The refund report
What this is for
Tracking refunds with full accountability — what went back, why, and who authorised it.
Refunds are money leaving after it arrived, so this is one of the few reports worth reading even when nothing looks wrong.
What's on it
| Figure | What it is |
|---|---|
| Total Refunds | How many. |
| Total Refund Amount | How much went back. |
| Total Original Amount | What those orders were worth. |
| Commission Adjustment | Where platform commission is affected. |
Then per refund: Date & Time, Processed By, Refund Type, Original Price, Refunded Amount, Resale Price, Inventory Change, Write Off, and the reason.
Refund types
Three, and they mean different things — see Refunds and cancellations:
| Type | Money back to customer? |
|---|---|
| Full Refund | Yes, all of it. |
| Partial Refund | Yes, some. |
| Waste / Write-Off | No. Stock written off, nothing returned. |
Read the types separately. Waste write-offs aren't customer refunds and shouldn't be added to them — a total that mixes the two overstates what you actually gave back. The Write Off column is what separates them.
What to look for
A refund rate that's changing. Refunds as a share of sales is the number to track. The level varies by operation; the direction doesn't lie.
Concentration. Refunds clustered on:
- One dish — a recipe, a supplier, or a portion problem. Fixable, and worth fixing.
- One shift — a staffing or process problem at that time.
- One member of staff — worth a conversation, and worth having it early and neutrally. It's frequently training, not dishonesty.
- One day of the week — usually the day with a different team on.
Large individual refunds. Anything unusually big deserves its note read.
Refunds with thin reasons. "Other" with no note tells you nothing. If most of your refunds look like that, tighten your refund reasons so staff pick from a real list.
The reasons are the value
The amount tells you what it cost. The reason tells you what to do.
Configure a set that maps to actions you can take — food quality, wrong item, long wait, customer changed mind, kitchen error — rather than a single catch-all. Then the monthly read of this report becomes a list of things to fix instead of a number to wince at.
Inventory
Where Stock & Recipes is in use, the Inventory Change and Resale Price columns show whether stock came back or was written off.
A dish returned uneaten and a dish dropped on the floor are both refunds and completely different inventory events.
Controls worth having
- Restrict who can refund. Refund Payments is its own permission — see What each role can do.
- Require a reason. It's already required; make sure the list is useful.
- Read this monthly, at management level.
- Never cancel an order to undo a payment. Cancelling deletes payments and leaves no refund record. Refunding leaves a trail — which is the point.
Good to know
- Per branch, and follows your operating shifts.
- Every refund records who processed it. That's the accountability the report is named for.
- Refunds reduce net sales in the sales report and reverse tax in the tax report.
- Exports — see Exporting reports.