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Refunding a payment

How to refund all or part of a payment in StyleDesk, who is allowed to, what changes on the bill, loyalty points and commission, and how to fix a wrongly recorded payment.

A refund gives money back against a payment that was already taken: a service the client was unhappy with, or a payment recorded the wrong way. StyleDesk keeps the original payment and adds the refund beside it, so the bill always shows what really happened.

Who can refund

By default only the owner can issue refunds. Managers, receptionists and cashiers can take payments but not refund them (see logins and roles). They may still see a Refund button on a payment, but nothing opens when they click it.

Issue a refund

1. Go to Point of Sale, find the bill (see finding a bill) and click Manage.
2. Under Payment History, click Refund next to the payment you are refunding. If the client paid in parts, pick the part that matches how you are giving the money back: the card payment for a card refund, the cash payment for cash.
3. Refund Amount is filled in with the most that can still be refunded on that payment, shown as Max. Leave it for a full refund or type a smaller amount.
4. Write a Reason of at least 10 characters, such as "Colour redone, client unhappy with tone". It is kept with the refund.
5. Click Issue Refund. A message at the top of the page confirms it, or says what was wrong.

One payment can be refunded more than once, for example Rs 500 today and Rs 500 next week, until its full amount has been returned. You can only refund bills of the branch you are working in.

The refund is recorded with the same method as the original payment. StyleDesk does not move the money itself: hand the cash back, or reverse the charge on your card machine.

What changes after a refund

• The refund appears in Payment History as a negative amount.
• The bill's status becomes Partially Refunded or, once everything has been returned, Refunded.
• Balance Due goes back up by the refunded amount and Pay Balance appears again. That does not mean the client owes it; leave it unless you are taking the payment again (below).
• Loyalty points the client earned on that payment are taken back in proportion: refund half the payment and half its points are removed.
• The stylist's commission is not changed by a refund made here. If the refund was for a service, take it into account when you pay the stylist (see pay and commission).

Refund or void?

There is no void button in the portal. Voiding cancels a whole bill, and a bill with payments on it can only be voided once the money has been refunded, so in practice a refund is how you undo a payment.

To fix a payment recorded the wrong way, for example Rs 2,000 entered as cash when the client paid by card:

1. Refund that payment in full, with a reason such as "Entered as cash by mistake, client paid by card".
2. Click Pay Balance and take the payment again with the right method.

The bill then shows Partially Refunded rather than Paid, which is a true record of what happened at the desk.

A bill with nothing paid on it needs no refund. Its lines cannot be edited in the portal, though, so check them before you take payment.