How do I take back a place a family has already accepted?

Sometimes a retain has to be reversed after the family has accepted it. An age-group application is knocked back, or circumstances change and there is no place for the player after all. This is the one retention decision you cannot simply re-record, so it has a path of its own.

Once you confirm a squad's decisions and send them, that round is closed. The board will not let you change Retain to Release afterwards, and it will not let you reopen the round either, because families have already been told. That is deliberate: it stops a signed-off round shifting under the calling list and the letters that went out.

So instead of editing the decision, you take back the place, and Clubhouse records the release for you as part of it.

A place the club has been paid for cannot be taken back until the family has their money. That is the one condition, and how you satisfy it depends on how the money is going back.

If the club has already paid them back — a bank transfer, or cash — you record that yourself as part of the steps below. Nothing moves; you are telling the books what has already happened, and it marks the payment so nobody goes hunting for it in Stripe later.

If it hasn't gone back yet and you want it returned to their card, that is a refund through Stripe, and it happens in Finance under Payments. Whoever manages the club's money does that one, then you carry on below.

A part refund does not count either way: while any of the family's money is still with the club, the place stays as it is.

On the retention board, open Manage on the player's row and choose Remove from next season. You'll be asked for a reason, a private note, and whether you have already spoken to the family.

If the deposit is still showing as paid, you'll also be asked whether the club has returned it and how — bank transfer, cash, or something else. Answering that records the refund against the payment at the same time, which is what lets you finish this on your own.

Confirming does four things at once:

• Their decision changes from Retain to Release.
• The offer link the family holds stops working.
• Anything still owing on their season fee is cancelled.
• They come off next season's lineup on the programme's Squads page.

Saying the money has gone back is a statement, not a transfer. Clubhouse takes your word that the club has paid the family, because it has no way of seeing a transfer from the club's own account. It records who said so and how, and it shows in Finance marked as refunded outside Clubhouse, so your treasurer can match it against a statement line. Only say it once the money has actually gone.

The release notice is optional here. Under Begin release you can send the club's standard release letter, but its wording assumes no offer was ever made — which is not this family's experience. A TD doing this has almost always rung them already. Tick I've already spoken to the family in the confirmation and they stay off the release calling list.

It does not un-send anything. The offer letter, the reminders and the acceptance receipt the family received are all still in their inbox, and Clubhouse cannot recall them. The conversation belongs on the phone; this records the outcome.

It also does not apply to a senior player on a playing agreement. If a contract has been signed, terminate it from Contracts instead, which unwinds the offer with it.