A sale recorded by mistake, a customer who changes their mind, a book that comes back: how you undo a sale depends on how it was recorded. The short version: refund a receipt, cancel an unpaid invoice, delete only a sale you recorded by hand.
Which one to use
| How the sale was recorded | How to undo it |
|---|---|
| A sales receipt from Point of Sale (SR-…) | Refund it in View Sales. A receipt cannot be deleted or cancelled. |
| An invoice that is open or partly paid | Cancel invoice in View Sales. |
| An invoice that is paid in full | Refund it in View Sales. |
| A sale recorded by hand (the Sell Item button, or Add Sale on an item's Sales tab) | Delete it from All Sales or from the item's Sales tab. |
| A website order | Cancel or refund the order under Website Orders. |
| A marketplace sale | Refund it on the marketplace; see Handling a return. |
Why a receipt cannot be deleted
A receipt records money you took. Deleting it would erase the payment as if it never happened, and your takings, your card statements and your reports would no longer agree. A refund keeps the whole story: the sale, the money going back, and the date it went back. For the same reason, sale lines that belong to a receipt, an invoice, a website order or a marketplace sale show where they came from on All Sales and on an item's Sales tab, with no Edit or Delete.
Refunding a receipt
- Open Sales & Customers › Point of Sale › View Sales and find the receipt.
- Click Refund on its row. The amount starts at everything collected; lower it for a partial refund.
- Tick Return items to stock if the books are going back on the shelf (full refunds only; custom items are never restocked).
- Click Refund.
A full refund marks the receipt Refunded and takes its lines out of your sales reports and All Sales. A partial refund is money only: the sale and your stock stay as they are. A card charged through your gateway goes back to the card; with Braintree or Authorize.net a full refund on the day of the sale voids the charge instead, and a partial refund has to wait until the payment settles (usually the next day). More in View Sales: receipts, invoices & refunds.
Refunds need an Admin, or a staff member with the Refunds & Card Management permission (set on their user or role).
Cancelling an invoice
An invoice that is open or partly paid is cancelled rather than refunded. Cancel invoice refunds any payment already taken, marks the invoice Cancelled and takes it out of your reports. Return items to stock is ticked for you; untick it if the books are not coming back, or they go straight back on sale. Cancelling cannot be undone.
The sale was right, the paperwork was wrong
If the only problem is that you rang up a receipt when you meant to invoice a customer, do not refund it: turn the receipt into an invoice. The payment and stock stay put and only the paperwork changes. To correct a customer's name, the terms, the due date or the notes on an invoice, use Edit details.
Deleting a sale recorded by hand
A sale recorded with Sell Item is marked Recorded by hand on All Sales. Its trash icon (Admins only) removes it from your records; if it is tied to an item you can also return the quantity to stock. Rather keep the sale but fix it? The pencil edits its date, price, channel, customer and notes.