HOLD funds on a previously paid invoice. The unique items or cart entries will already be paid. But if for some reason you have a uinique situation, you may run into problems.

Using HOLD Funds
To apply held funds for a second attendee, you go to the Attendee Listing and then use the view drop down to select "Multi-Person Payments."  Find the person for whom you wish to use the Held Funds and place a check mark in the box next to their name.  Then click the "Continue" button at the top of the page. On the next page, the payment invoice, you'll see the "Held Funds" as a payment option that you can then use.

Exact Amount Restriction
A restriction to keep in mind with held funds is that you must use the exact amount of the held funds.  If you have a $100 balance from a specific invoice in held funds, you must use all of those held funds for a payment.  So if you attendee two for example has a $150 balance, that is to be paid with $100 of held funds and $50 to a credit card, you'll need to do two separate payment transactions.  The first for $100 with the held funds and a second for $50 to the credit card.