At the till
Refunds
How a return done in POS becomes a refund to send to the card at the till.
A refund to a card must go back to the card the customer paid with. Pay Sync makes that easy: a return done in POS shows up at the till as a Refund to send, ready to put on the terminal.
#How does a refund start?
The cashier does the return in Shopify POS as usual. They open the original order, choose Return, and refund to your custom payment type, the same one used for the sale. Exchanges work the same way.
Pay Sync sees the return and keeps a note of the amount waiting to go back to the card. The refund is not sent by itself. A person at the till sends it.
Note: Pay Sync never blocks a return in POS. The POS return is always allowed. Pay Sync only helps you move the money.
#How does the cashier send the refund?
- Tap the Card payment tile. When a refund is waiting, the tile heading changes to Refund to send, and its second line shows the amount and order (for example "R 120.00 · #1001 - tap to send") or the number of refunds waiting.
- The screen, headed Refund to send, lists each refund with its amount, the order and the time.
- Under the one you want, tap Send refund R 120.00 to terminal (the button shows the refund's amount).
- Ask the customer to tap, insert or swipe the card they paid with.
- When the screen says Refunded, the refund is done.
If part of a refund was already sent, the Refund to send list says how much and when (for example "R 50.00 of this refund was already sent to the card (5 Oct). R 70.00 to send.") and the button shows only what is left. The screen headed Card refund appears once the amount is on the terminal, and then shows the result.
#What if the refund should not go to the card right now?
Tap Not now to hide it on this till for now. If the cart has items, Take a payment instead goes back to the sale; with an empty cart that button reads Daily report. Nothing is sent to the terminal either way, and the refund stays waiting. If nobody sends it, it appears under Exceptions as Refunds not sent to terminal once it has waited longer than the Orphan window (at least 15 minutes).
Note: A card refund only goes back through the terminal at the till. Pay Sync has no other way to refund a card payment.
#What does the cashier see at each step?
| What shows | What it means |
|---|---|
| Refund to send (on the tile and in the list) | The return is done in POS. The money has not gone to the card yet. |
| Waiting for the card | The amount is on the terminal, waiting for the customer to tap or insert their card. |
| Refunded | The terminal approved it. The refund then appears in Transactions as type Refund. |
| Refunds not sent to terminal (under Exceptions) | A refund has waited too long and nobody sent it, or its order has no card payment through Pay Sync (see below). |
#What if the sale was not paid through Pay Sync?
If the order's card payment never went through Pay Sync (for example, the amount was keyed on the terminal by hand), no till can send the refund, because Pay Sync has no card payment to refund against. The refund does not appear on the till. Instead it goes straight to Exceptions as Refunds not sent to terminal. Link the payment first: attach it under Orphan payments, or capture its slip under Untracked card sales. The refund then comes back on the till, ready to send.
Careful: If the customer was already refunded on the terminal, resolve the exception straight away, so the till does not send the refund a second time.
#What can stop a refund?
Pay Sync only sends what is still refundable on the original card payment. You may see one of these:
| Message | What it means |
|---|---|
| Nothing left to send | The refund has already gone to the card. |
| The refund amount changed | The return was edited. Go back to refunds and check the new amount. |
| More than the card can refund | The amount is more than the card payment still allows, so nothing went to the terminal. Check the order in Pay Sync. |
Tap Back to refunds to return to the list.
Careful: Once a refund is on the terminal there is no cancel. If you tap Stop waiting, the terminal may still complete it. It will then show under Daily report on the Card payment tile.
#Where do I see refunds afterwards?
Approved refunds appear in Transactions as type Refund, and the order records the refund reference. See On the order. If something goes wrong, it appears under Exceptions. See Exceptions.
If a refund will not send and you cannot see why, contact support.