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Exchanging or refunding a sale

Customers can change their minds about a product, or they may have seen something else they want more. In this case, the products they've purchased can be exchanged or refunded.

You can return a sale from any outlet within your Retail POS store. If the product was originally purchased from your online store or another outlet, it can be returned to the customer's closest physical store.

Refunds can be completed using Retail POS for Mac or PC by retailers in all available countries, and additionally on iPad for retailers within the US.

Exchanging a sale

Sometimes customers aren’t completely satisfied with a purchase and may want to exchange it for another product within your store.

To process an exchange:

  1. Navigate to Sell > Sales history. Optionally, click the Process return tab to filter out uncompleted sales.
  2. Locate your sale, using the filters if necessary.
  3. Click the reverse arrow icon to begin the return.

    Sales History page with individual sale highlighted and reverse arrow icon visible.

    Some user roles may not be able to perform returns and exchanges, making the reverse arrow unclickable. To check a role's permissions, navigate to Setup > Users > Roles. Ensure that Perform returns and exchanges for all outlets is checked.

  4. If a customer is not attached to the original sale, you'll be asked to add a customer to the return. Enter the customer's name and click Add customer to sale.

    You can optionally click Skip if you don't want to add a customer to this return, but attaching a customer is required to issue store credit.

    Pop-up to Add a customer to the return sale with options to Skip or Add customer to sale.

  5. The return will now appear on the Sell screen. The item(s) in this sale will be listed as a negative quantity and value, indicating that they will be returned. The prices of return items can't be adjusted.

    Sell screen showing 3 items with negative quantity and value.

  6. Remove any products the customer isn't returning by clicking on the corresponding Trash icon.

    Sell screen with individual trash icon emphasized for 1 item.

  7. Add the item(s) your customer wants to exchange for the return item(s) to the sale. These will be represented with a positive quantity and value.

    Sell screen with exchange item added showing positive quantity and value.

  8. The red Refund button will turn into an Exchange button if the value of the new item(s) is higher, and you can charge the customer the difference. The Exchange button will remain red if you owe the customer the difference in value.

    Sell screen with Exchange button emphasized.

  9. Click the Exchange button and process the exchange as you would a regular sale on the Sell screen.

    If the button is red, click the Exchange button and choose a payment type to process the refund.

  10. Click Complete sale to finish the exchange and issue the customer an updated receipt.

Refunding a sale using the Sales history

Sometimes customers aren’t completely satisfied with a purchase and may want to return it. If a suitable exchange cannot be found, the next option is to refund the payment.

If you have Lightspeed Payments set up, refer to our processing a refund with Lightspeed Payments article.

To process a refund:

  1. Navigate to Sell > Sales history. Optionally, click the Process return tab to filter out uncompleted sales.
  2. Locate your sale, using the filters if necessary.
  3. Click the reverse arrow icon to begin the return.

    Sales History page with individual sale highlighted and reverse arrow icon visible.

    Some user roles may not be able to perform returns and exchanges, making the reverse arrow unclickable. To check a role's permissions, navigate to Setup > Users > Roles. Ensure that Perform returns and exchanges for all outlets is checked.

  4. If a customer isn't attached to the original sale, you'll be asked to add a customer to the return. Enter the customer's name and click Add customer to sale.

    You can optionally click Skip if you don't want to add a customer to this return, but attaching a customer is required to issue store credit.

    Pop-up to Add a customer to the return sale with options to Skip or Add customer to sale.

  5. The return will now appear on the Sell screen. The item(s) in this sale will be listed as a negative quantity and value, indicating that they will be returned. The prices of return items can't be adjusted.

    Sell screen showing item with negative quantity and value.

  6. Remove any products the customer isn't returning by clicking on the corresponding Trash icon.

    Sell screen with individual trash icon emphasized.

  7. Click the Refund button and choose a payment type to process the refund.

    Sell screen with Refund button emphasized.

  8. Click Complete sale to finish the refund and issue the customer an updated receipt.

You can only complete a return on fully paid sales, including fully paid On account and layaway sales. You can't process a return in an open On account or Layaway sale, or existing return transactions.

If you are returning a Worldpay or Tyro sale, make sure you choose the right payment type and follow the instructions on Retail POS and on your payment terminal screen.

Refunding a sale with no receipt or sales reference

This method is only available for accounts with unreferenced refunds enabled. To inquire about eligibility, contact Retail Support.

  1. Navigate to the Sell screen and add the product to be returned.

    Sell screen with product added.

  2. Click the product to expand its view.
  3. Change the Quantity to a negative value equal to the number of products being returned. You can also adjust the price of the item.

    Sell screen with item Quantity changed to -1.

  4. Optionally, add a customer to the sale.
  5. Click Refund.
  6. Choose the payment type you'll use to refund the customer.

    Pay screen showing refund payment type options.

    • Canada only: If you're using Lightspeed Payments and the original purchase was made with an Interac card, the same card must be present for the refund. If the customer has the card, select Continue. Otherwise, select Choose Another Refund Type.

      Pop-up stating that the refund needs a card to process, with options to Choose Another Refund Type or Continue.

  7. If prompted, follow the prompts on the payment terminal. If the card used for the original purchase was a credit, debit, or non-Interac (Canada only) card type, the refund will process automatically without a card needing to be presented.

    Swipe or insert card pop-up.

  8. When the refund is complete, optionally toggle to send a receipt to the attached customer. Select Complete sale.

    Refund complete page with options to Email receipt to customer, Print receipt, or Complete sale.

Refunding a sale made with Lightspeed Payments and another payment type

If the original sale payment was split between Lightspeed Payments and another payment type and you try to refund the entire sale using Lightspeed Payments, a pop-up will appear. This pop-up notes that the refund amount is higher than the original amount paid using Lightspeed Payments.

Pop-up message stating that the refund amount is more than the original amount paid by Lightspeed Payments on this sale, with options to Refund Full Amount or Refund Original Amount.

You can choose to:

  • Refund Full Amount, which will refund the purchase onto whichever card the customer has present.
  • Refund Original Amount, which will refund the original Lightspeed Payments balance to the original card. You can then refund the rest of the balance using another payment type.

FAQs

  • Follow the steps for refunding the item with no receipt or sales reference. When clicking on the item to expand its view, click into the Price field and enter the price you're going to refund to the customer.

    You can't change the price being refunded on a returned item. For example, if a customer bought an item on sale, you can only refund them the sale price and not the current price of the item.

  •  
    1. Save the sale as an On account sale with a customer attached.
    2. Navigate to Sell > Sales history > Continue sale.
    3. Locate the On account sale and click it to expand.
    4. Click Continue sale.
    5. Add the product being returned and change its quantity to negative. (If you sold 1 unit of a product, change its quantity to -1, etc.)
    6. Click Refund.
    7. Process the refund.
  •  

    1. Navigate to Sell > Sales history and click the reverse arrow next to the item being refunded.
    2. Optionally, add a customer to the sale.
    3. In the Search for products field, search for Gift Card.
    4. Enter the gift card number.
    5. Click Add funds to gift card.
    6. Enter the amount being refunded.
    7. Click Add to sale.
    8. Click Exchange and complete the sale.

    The refunded amount will be added to the gift card's balance.

What's next?

Processing a refund made with Lightspeed Payments for Retail POS (X-Series)

Process refunds using Lightspeed Payments.

Learn more

Voiding sales

Void sales without processing refunds.

Learn more

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