How to Refund an Order (Pro)

Pro feature

Refunding from the terminal is Pro. In the free version the order details panel ends at the totals with no Refund button, so a return has to be refunded from the WooCommerce order screen in the admin instead.

A return is two things: the money back and the stock back. MultiPOS does both from one panel, and records the refund where your drawer count will find it.

Step 1: Find the order

In the terminal, click Orders in the sidebar. The Online tab lists every synced sale, newest first, and selecting one opens its details on the right.

Search by order number, phone, email or customer name if the list is long.

Step 2: Press Refund

Refund is the green button at the foot of the order details panel, under Print Invoice.

Above it sits the Refunded row, which is worth a glance first.

It reads $0.00 on an untouched order and carries the running total once anything has gone back. That is how you avoid refunding the same order twice on a busy afternoon.

The item lines say so too. A line that has had units returned grows a small green badge with the refunded quantity, next to its price. In that shot the Album line carries a 1, and the Beanie line carries nothing.

Step 3: Choose how many of each item

Available Items for Refund lists the order line by line, each with a quantity stepper starting at zero.

Step the quantity up on the lines coming back. Leave the rest at zero.

This is how a partial refund is entered. There is no box to type an amount into. You say what is coming back and the POS works out what that is worth.

The stepper will not go past what was sold, and it will not go past what is still refundable. Two of three units already returned leaves a ceiling of one, so the same unit cannot be refunded twice.

Step 4: Decide about the stock

Restock Items sits at the bottom left, and it is ticked by default.

Ticked, the goods go back into stock and back on sale, on the website as well as at the counter. That is right for an unopened return.

Untick it when the goods are not going back on the shelf: damaged, opened, a warranty replacement. Leaving it ticked there tells your website it has something to sell that it does not have.

Step 5: Check the amount and press Refund

Refund Amount to the right of the checkbox updates as you change the quantities.

It is the figure including tax, labelled as such, so it is what the customer is actually owed. One $15.00 item on a 10% tax rate refunds $16.50, not $15.00.

If the sale carried a manual discount, its share comes off too. A third of the units back means a third of the discount back, worked out for you.

Enter Reason (Optional) is a free-text line. It is optional and it is worth typing anyway: it lands on the WooCommerce refund and it is the only explanation anyone gets in three months’ time.

Press Refund. The POS confirms with Refund Success, reading Refund is done for the order successfully.

Refund is disabled until at least one quantity is above zero, so an empty press does nothing.

Then hand the money over. Which brings us to the part that catches people out.

The POS does not move the money

Caution

MultiPOS records the refund. It does not send it. No card is credited, no gateway is called and no cash leaves the drawer on its own.

What actually happens is this:

1. The refund is written against the order in WooCommerce.
2. The stock goes back, if Restock Items was ticked.
3. A transaction row is written with the amount in the Out column.
4. You hand over the cash, or refund the card on the card machine.

Step four is a human step and there is nothing in the software to remind anyone of it. A refund recorded and not paid leaves an unhappy customer; a refund paid and not recorded leaves your drawer short with no explanation. Do both, in that order.

Where the refund shows up afterwards

In Today’s Transactions on the Statistics screen, as a row with the amount under Out and Refund in the Method column.

That row is the reason your drawer count still balances after a cash refund. Expected Drawer Amount takes the refund off, exactly as if the money had left, because it has.

The sales figures drop too. In that shot a $36.30 cash sale with a $16.50 refund against it leaves Today’s Cash Sale and Today’s Total Sale reading $19.80, not $36.30. Both are net of refunds, which is what makes them worth reading at the end of a shift.

In the admin transactions list, filterable by date and cashier.

On the WooCommerce order, as a refund line under the items with the reason you typed, plus a Refunded total and a Net Payment figure.

A fully refunded order also moves to the Refunded status, which is what makes it easy to find later.

Refunding needs a connection

There is no offline refund. Creating the refund, writing the transaction and putting the stock back all need the server.

It does not warn you first. Unlike coupons, which refuse with a message, pressing Refund with the line down simply does nothing: no success message, no error, and the button stays greyed out. If that happens, check the connection icon in the cart header.

Take the customer’s details and do it when the connection is back, or refund from the admin later.

Partial refunds, in practice

Three habits worth teaching:

• Refund the line, not the total. Picking the item is what keeps stock, tax and reports right. A staff member who wants to refund “about twenty pounds” is asking for a number the screen cannot take.
• Do it once. Two half refunds on the same order are legitimate, and the ceiling stops you overdoing it. The Refunded row is the only running total, so check it first.
• Say why. The reason field is thirty seconds now against ten minutes of guessing later.

Where to go next

• Orders for the order screen reference.
• Transactions for the money side.
• How to Close the Cash Drawer
• How to Record Cash In and Cash Out