After a completed transaction, funds can be returned to a customer in the form of a full or partial refund according to your refunds and returns policy. In Retail POS, refund activity can be viewed in reporting and integrated accounting software, if applicable.
To completely cancel a transaction before it processes, without returning any payments, void the transaction instead of processing a refund.
Refunding or exchanging from the original sale
Whenever possible, refund the original sale. This simplifies record-keeping, reduces fraud, and avoids refunding discounted purchases at full price. If it isn’t possible to refund the original sale, you can convert a new sale to a refund when necessary.
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Desktop
To create a refund or exchange from the original sale:
- Navigate to Sales > Refund.
- Locate the sale. You can do this by scanning the customer’s receipt in the Item field, or look up the sale from the customer profile or item sales.
- Click Refund next to each item being refunded.
If the item is serialized, the serial number will display. You can click Remove to delete it. - Once all items have been added to the refund, click Payment.
- Add refund amounts to the orange Refund section and click Finish Sale.
You can use a miscellaneous charge to issue a partial refund for a single item.
- From the Refund tab, click Misc.
- Add a price in the Price field. If the miscellaneous charge is taxed, that amount will be added to the refund.
- Optionally, add a note to include information about the charge.
- Click Save.
- Click Payment and process the refund.
- Navigate to Sales > Refund.
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iPad
To create a refund or exchange from the original sale:
- From the Profile page, select Sales.
- Find the customer’s sale. You can search by tapping the magnifying glass icon. If the customer has a profile, you can locate the sale by searching the customer name. Otherwise input the sales ID or scan the customer receipt.
- Select the transaction.
- Select the items to refund, and then select Refund. Retail POS will automatically navigate to the Register screen.
- If processing an exchange, add items to the refund like you would for a sale.
- Select Payments and complete the transaction.
Refunding a sale using customer info
If a receipt isn’t available and a customer was attached to the original sale, you can use customer information in order to find the transaction.
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Desktop
- In the Customer field, type your customer's name or another searchable detail. If there’s only one match, the customer will be automatically added to the sale. Otherwise, locate the customer and click + Attach to Sale.
- Click Edit.
- Click Sales.
- Select the sale.
- Click Refund and complete the transaction.
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iPad
- From the profile page, select Sales.
- From the search bar, search using the customer’s name.
- Select the sale.
- Select Refund then either Select all or choose the items in the sale to refund.
- Select Refund again and complete the transaction.
Refunding a sale with Item Search
If a receipt isn’t available and a customer was attached to the original sale, it’s possible to locate the sale from the item details.
To process refunds from the item information on iPad, select Manager and follow the steps below.
- Navigate to Inventory > Item Search.
- Search for the item, then click the item name.
- Click Sales.
- Search for the sale. You can click Advanced to narrow the search, or click on column headings to filter the results. Once you’ve located the sale, click the sale ID.
- Click Refund and process the refund.
Refunding a sale to a customer credit account
Customer credit accounts let you issue refunds in the form of store credit that can be used for future purchases.
A customer must be attached to a transaction in order to refund a customer credit account.
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Desktop
To create a credit account refund:
- Navigate to Sales > Refund.
- Locate the sale. You can do this by scanning the customer’s receipt in the Item field. You can also look up the sale from the customer profile or item sales.
- Click Refund next to each item being refunded. If you have multiples of one item, and only want to refund a few, adjust the quantity to the correct number.
If your item is serialized, the serial number will display. To remove it, click Remove. - If processing an exchange, add items to the refund like you would for a sale.
- Once all items have been added to the refund, click Payment.
- Add the refund amount to the Account payment method.
- Click Finish Sale.
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iPad
To create a credit account refund:
- From the Profile page, select Sales.
- Find the customer’s sale. You can search by tapping the magnifying glass icon. If the customer has a profile, you can locate the sale by searching the customer name. Otherwise input the sales ID or scan the customer receipt.
- Select the transaction.
- Select the items to refund, and then select Refund. Retail POS will automatically navigate to the Register screen.
- If processing an exchange, add items to the refund like you would for a sale.
- Choose Credit Account as the payment method, then Done.
- Select Finish Sale and complete the transaction.
Refunding sales to gift cards
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Desktop
To refund a sale to a gift card:
- From the main menu, navigate to Sales > Refund.
- Scan the receipt or find the original sale in the sales history view.
- In the Refund tab, click Refund beside the items your customer is returning.
- Click the Sale tab.
- In the Sale tab, select Gift Card to display the gift card details page.
- Under Amount, select Custom and enter the same amount as the refund in the Custom amount field.
- You can scan the gift card, enter the gift card code manually, or click generate a new gift card code.
- If your customer prefers the gift card emailed, enable the Electronic delivery checkbox and enter the customer details.
- Click Add to sale.
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Complete the transaction. The register calculates the difference between the Sale and Refund tabs. If nothing else is added to the refund, the total will be $0.00, since the refund and gift card amounts balance out.
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iPad
To refund a sale to a gift card:
- From the Profile page, select Sales.
- Find the customer’s sale. You can search by tapping the magnifying glass icon. If the customer has a profile, you can locate the sale by searching the customer name. Otherwise input the sales ID or scan the customer receipt.
- Select the transaction.
- Select the items to refund, and then select Refund. Retail POS will automatically navigate to the Register screen.
- Click the plus icon (+) > Gift card.
- You can scan the gift card number, or enter the gift card code manually. When you’re done, select Next.
- In the Amount field, enter the same amount as the refund in the Custom amount field.
- If processing an exchange, add items to the refund like you would for a sale.
- Select Payments and complete the transaction.
Refunding an unreferenced sale
If the customer doesn’t have a receipt, or if you can’t locate the original sale, you can still issue an unreferenced refund. First, you need to enable unreferenced refunds:
- Navigate to Settings > General Options.
- Under Register, disable Without Receipt Refund Credit Only.
- Click Save Changes.
Once you've enabled unreferenced refunds, you can process refunds without the original sale.
To process unreferenced refunds on iPad, select Manager and follow the steps below.
- Navigate to Sales > Refund.
- Add an item to the refund like you would for a sale.
- If needed, you can add more refund items. If the customer is doing an exchange, click the Sale tab and add exchange items.
- Select Payment.
- Add refund amounts to the appropriate payment methods and click Finish Sale.
Refunding a tip
Tips can only be refunded on the original transaction that was used to make the purchase, and only if another charge is also being refunded.
If you refund the original payment back to your customer's card in full and don’t select Include original tip before you process it, you won’t be able to refund the original tip.
To refund a tip:
- Navigate to Sales > Refund.
- Locate the sale. You can do this by scanning the customer’s receipt in the Item field. You can also look up the sale from the customer profile or item sales.
- Once you’ve located the transaction, choose an item or charge to refund.
- Select Payment > Credit/Debit.
- To the right of the card that originally paid for the tip, click Refund.
- Check off Include original tip.
- Click Refund.
- Complete the transaction.
To refund a tip:
- From the Profile page, select Sales.
- Find the customer’s sale. You can search by tapping the magnifying glass icon. If the customer has a profile, you can locate the sale by searching the customer name. Otherwise input the sales ID or scan the customer receipt.
- Select the transaction.
- Once you’ve located the transaction, choose an item or charge to refund.
- Select Payments > Credit Card.
- Select the card that originally paid for the tip.
- To include the tip, select Tip followed by Refund.
- Complete the transaction.