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Why does a record still show a balance after a fee was waived, changed or overpaid?

A record shows a Balance Remaining you did not expect: a fee was waived but a dollar amount is still due, you changed a permit amount and the balance did not drop, or the applicant overpaid and the balance shows the extra amount instead of zero. Any user with edit access to the record can work through this. The balance is a simple calculation, and once you can read the Transactions tab the cause is usually clear.

How Balance Remaining is calculated

Open the record and click the Transactions tab. The grid lists every entry on the record, each with a Date, Type (Payment, Waived or Refund), Amount and Payment Type. The totals at the bottom (Amount Paid, Amount Waived, Amount Refunded and Balance Remaining) calculate automatically from those rows. In plain terms, Balance Remaining is what the record charges, less what has been paid and waived, with refunds added back. Nothing else moves it. If the balance looks wrong, one of those pieces is not what you think it is.

A fee was waived but a balance remains

  1. Check the Amount Waived total. If it is zero, the waiver was not recorded as a transaction.
  2. On most modules, a waiver is its own entry: click Add Transaction, set Type to Waived, enter the amount, add a Note explaining why, and click Save. The balance updates immediately.
  3. On a construction permit, use the waiver buttons on the Payment tab instead: Waive All Fees, Waive DCA Fees, Waive Municipal Fees or Waive All But Plan Review. Selecting one updates Amount Waived and recalculates the Amount Due. Editing a figure on a subcode line is not a waiver.

PLACEHOLDER: Confirm how a DCA amount changed on an individual subcode interacts with the DCA line in the Payment tab summary. One ticket reports a one dollar DCA fee still charged after a waiver and blocking Issue Permit; the source material does not describe that case.

You changed the fee or permit amount, and a balance remains

Each fee on a record is its own line. Changing one line does not change the others. The usual example is a late fee: lowering the permit or license amount leaves the late fee line in place, and the balance still includes it. Look through the fee lines for anything you did not intend to charge, and waive or remove that line separately.

On a construction permit, all fee figures on the Payment tab are calculated from the Subcodes tab. If a fee amount is wrong, correct the inputs on the Subcodes tab, save, and then check the Payment tab again. Fees added with Add Other Fee (for example a zoning or dumpster fee) are separate lines as well.

The applicant overpaid and the balance is not zero

An overpayment does not resolve itself. The record shows the extra amount until a Refund transaction is recorded:

  1. Click Add Transaction on the Transactions tab.
  2. Set Type to Refund.
  3. Enter the refund amount and the Payment Type, add a Note, and click Save.
  4. Confirm Balance Remaining now reads zero.

This records the refund in GovPilot only. If the original payment was by credit card, the card refund must also be issued in your payment processor's portal.

Construction permits: issuing with a balance

Issue Permit requires a Balance Remaining of zero. If the button will not complete, check the Payment tab for even a small remaining amount, such as a few cents or one dollar, and resolve it with a payment, a waiver button or a refund before trying again.

PLACEHOLDER: Confirm what happens when Issue Permit is clicked with a non-zero balance (an error message, or the button not responding). A ticket describes the button freezing.

What to send our support team

If the rows on the Transactions tab add up correctly but the Balance Remaining does not match, reach out to our support team with the module, the record number, a screenshot of the Transactions tab (and the Payment tab on a construction permit), what the balance shows, and what it should be. Please do not delete and re-add transactions to force the number; that changes your payment history and report totals.

✅ Pro Tip: Before touching anything, add up the Payment rows, the Waived rows and the Refund rows yourself and compare them with the totals at the bottom. Most of the time, the missing piece is a waiver or refund that was never entered as a transaction.

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