Whether the purchase is made online or in-store, an occasional employee error or a dissatisfied customer are unavoidable situations. A refund can help retain temporarily disgruntled customers and uphold your company's reputation in the industry when a customer is unhappy or when a staff member fumbles.
This guide will walk you through refunding a part or an entire order on your Lightspeed POS after a customer has paid for their bill.
This guide will also help you refund a historic order because not every issue is raised immediately.
What's in this guide?
Refund a whole order | 2 minutes
Refund a product “Partial refund” | 2 minutes
Before you begin
You’ll need:
- Only staff who have Void / Return Sales permission (included in the advanced POS permissions) can refund orders. Need to check on your staff's permission settings? Then you should head over to our guide on Managing User Permissions.
Refund a whole order
Accidently hit Fast Checkout? Or, the customer says they’ll pay with cash but then changes their mind and wants to pay with a credit card? To balance your accounting, follow the steps to refund the whole order.
- Go to POS and open the left-hand side menu.
- Click on History.
- Either, scroll to browse. Or, search for the transaction you want to refund using the date, receipt number or product name.
- Select the transaction and hit the red Refund Sale button on the bottom-right of the POS screen.
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Review the prompt and check the payment type e.g. cash, eftpos, voucher. Select Refund Sale in blue in the centre of the screen to confirm.
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This will now show you the ordered products, Select Refund all to process the refund.
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Select the payment type to refund to, this will be using the same payment type as the one used for the original payment.
You will see a banner confirming the refund has been successful.
Pro tip - If you need to enter the order again to check out using the correct payment type, be aware that when you reprocess the order, it will print a docket. Use notes to tell the kitchen “DO NOT MAKE” or, be Speedy Gonzales and grab that docket from the printer.
Refund a product “Partial refund”
When an order has been paid for but the customer or a staff member has made a mistake with a dish/drink, you can process a partial refund by following the steps below.
- Go to POS and open the left-hand side menu.
- Click on History.
- Scroll to browse or search for the transaction you want to refund using the date, receipt number, or product name.
- Select the transaction and hit the Refund Sale button in the bottom-right of the POS screen.
- Review the prompt and check the payment type e.g. cash, eftpos, voucher. Select Refund Sale in blue in the centre of the screen to confirm.
- From the Original Sale column, select the product you want to refund. It will move to the To Refund column when it has been selected.
- Select Continue to process the refund.
- Select the payment type to refund to, this will be using the same payment type as the one used for the original payment.
You will see a banner confirming the refund has been successful.
Note - Currently, partial refunds are not yet supported by an integrated Lightspeed Payments terminal. If the customer is present, we recommend refunding the full amount of the order to the customer's card, then reprocessing the sale minus the refunded item. Be aware that this workflow will affect your reporting. See our pro tip on reprocessing orders above.
What's next?
Pro Tip- Refunding orders will put the products back into your Lightspeed inventory. So, if the refunded item(s) cannot be re-sold, such as made-to-order food and drinks, enter it as Wastage to keep your stock levels accurate.
Now you know how to enter refunds and voids, you should also look at how to track these using the Refunds Report.
Capture why certain products were refunded during service with Refund Reasons.
If you are still training yourself in how to use the POS, then your next step might just be to check out how to perform an End of Day Takings
Frequently Asked Questions
Why can't I see the Refund Sale button?
The number one reason is that you may not have the correct permissions on your account to perform refunds. Check with your manager or ensure that you are signed in as an admin.
More info on User Permissions can be found here.
Does Lightspeed allow me to delete finalized sales?
No. Once a sale has been cashed off and finalised, any corrections can only occur as a full or partial refund - both can be permanently tracked within your Lightspeed reporting.
Can I refund to a different payment type?
For Australian merchants, the ACCC advises, refunds should be the same amount you have already paid, provided in the same form as your original payment. You should check your local government policies to ensure compliance with the law.