What Is “Return Change” in Spend Controls?

Each Spend Control includes a “Remaining balance” setting that lets you decide what should happen to any unused money after a cardholder completes a purchase. 

For example, if $20 is set aside for a specific category and only $15 is spent, the “Remaining balance” setting determines where the extra $5 goes. This gives families more flexibility — whether you’d prefer leftover funds stay in that Spend Control, move back to your Greenlight Wallet, or go into their General Savings!

You may see this appear in their account activity as a transaction labeled “Return change.” This simply reflects where unused funds were transferred after the purchase settled.

Why did money move from my Spend Control?

Spend Controls allow you to decide what should happen to unused funds once a transaction finishes processing.

If a purchase costs less than the amount assigned, the leftover balance will move according to your selected ”Remaining balance” setting.

This movement happens automatically once the transaction settles, which is why you may see:

• The original purchase
• A separate “Return change” transaction

Where can leftover funds go?

For each individual Spend Control, you can choose one of the following options:

• “Keep the change” their remaining balance stays in the Spend Control
• “Return change to Greenlight Wallet” their remaining balance will be removed from their account and moved to your Greenlight Wallet
• “Move change to savings” their remaining balance will be moved to their General Savings

Your selected option determines where unused funds are sent after the transaction settles.

How do I change the “Return Change” setting?

You can update this setting at any time for each Spend Control.

To change it:

1. Tap the “Spending” tile on the cardholder’s profile
2. Tap the specific Spend Control from the “Spending” page
3. Locate the “Remaining balance” setting.
4. Select where you’d like leftover funds to go:
   • Keep funds in the Spend Control
   • Return them to your Greenlight Wallet
   • Move them to General Savings

Who can change this setting?

Only the Primary Accountholder or an Approver can update the “Remaining balance” settings for any cardholder’s account they have access to!