POS refunds & returns

A clean refund is two events at once: money goes back to the customer, and stock comes back into your warehouse. LaunchMyStore POS keeps both halves honest, recording the cash movement and the stock movement together.

What counts as a refund

Any time a customer returns goods and you give value back. Where the value goes (you pick one per refund):

• Cash refund — cash leaves the drawer.
• Card refund — reverses the original card charge through the payment provider.
• Store credit / gift card — issues new credit instead of cash.

Each refund is tied to an original order. You cannot refund more than the order’s remaining refundable amount.

How to process a refund

1. Open POS → Orders.
2. Find the order. Tap it.
3. Tap Refund (only visible to staff with the Refund permission).
4. Pick which line items and quantities to refund.
5. Choose the refund destination — cash, card, or store credit.
6. Tick Restock returned items if the goods are coming back into inventory (default: on).
7. Confirm.

If the original tender was cash and your refund destination is cash, the drawer pops open so you can hand the money back.

Restocking returned items

When you tick Restock returned items, the returned quantity is added back to your on-hand stock and logged as a stock movement so there’s a permanent trail of what came back.

Stock returns to the same warehouse the shift was opened against. If the shift wasn’t tied to a specific warehouse, the product’s overall stock count is increased instead.

Leave the “Restock” checkbox unticked for damaged goods. The refund still posts, but no stock is added back — the goods are now in your shrinkage column, not on the shelf.

Cash impact on the shift

If the refund destination is cash, the payout is recorded against the open shift and pulls down your expected cash for the day, so the drawer balances at close. Card refunds don’t affect cash — they touch the card processor and reduce the day’s card-tender total instead.

Partial refunds

Refund any subset of the original order — one out of three items, half a quantity, or a custom amount.

The order’s refunded total increases on each partial refund. When it reaches the order total, the order is fully refunded. You can’t refund more than what’s remaining.

Card refund flow

For card-tender orders processed through a supported provider:

1. The refund request is sent to the original processor (Stripe, your in-house gateway, etc.).
2. The processor reverses the charge.
3. POS marks the order as refunded or partially refunded.
4. If you ticked restock, the stock is still added back.

Card refunds typically take 5–10 business days to land back on the customer’s statement — that’s the bank’s clock, not ours.

Permissions per staff role

A cashier returning goods needs to call a manager over — the Refund button is hidden for the cashier role. This is enforced both in the app (the button is absent) and on the server (the refund request is rejected for a cashier).

Issuing store credit instead

If your store offers store credit / gift cards, set the refund destination to Store credit. The system issues a new gift-card code for the refund amount and emails / SMSes it to the customer. No cash leaves the drawer, no card charge is reversed.

Exchanges

An exchange is a refund + a new sale in one motion. POS handles it via the Exchange button on the order — pick the returning items, then add the replacement items to the cart. The price difference is the new cash/card/credit transaction.

Common issues

• Refund button missing — your role lacks the Refund permission. Have a manager process it, or have the merchant promote your role.
• Inventory not coming back — the “Restock returned items” box was unticked. You can fire a manual inventory adjustment to fix it.
• Card refund “pending” for days — that’s the processor’s clearing window. Check the order’s payment provider log.
• Variance shows positive after a refund — you marked the refund as cash in POS but didn’t actually take cash out of the drawer. Reverse it with a cash pay-out.

FAQ

Does refunding a POS order also restock inventory?

Yes, when you tick the “Restock returned items” checkbox (default on). The returned quantity is added back to stock at the shift’s warehouse and logged as a stock movement.

Can I refund a POS order from the admin instead of the register?

You can issue a refund from the admin Orders page, but it’s a simpler flow than the register. Cancelling the order from admin refunds it to the original payment source as a single full-order refund — there’s no per–line-item picker, no choice of cash / card / store credit, and no restock toggle. The rich refund (pick specific line items, choose the destination, decide whether to restock) is available at the POS register. Note the cash side too: if no shift is open at the register, a cash refund taken at the register can’t debit a drawer that isn’t open — reconcile with a cash pay-out on the next shift.

What if the customer paid with split tenders?

Each refund goes to a single destination — cash, card, or store credit — chosen when you process it. You can’t split one refund across two tenders in a single motion (for example, part to cash and part to card at once). If a customer paid partly by cash and partly by card and you want the money returned the same way, process two separate refunds: one to cash for the cash portion, and one to card for the card portion.

Can a cashier override the refund block?

No. The no-refund rule is enforced on the server, not just in the app, so a cashier can’t work around the hidden button.

Where do I see the day’s refund total?

On the Z-report at shift close, in the Tender totals section — refunds appear as negative entries per tender. The stock-movements log under Reports → Stock movements shows the goods-side detail.

Can I refund without selecting an original order?

No. Every refund must point at an order — that’s how the ledger stays balanced. If a customer brings something back without a receipt, take down the SKU and issue store credit via an admin-side adjustment instead of routing it through refunds.