--- id: "refund-a-sale" lang: "en" title: "Refund a sale" summary: "Give money back against a past sale, whole or in part. The refund is saved as a credit note linked to the sale, and the stock can go back on the shelf." area: "Invoices & refunds" kind: "task" url: "https://zeropos.shop/help/refund-a-sale" alternate: "https://zeropos.shop/help/refund-a-sale?lang=es" markdown: "https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/refund-a-sale.md" screens: ["/backoffice/invoices/refund","/backoffice/invoices/[id]/refund"] where_to_find: ["Quick actions › Refund","BACKOFFICE › Invoices"] related: ["fix-a-sale","find-an-invoice","customer-credit","gift-cards","close-the-day"] updated: "2026-10-08" --- # Refund a sale Give money back against a past sale, whole or in part. The refund is saved as a credit note linked to the sale, and the stock can go back on the shelf. You refund from the invoice, not from the till. The app finds the sale for you, and the credit note it creates stays linked to the original, so the sale, the refund and the stock all agree. Use it when goods come back or you give money back. If the sale was rung up wrong or should never have happened, [Fix a sale: edit, cancel or refund?](https://zeropos.shop/help/fix-a-sale) helps you choose between editing and cancelling. Where to find it: Quick actions › Refund; BACKOFFICE › Invoices. ## Before you start - By default owners, administrators and managers can refund. Anyone else sees **You don't have permission to issue refunds.** - An open layaway is refunded by cancelling it from its own page: see [Layaway: hold items while a customer pays over time](https://zeropos.shop/help/layaway). ## Steps 1. Open [Quick actions › Refund](https://app.zeropos.shop/backoffice/invoices/refund). The **Refund a sale** screen starts on today's sales. - For an older sale, search by number, name, email or phone, or tap **Yesterday**, **This week**, **This month** or **All dates**. 2. Tap the sale. Its refund screen lists every line that can still come back. 3. Set **Refund qty** on each line, or tap **Refund all remaining** for the whole ticket. - Every remaining unit starts selected; **Clear** empties them all. 4. Leave **Put stock back on the shelf** ticked if the goods can be sold again; untick it when they are damaged or gone. 5. Under **Payments refunded**, set how the money goes back. The amounts must add up to the **Refund total**. - The sale's own card, cash or transfer methods come filled in with what is left to give back. Tick another method to pay back a different way; store credit and gift cards are never offered. - A sale paid even partly with store credit or a gift card can't be refunded at all: the screen says so as soon as it opens. 6. Add a reason in **Internal note (optional)** if it helps, for example “damaged on arrival”. 7. Tap **Process full refund**, or **Process partial refund** when you left something out. 8. On **Refund processed**, tap **Print credit note** or **Email**, or **Open credit note** to see it. ## What happens next - A credit note with its own number is created and linked to the sale. The sale shows **Refunded** once every line has come back; after a partial refund it stays **Validated** and can be refunded again. - Stock: the items go back on the shelf of the shop that sold them, unless you unticked **Put stock back on the shelf**. - Money: the refund counts on the day you make it, so that day's close expects less in the drawer for the method you paid back through. - Points: the points earned on the money that goes back are taken off the customer's file. Store credit the sale used is not given back. - Commission: the seller's share of the refunded amount is taken off their commission on the day of the refund. - Gift cards: a card sold on this sale is stopped. What was paid with a gift card is never given back, onto the card or in cash. - **Email** sends the credit note to the email on the customer's file and says where it went. It turns to **Sent** only once the email has gone; when it can't go, a message says why. ## Common questions ### The customer wants a different product. How do I do an exchange? Refund the item that comes back, with its stock back on the shelf, then ring the new one up at the till as a new sale. If both are in cash, only the difference changes hands, and the day close expects exactly that. A sale paid even partly with store credit or a gift card can't be exchanged. ### Can I pay the money back a different way from how the customer paid? Yes. Under **Payments refunded**, untick the sale's method, tick the one you are paying back through and type the amount. ### The sale was paid partly with store credit or a gift card. What goes back? Nothing. A sale paid even partly with store credit or a gift card is final: it can't be refunded, exchanged or cancelled, and nothing goes back onto the balance, the card or into the customer's hand. ### Why is the last refund of a sale a penny or two different? Each item's share of the card, cash or transfer money is rounded down to the penny, and the refund that brings back the last item pays exactly what is left. Refunded item by item, the customer gets back exactly what they paid that way, never a penny more or less. ### I refunded the wrong sale. Can I undo it? Open the credit note and cancel it with **Cancel invoice** under **Danger zone**. The stock, the money and the points go back to how they were, and the sale can be refunded again. ## If you see this - “**This invoice has already been fully refunded.**” — What to do: Every line of this sale has already come back. Check **Related invoices** on the sale for the earlier credit note. - “**Payment total must equal the refund total.**” — What to do: Change the amounts under **Payments refunded** until they add up to the **Refund total**; the button stays off until they do. - “**You don't have permission to issue refunds.**” — What to do: Ask a manager to do the refund, or ask an owner to give your role that right. - “**We couldn't process the refund. Please review and try again.**” — What to do: Check the quantities and amounts and try again. - “**All or part of this sale was paid with store credit or a gift card, so it can't be refunded or exchanged.**” — What to do: Nothing to do: a sale that took store credit or a gift card is final, and nothing on it is given back. - “**This card has already been partly spent, so the sale cannot be refunded. Stop the card and settle the difference by hand.**” — What to do: The sale sold a gift card that has since been spent. Stop the card from [Gift cards](https://zeropos.shop/help/gift-cards) and settle the difference by hand. - “**This customer has no email on file. Open the credit note to type an address.**” — What to do: Tap **Open credit note** and send it from there to the address the customer gives you ([Print a receipt again, or email it](https://zeropos.shop/help/reprint-or-email-receipt)). ## Good to know - Already looking at the sale? **Refund this sale**, under **Danger zone** on the invoice, opens the same screen. - Returns always go through this screen: refund first, then ring up at the till anything the customer takes instead. ## Related guides - [Fix a sale: edit, cancel or refund?](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/fix-a-sale.md) - [Find an invoice](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/find-an-invoice.md) - [Store credit](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/customer-credit.md) - [Gift cards](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/gift-cards.md) - [Close the day](https://zeropos.shop/help/md/en/close-the-day.md)