When students cancel mid-engagement or dispute a stage, what happens to the money and what to do on your end.
When a student cancels
Students can cancel an active engagement from their dashboard. The platform refunds funded-but-not-yet-approved sub-units back to their card — that means unapproved milestones for fixed contracts, and unapproved weeks for hourly contracts. Stages you already delivered and that they approved stay paid to you.
Your cancel option
You can also cancel an active engagement (e.g. if you can't continue the work). The same refund rules apply — unapproved sub-units refund, approved/paid ones stay settled. Cancelling is final, so consider messaging the student first if you'd rather pause or renegotiate.
When a student disputes a milestone or week
Disputed sub-units move to 'disputed' status and Tutrx support reviews. Your Wise payout for that sub-unit is paused. Add context to the milestone or week's notes and attachments showing what you delivered — the support team uses that to decide the outcome.
Possible dispute outcomes
Support can either uphold the dispute (the student is refunded and no payout fires), reject it (your payout proceeds normally), or mediate a partial outcome. Tutrx will email both parties with the decision.
Hourly: handling a payment-failed week
If a weekly timesheet shows 'Payment failed', the student's card was declined when their 24-hour approval window expired. The student keeps the same submitted timesheet and can retry approval (after updating their card) — you don't need to resubmit.
When an engagement ends gracefully
Once all stages are settled and the student clicks End Engagement (hourly) or approves the last milestone (fixed), the engagement moves to Completed automatically. Any unused hour-cap escrow refunds to the student, and you both get the option to leave a review.