If a customer is returning an item and is due a refund, whether partial or complete, these can easily be processed in the Sales Interface. In this article, we'll cover:
In order to process a refund, you'll first need to access the original order. There are two ways to do this – either by searching for the order itself, or the customer who made it.
In the Sales Interface, navigate to Orders in the top navigation bar:
Here you can search for the order using the Order ID, the date the order was placed, or some of the customer's information. In this case, we have the Order ID to hand, so we can find it by simply entering that, hitting Search, then clicking on the order below:
This will open up the original order, from where you can return the items as necessary.
Searching using customer details
If you don't have the Order ID or other order information available, you can search using customer information. In the top navigation bar, head to Customers:
From here, you can search for the customer by name (using the last name, first name format), customer ID, post code, email, or a number of other options available under Advanced search. In this case, we're searching using the customer's name, so we just need to enter that, then hit Search:
If we then select the customer in question, this will open the customer record. From here, navigate to the Orders section:
Here you'll find a list of all this customer's orders, and can simply click on any of these to open it:
Once you've opened an existing order, you can edit it as necessary. To return an item, first click the check box that appears when you mouse over it:
If you need to select, for example, all tickets to a particular Instance, you can do so by clicking the check box next to the Instance name:
Once the items are selected, click the arrow alongside Print to open a dropdown menu of options, then select Return:
This will launch a new transaction, so you'll be prompted to select a Sales Channel. Once you've selected this, the customer will be added to the basket, along with the items (in a Returns section):
You'll also see that, in the Payments section, there's the refund amount due (in red lettering), and that it's been ringed in red to flag that the transaction can't be confirmed until action has been taken.
From this point, it's just a matter of performing the correct kind of refund. To view the available refund options, head to the Refunds tab in the Payments section:
The following refund types are available in Spektrix:
- Cash refund: this will be available for any refund
- Card refund: this option will only appear if the original transaction was paid for using a card
NOTE: for reasons of potential fraud, it's only possible to refund to cards that have been charged, and then only up to the amount that was originally charged to the card. This is because it is important to always link a refund to the original payment to eliminate your risk of a chargeback against the original payment.
- Custom Refund Types: these are specific to your system and can be created in the Admin Interface; examples might be BACS refund or Cheque refund
You'll also have the option under the Credit, deposit & vouchers tab to perform a refund to Account Credit:
If a transaction was originally paid in cash, the options for refunding it are limited to cash and your Custom Refund Types (as well as the option to refund to Account Credit via the Credit, deposit & vouchers tab):
Click Cash Refund and a pop-up will launch where you can confirm how much you want to refund to cash:
This will default to the full amount, but you can amend this as necessary if you are, for example, refunding part of the amount in cash, and the rest to Account Credit. Click Ok to confirm the refund and you'll see the amount due has returned to £0.00, with the details of the refund listed above:
You'll notice there's a red X next to the refund details – clicking this before confirming the transaction will cancel the refund, essentially allowing you to start over if, for example, this refund type was chosen in error.
Once you've performed the refund and are left with £0.00 left to refund/pay, you can confirm the transaction by clicking Confirm.
NOTE: while it is possible to refund to cash even if the original payment was made by card, it's best practice to always refund any card payments back to the card they were taken on.
You will only be able to perform a card refund if the order contains card payments (including Chip & PIN payments) which have not been completely refunded. A card refund item will exist for every card payment which has not been completely refunded, with the card type and the last four digits of the card number shown to help you identify the correct card:
Click Card Refund and a pop-up will appear:
The amount will either default to:
- The full amount of the refund needed to settle the transaction, or
- The maximum amount that can be refunded to this card, if this amount is less than the full amount needed to settle the transaction – you might see this if, for example, the original payment was split across two cards
You can also amend this amount as necessary (up to the maximum amount that can be refunded to this card) if you are, for example, refunding part of the amount to the original card, and the rest to Account Credit.
Click Ok to confirm the refund. Unlike with cash refunds, a card refund will be performed when you hit Ok here and cannot be cancelled. You'll see the amount due has returned to £0.00, with the details of the refund listed above
Once you're left with £0.00 left to refund/pay, you can confirm the transaction by clicking Confirm.
Processing a refund to Account Credit
If a customer wishes for their refund to be processed to Account Credit, this can be done regardless of how the items were originally purchased.
Head to the Credit, deposit & vouchers tab in the Payments section and you'll see a number of options:
Select Credit customer's account and a pop-up will appear:
This will default to the full amount, but you can amend this as necessary if you are, for example, refunding part of the amount to Account Credit, and the rest in cash. You'll also see listed here the current Account Credit balance for this customer, and can add further details to the Reference free text box if needed.
Click Refund to perform the refund. You'll see the amount due has returned to £0.00 with the details of the refund listed above, and that the customer's Account Credit balance now reflects this refund:
While it's not possible to cancel a refund to Account Credit in the same manner as you'd cancel a refund to cash, you can effectively undo a refund to Account Credit by clicking the Use customer's credit / vouchers option, opening this pop-up:
As there isn't anything left to pay, the amount will default to £0. However, you can type in the amount you just refunded to Account Credit and hit Confirm:
From here, you can then perform another refund. You'll always be able to refund this to Account Credit again, to cash, or to a Custom Refund Type. If the original payment was made using a card, you'll also be able to refund this to that same card if, for example, someone chose to refund to Account Credit and then later changed their mind and wanted the refund made to their card instead.
Once you've performed the refund and are left with £0.00 left to refund/pay, you can confirm the transaction by clicking Confirm.
Processing a refund using Custom Payment Types
If you're using Custom Payment Types, it's likely that any payment types you've created this way will have refund types that act as their counterpart. Performing a refund to a Custom Payment Type works in essentially the same way as processing a cash refund, in that it will be available regardless of how the original transaction was paid for.
In this example, a transaction was paid for using a Custom Payment Type labelled BACS. Under the Refunds tab, you'll see that BACS Refund is an available refund type:
Click BACS Refund and a pop-up will open:
This will default to the full amount, but you can amend this as necessary if you are, for example, refunding part of the amount using this method, and the rest to Account Credit.
Click Ok to confirm the refund and you'll see the amount due has returned to £0.00, with the details of the refund listed above:
In this example, you'll notice there's a red X next to the refund details here – clicking this before confirming the transaction will cancel the refund, essentially allowing you to start over if this refund type was chosen in error.
NOTE: whether a refund type can or cannot be cancelled is entirely dependent on how it's been set up in the Admin Interface. More information can be found around how these are set up in our article on Methods of Payment and Custom Payment Types.
Once you've performed the refund and are left with £0.00 left to refund/pay, you can confirm the transaction by clicking Confirm.
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You should now have everything you need to be able to perform refunds in Spektrix. However, if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the Spektrix Support team.