Returns & refunds

How a customer asks to send something back, what approving does to your money and your stock, and where to track it.

A return request is a customer asking to send specific items back. Approving one issues a real refund against the original order and — unless you say otherwise — puts the returned quantity back into stock.

How a return starts

The customer requests it. A signed-in customer opens the order in their account and requests a return, choosing the items, quantities and a reason, plus an optional note.
You file it for them. For a guest order, or a customer who emailed or called instead, staff can file the return against the order on their behalf.

Reviewing requests

Open Orders → Returns. The sidebar badge counts requests still waiting on you. Each request shows the order, the items and quantities, the customer's reason and note, and its current status.

A request moves through these states:

Requested — waiting for your decision.
Approved — a refund was issued and the return is closed.
Rejected — no refund; add a staff note explaining why.

You may briefly see Refund pending on a request whose refund has been created but not fully settled — for example while the gateway confirms it. Approving that same request again resumes where it left off instead of issuing a second refund.

Approving a return

Open the request and check the items and quantities being returned.
Decide whether to restock. Leave it on for goods you can sell again; turn it off for damaged or unsellable items, so your stock count stays honest.
Add a staff note if the decision needs context for whoever reads this later.
Approve. The refund is created against the original payment, and the returned quantity is added back to inventory if you left restock on.

Refunds are real money

Approving a return refunds through the same gateway that took the payment, using the same balance checks and audit trail as a manual refund from the order page. Refunds cannot exceed what was actually collected on that order.

Rejecting a return

Rejecting closes the request without refunding. The customer keeps the goods and the money stays with you. Write the reason in the staff note — it is the only record of why, and support conversations tend to arrive weeks later.

Where returns show up elsewhere

The order — the refund appears in the order's payment history, so the order total and amount refunded stay accurate.
Inventory — a restock is recorded as a stock movement, visible in Inventory → Movements with the return as its reason.
Analytics — the dashboard counts money actually received, so an order that ends up refunded stops counting toward revenue.