Chargeback
In accounting, chargeback means a card payment reversed by the cardholder's issuing bank on a cardholder claim — fraud, goods not received, not as described. The processor debits the merchant the amount plus a fee; the merchant may contest it with evidence (representment).
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Also called
- Dispute
- Nearby
- 4
Not a rule
Card network rules (Visa Core Rules, Mastercard Chargeback Guide) — not codified. US GAAP governs recognition, measurement and presentation — not the mechanics a bookkeeper uses to get there. Anyone citing a standard for this word is citing the wrong thing.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Chargeback, in use
Quoted from the 2 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
Payment history, applied credits, dispute state, dunning history, and the audit trail.
A remaining difference always requires a disposition — write-off (with reason and account), leave unapplied, or dispute.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- How to reconcile Stripe payouts to your booksA Stripe payout is charges less fees, refunds and disputes, batched across days. How to book it gross, tie it to the bank, and keep revenue right.
- Card and ACH payments: applying and reconciling themHow customer card and ACH payments land in the bank net of fees, how to apply them to invoices, handle partial payments and reconcile the deposit.
- Accounts payable process for startups: intake to paymentHow a bill moves from inbox to paid: intake, coding, approval, scheduling and recording, plus AP aging and who approves what at a 10-person startup.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- refund (merchant-initiated)
- return
Nearby in the catalog
No component names this concept outright. These are the ones in its part of the system, which is a weaker claim — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Terms this one depends on
Also in Cash
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.