Sometimes a bill was right and you still want to give some of it back: a product comes back the next day, a treatment didn't take, a goodwill gesture after a complaint. Refund from this sale does exactly that. The sale stays as it was recorded, and the refund is its own record: what went back, where it went, and why.
Three words, three different things:
- Undo says the sale never happened. Everything comes back: stock, gift card money, points, the code's use.
- Adjust says the bill was wrong. The lines change, the same receipt number is reissued.
- Refund says the bill was right and some of it is going back.
Refund by item or by amount
Open the sale from the Payments page, the customer's profile, or the booking, and choose Refund from this sale.
- By item: tick the lines going back. A product line can return some or all of its units, and the stock goes back on the shelf. The amount pre-fills at what was actually paid for that line after any discount, and you can lower it.
- By amount: a figure, up to what's still on the sale. A gift card or package sold on the bill is never part of that figure; it refunds by item, whole.
You can refund again and again until nothing is left. Each refund shows on the sale, on the Payments page, and on the customer's history.
Where it goes
One place per refund:
- Refund it to their card: only when a card payment on that sale can carry the amount. If the visit was paid $20 online and $50 in cash, up to $20 can go back to the card.
- I've handed it back to them in person: cash, card on your own machine, transfer or other. Just a record; nothing is charged.
- Keep it as credit for their next visit: saved on their profile and taken off their next bill. See Customer credit.
The customer is notified by email either way. If a receipt was sent, the updated one is attached, with the refund shown under how it was paid, marked "incl. GST" for a GST-registered business. Same number, marked updated. That's the adjustment note the tax office expects when money goes back on an invoiced sale.
What a refund doesn't undo
A promo code's use, a promotion, a loyalty reward and a package session all stay as they were. They belonged to a visit that happened. Points earned on the refunded money do come off.
Once a sale has a refund, it can't be undone or adjusted. Refund more, or less, instead.
A deposit that was kept, or a fee
Those refund from their own payment: open the row on the Payments page or the booking and choose Refund. See Refunding a payment.
Reports
Takings counts a refund on the day it went back. By staff and By service show what came back beside what was sold, never quietly netted out.
FAQs
Can I refund a gift card or package sold on the bill? Yes, whole, and only while it hasn't been used. Tick it under By item: the full amount goes back and the card or package is cancelled with it. It goes back as money, not as credit. Once any of it has been used, it stays.
The customer paid by card but I want to give cash back. Choose "I've handed it back to them in person". The record says cash; the card payment stays as it was.
Can I refund more than was paid? No. The most a sale can refund is what settled it.