Troubleshooting Common Refund Issues in POS
This article explains how to troubleshoot common refund-related issues encountered during POS transactions. It outlines procedural or policy-related causes and provides step-by-step solutions for each issue.
Key terms
POS: Point of Sale; the system where sales and refunds are processed.
Gift Card: A prepaid card issued for use at centers.
Group Invoice: A consolidated invoice for services/products booked together for multiple individuals.
Cross-Center Refund: The ability to process refunds at a different center than where the transaction occurred.
Prerequisites
Users must have the required refund permissions enabled.
Users must have access to the guest's invoice and sales details.
Ensure organization-level settings are configured appropriately such as allowing cross-center gift card refunds.
Refunds must be associated with an existing and recorded invoice.
The following are the required role permissions for refunds:
Navigate to Organization > Configuration > Security > Security roles.
Select the role required.
For service refunds, open the Appointment book accordion > Service refund.
For package refunds, open the Administrator accordion > Packages > Excess refund.
For membership refunds, open the Marketing Manager accordion > Memberships > Refund and Excess refund.
For prepaid cards, open the Loyalty Manager accordion > Gift cards > Refund Pre-paid Cards purchased.
For gift card refunds, reach out to your Zenoti representative.
Click Save.
To process refunds, follow these steps:
Use the search bar to find the invoice you wish to refund.
Click I want to and select Refund Invoice.
Enter Refund Details.
Select the item(s) to refund.
Enter any necessary comments.
Choose the appropriate refund payment mode.
Click Refund and close invoice to complete the transaction.
To refund by cash, select Cash as the refund payment mode.
Refund for voided package
Navigate to the package's invoice.
Click I want to and select Refund Invoice.
Enter the refund amount and comments.
Use a Custom payment mode to adjust any remaining balance.
Click Refund and close invoice to complete the transaction.
Refund to a Prepaid Card
Use the search bar to find the invoice you wish to refund.
Click I want to and select Refund Invoice.
Choose Prepaid Card as the refund method.
Specify the prepaid card value to be refunded.
Click Refund and close invoice to complete the transaction.
Location-specific restrictions for gift card refunds
Refunds for gift cards may not show up if you are trying to process them at a different center from where the purchase was made.
To allow refunds across centers, follow these steps:
At the organization level, click Configuration.
Switch on the Allow cross center refund for gift cards toggle.
Click Save.
Refund unsuccessful due to zero gift card balance
When you attempt to refund an invoice where the gift card (GC) used has a zero balance, Zenoti does not allow the refund. This is expected behavior. However, if the guest still expects a refund, you can take the following steps, only if your organization has enabled the setting to allow refunds for partially redeemed gift cards.
To process the refund, follow these steps:
Reopen the invoice where the gift card was redeemed.
Delete the gift card redemption from the invoice. After the redemption is removed, the gift card will have some balance restored.
If the setting Allow refund for partially redeemed gift cards is enabled for your business, proceed to refund.
Click Take payment > Close invoice.
Note
If the Allow refunds on partially redeemed gift cards setting is not enabled, Zenoti will still block the refund, even after redemption is removed. To enable this setting, reach out to a person from Zenoti.
Refund an overpayment or a duplicate charge
To manage refunds for overpayments or duplicate charges, follow these steps:
Open the invoice with duplicate charges.
Click the transaction details icon to review payments.
Enter the refund amount corresponding to the duplicate charge.
Click Refund to finalize the process.
Refund via a Closed Invoice
If you cannot refund an open invoice, follow these steps:
Close the invoice.
Perform an invoice-level refund via the refund workflow described.
For future open invoice refunds, enable the Transactional Refund permission if needed. Enable the Transactional Refund permission to process refunds on open invoices in the future.
Policies and Limitations for Refunds
Interac card transactions: Zenoti requires the physical card to process the refund.
Zenoti allows one refund per invoice.
Zenoti does not process a refund if no payment was collected on the invoice, such as for canceled appointments.
Note
A refund cannot be processed if no payment was collected, such as for canceled appointments without transactions.
Refund to original payment fails due to bank restrictions
Bank policies may restrict refunding to the original payment method after a certain time period.
To refund the guest, follow these steps:
Issue a prepaid card for the refund amount or process the refund as cash.
Group Invoice Refunds
Refunds for group invoices cannot be processed.
Invoice-level refunds are not supported for group invoices. Refunds must be processed individually per invoice. If you're unable to refund even at the individual invoice level, contact your Zenoti administrator to verify your refund permissions.
Considerations
To process refunds, you must also ensure pop-up blockers are disabled on your browser.
If you cannot enter the refund amount, reopen the invoice and attempt refunding at the transaction level. If unresolved, reach out to your Zenoti representative for backend help.
You can only refund services and gift cards once per invoice.
Handle invoice-level refund failures (Web)
Refunds are processed asynchronously, which means a refund may appear successful when submitted and fail later during processing.
When an invoice-level refund fails, Zenoti clearly highlights the failure and provides a quick way to take action.
A refund banner appears on the invoice, even if the invoice has a remaining balance.
A Reopen & Adjust call-to-action (CTA) appears on the refund invoice.
Select Reopen & Adjust to reopen the invoice, update the refund amount if needed, and reprocess the refund.