Step 4 — Process a return

Table of contents

• I. Goal
• II. Pre-flight: do you have an order to refund?
• III. Where to do it
• IV. Full vs partial refund
• V. Procedure
• VI. Auto-restock
• VII. Loyalty & membership
• VIII. Where the refund shows up
• IX. Checklist before moving on
• X. Next step
• XI. Related articles

Vietnamese version

Bản tiếng Việt của bài viết này: Bước 4 — Xử lý trả hàng.

I. Goal

You can refund a customer from the original order, restock the items, and see the refund show in the day’s finance report.

II. Pre-flight: do you have an order to refund?

Refund screens — Finance → Refunds (/dashboard/finance/refunds) and POS Workspace → Returns (/point-of-sale/returns) — are date-filtered to “today” by default. If you just finished onboarding, those pages will look empty even after a smoke-test sale, because the order you placed hasn’t been paid, and only paid orders show up in the returns list.

Do this in order:

1. Place a real sale first — follow Step 3 — Take your first sale, pick Cash, click Confirm. The order is now paid and visible everywhere.
2. Open Sales activity → Orders (/dashboard/orders) → confirm the order row shows status paid (not draft, not pending).
3. Now open Finance → Refunds (/dashboard/finance/refunds) — your order will be there in the Pending tab, ready to refund.

If you only ran a wholesale quotation or a draft, that order will not show in the refund screens — finalize the payment first.

III. Where to do it

Three entry points, all backed by the same refund pipeline:

Path	When to use
Sales activity → Orders (/dashboard/orders) → open order → “Refund”	Cashier / store owner initiates from the dashboard. Best for full-history lookups.
POS Workspace → Returns (/point-of-sale/returns)	At the counter — when the customer brings items back, same day, no scrolling through history.
Finance → Refunds (/dashboard/finance/refunds)	Owner / accountant approving pending refunds that a cashier submitted. Two-step workflow.

Sales activity → Orders — the main entry point for finding an order to refund. Click any paid order to open its detail and start the refund.

Finance → Refunds — pending refunds show here after the cashier submits. Owner reviews and approves / rejects.

POS Workspace → Returns — the same-day, at-counter flow. Defaults to today’s date range.

IV. Full vs partial refund

Mode	What happens	Stock
Full	The whole order is reversed.	All items return to stock.
Partial	Pick the line(s) + qty to refund.	Only refunded lines restock.

The system auto-fills the refund amount from the order’s lines. You can edit it if you need to refund less (e.g. partial refund with a restocking fee).

V. Procedure

From Orders → open order:

1. Find the order — by id / phone / barcode / scan.
2. Click Refund → choose Full or Partial.
3. (Partial) Pick line + qty.
4. Pick the refund method (cash / void card / wallet / bank).
5. (Optional) Pick a reason — used in refund-reason reports.
6. Confirm → the refund enters the Finance → Refunds → Pending queue.

The owner opens Finance → Refunds → opens the row → clicks Approve (or Reject with a reason). On approval, the refund posts to Transactions as a negative-money entry, the customer’s wallet (if any) is credited, and the order status moves to refunded.

VI. Auto-restock

Items qualify for auto-restock when:

• They were sold within the last X days (default 7 — configurable per store).
• They are not damaged / not perishable.

For damaged goods, see Inventory → Adjustments — write the items down instead of restocking.

VII. Loyalty & membership

If the original order accrued loyalty points, the refund automatically reverses the points. Membership benefits do not auto-refund for that period unless you manually revoke them in Membership subscriptions.

VIII. Where the refund shows up

Once approved:

• Finance → Refunds — moves from Pending to Approved.
• Finance → Transactions — negative-money entry, method matches the refund method.
• Order timeline — who, when, how much, which reason.
• Sales overview — the day’s Refunds tile drops.
• Customer profile (if a customer was attached) — wallet credited if refund to wallet was chosen.

IX. Checklist before moving on

• You placed at least one paid order today (smoke-test sale is fine).
• The order appears in Finance → Refunds → Pending after you submit the refund.
• After approval, a partial refund only restocks the refunded qty.
• The refund shows in Finance → Transactions as a negative number.
• The receipt re-prints with a “Refund” header (if a printer is paired).

X. Next step

→ Step 5 — Manage customer debt: step 5.

XI. Related articles

• Orders — finding the original order
• Finance → Refunds — approving pending refunds
• Inventory → Adjustments — for damaged goods
• POS Workspace — Returns tab