Returns
A customer brings something back and you refund it in one step, without leaving the till. The goods are on the counter, so there is nothing to authorise and nothing to wait for. The till takes the return, puts the item back on the shelf, and refunds the money.
Before you begin
- A shift open on the register, because cash refunds come out of its drawer.
- A person serving who has Take returns and refunds at the till, or a manager standing by to approve. See Staff and PINs.
Find the order
Open Returns from the menu, then do one of these:
- Scan the receipt. Every till receipt has the order number as a barcode, so a scan opens the order. A scan on the Sell screen does the same.
- Search by order number, email or name.
Any order can come back, online or at a counter. A customer who bought on the website can bring it to the shop.
Choose what's coming back
The order lists its items with how many of each can still come back, for example 1 of 2 can come back, and what each is worth.
- Set how many of each item are coming back.
- Tick Damaged for any units that can't be resold. They are refunded but don't go back on the shelf.
- Choose a Reason: Changed their mind, Doesn't work, Bought by mistake, Not as described, Bought twice or Other.
- Add a Note if you like.
You can't return more of a line than is left of it. Downloads, services and final-sale items don't come back. A return is also refused while a card payment for the sale is still on the reader, so finish or cancel that first.
Choose where the money goes
| Refund to | What happens |
|---|---|
| Original | It goes back the way it was paid. A card goes back to the card through its payment provider. Cash comes out of the drawer. Store credit goes back to credit. A sale paid several ways goes back card first, then store credit, then cash, each up to what is left of it. |
| Cash | It comes out of the drawer, whatever paid for it. |
| Store credit | It goes onto the customer's credit account. A walk-in sale has no account, so this is refused before anything happens. |
The store's return window and its list of countries don't apply, and neither does whether it takes returns online at all, because staff decide at the counter. The store's return fee, if it has one, is taken off.
See the refund before you confirm it
Under Will refund the till shows exactly what KahunaCart will refund and to what, one line per payment. For example Card 100.00 and Cash from the drawer 131.20. The button shows the total, such as Refund 231.20.
Press it and the return is taken. The screen shows the outcome of each refund:
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Done | That refund has gone through. |
| Waiting | The payment provider hasn't confirmed it yet. It finishes by itself, and it can take days for a card. |
| Failed | The provider refused it. |
It also says how many items went back on the shelf.
A refund to a card that is still waiting doesn't hold anything up. Cash and store credit refunds are done at once, so the drawer is already right. The card refund is listed on the shift's report under Card refunds still waiting, and it counts in the period reports once the provider confirms it. See Shifts and cash.
If a refund fails
KahunaCart keeps track of what the return still owes.
- If the first refund fails, nothing has moved. The goods stay received and back on the shelf, and the till says how much is still to refund.
- If a later refund fails, the earlier ones have already paid out. The failed one shows as Failed with the provider's reason, and the amount still to refund is shown.
Either way, finish the job from the order in the admin. Its suggested refund offers what is still owed. When it goes through, the return closes.
If the shift closes while a return is going through
A return can be slow, for example when the card provider takes its time answering. If it stalls so long that the shift is closed before it finishes, the till stops it where it is and writes nothing more for it. It never refunds after the close.
What that leaves depends on how far it got:
- Before the goods were received: nothing happened. Take the return again.
- After the goods were received: the goods stay received and go back on the shelf, but nothing is refunded. The till says so: the goods are back, nothing was refunded, and the refund has to be given from the order. The order's history gets a line, The till stopped the refund for return…: the shift was closed while it was going through. The goods are back and nothing was refunded. Refund it from the order.
- After a first refund had already gone out: that refund stands. The history says how much was refunded and that the rest is for the order.
Either way, open the order in the admin. Its suggested refund offers what is still owed, and the return closes when you refund it. Sending the same return again from the till doesn't refund it a second time. It answers with the return that is already there.
A return is taken once
A double tap, or the same return sent again because the connection dropped, makes one return and refunds once. If the first try failed part way, the retry picks up that same return and finishes it. It never starts a second one, and it never picks up somebody else's.
Who can take a return
The person serving needs Take returns and refunds at the till. If they don't have it, the till says You'll need someone who can refund to approve this, and asks for a manager's name and PIN. The manager approves this one return, and the order's history records who approved it and who took it.
Cash refunds are counted against the register's drawer, so they show on the shift's report and in its expected cash. See Shifts and cash.
The customer isn't emailed about a counter return.