What is the correct way to cancel an Event Registration that is marked Pending Pay Later?
Overview
we have been registering participants online for our paid events and marking them by default to "Pending Pay Later" status. However, when some of the participants cancels their registration and we go into their Contribution record to cancel those contribution, the Payment field will register a deficit amount equal to the event fee. Since payment was still pending when the cancellation of registration was made, we were expecting the payment amount to still be at zero.
i attach a screenshot of the contribution record of such a cancelled contribution to illustrate:
The Payment details (at the bottom of the screenshot) had Amount as $0 since this was "Pending Payment Later". But when we change the Contribution Status to "Cancelled" to indicate a cancellation of this registration, the Amount changed to "-$30" which was the fee for the event. this then affects the accounting as CIVICRM will think we are $30 short due to this cancellation.
Is it the case that "Cancelled" shouldn't be used in this case? We tried others and it seems "Failed" will cancel the event registration and not register any deficit in the payment. However, I would like to get the view of the community on whether this is the right way to cancel a event registration that is marked "Pending Pay Later"?
Also, if the behaviour of recording a deficit in Payment is correct when the event registration is changed to "Cancelled", what situation should this be used for ? Is it when a refund is due?
Thanks.
This problem was posted to StackExchange https://civicrm.stackexchange.com/questions/39677/what-is-the-correct-way-to-cancel-an-event-registration-that-is-marked-pending-p
Reproduction steps
Online register at a CIVICRM event that allow Pay Later in cash Cancel the registration in the backend Check the payment record
Current behaviour
we have been registering participants online for our paid events and marking them by default to "Pending Pay Later" status. However, when some of the participants cancels their registration and we go into their Contribution record to cancel those contribution, the Payment field will register a deficit amount equal to the event fee. Since payment was still pending when the cancellation of registration was made, we were expecting the payment amount to still be at zero.
Expected behaviour
Since the event is "Pending Pay Later", cancellation should not incur any deficit amount in Payment but should be 0.
Environment information
[civicrm 5.10.4 - WP 5.3.2]