Refund a sale

Refunds return money to a customer AND put the product back into stock. RxShelf handles both sides atomically — never one without the other. Sale stays on the books; the refund is recorded against it with its own reference (REF-000123).

Demo coming soon

Void vs refund — pick the right one

Void has no time-limit rule but only works on unaltered completed sales (no refunds against them). Refunds have no time limit at all — you can refund a sale from any date.

Refund flow

1. Find the sale — go to Sales → History, search by reference number (e.g. SAL-0000042) or date. Click the sale to open the detail.
2. Click Refund.
3. Pick items and quantities:
   • Full refund — leave all lines selected at their full quantity.
   • Partial refund — untick lines you're keeping, or reduce a line's quantity (e.g. customer bought 20 tablets, returning 10 → change 20 to 10).
4. Pick refund method — cash, transfer, card, or other. Independent of the original payment method — you decide how to return the money.
5. Enter a reason — required. Documented reasons make audits easy: "Damaged pack", "Wrong drug dispensed", "Customer changed mind".
6. Confirm refund.

A refund receipt with its own reference (REF-000123) is generated.

What actually happens

• Stock is returned to the same batches it came from. RxShelf snapshots the batch of every dispensed unit at sale time, so a refund puts the units back into the exact batches that gave them out. Batch numbers and expiry dates on the shelf reflect reality.
• Discount is pro-rated. If the original sale had a discount, refunding a unit returns what was actually paid, not the list price. A ₦1,000 product sold at 10% off refunds at ₦900.
• Cumulative refunds are capped at the total. You can't refund more than the customer paid, across any number of refund events.
• Sale status updates automatically:
  • All items refunded → sale marked refunded (excluded from reports).
  • Some items refunded → sale marked partially refunded (included at NET).

Who can refund

• Owner and Manager — by default.
• Dispenser — no by default. Owner can grant manage_refunds as a per-staff override (see Set per-staff permissions).
• Accountant — cannot refund. This can't be overridden.

Where refunds show up

• Sales → History — refunded and partially-refunded sales carry a status badge; open the sale to see the refund history.
• Sales → Refunds — a dedicated list of every refund with filters (date, who processed).
• Reports → Sales — refunds are netted against the sale they refund, so all totals (staff performance, product performance, revenue trend) show the true amount that landed. See Run the sales report.

Next steps

• Run the sales report — see net figures after refunds.