Cannot issue credit: 54 The referenced transaction does not meet the criteria for issuing a credit.

If you attempt to issue a refund to a registrant and get this error: "Cannot issue credit: 54 The referenced transaction does not meet the criteria for issuing a credit." it is a sign of one of two things.

1. The original transaction is too new, either having been entered that day or late the previous day. Authorize.Net completes their transactions in batches, and this error means that the transaction hasn't been batched yet. If you wait until the following day, the refund will go through.
2. The original transaction is too old, either more than 60 or 90 days past the original charge date. This is a hard limit on refunds that is set by Authorize.Net. Instead of refund by credit card, you will need to refund by issuing a check and noting it in our system using the "Add Transaction" button on the "Transaction History" page and selecting "Refund by Check".