Refunds & store credit

Customers cancel. Pets get sick. Someone pays for a ten-night stay and picks their dog up after three nights because of a family emergency. When money has to move back to the customer, Petsoft gives you a few options. Each one has a time and a place.

Refunding from the POS

The easiest place to issue a refund is during checkout. If a customer is standing in front of you and the invoice is wrong, or they decided against an add-on at the last second, you can fix it right there.

1. Open the checkout screen for the reservation
2. Click Refund next to the line item you want to remove
3. Pick the refund method: back to the card, or store credit
4. Enter a reason so you remember later why it happened

The invoice updates immediately. If you refunded to the card, the terminal processes it just like a normal payment, only in reverse.

Partial refunds

You do not have to refund the whole bill. Partial refunds work for situations where only one thing went wrong.

Say a customer paid for a bath and a nail trim, but the nail trim never happened because the dog would not cooperate. You can refund just the nail trim and keep the bath charge. Open the payment details, click Partial Refund, and enter the amount.

Partial refunds can also go to the original card or to store credit. If the original payment was more than 180 days ago, the automated refund might not work. In that case, issue store credit and explain to the customer that their card network no longer allows returns on that transaction.

Refunding to the original card vs store credit

Back to the card is the cleanest option. The customer gets their money and the transaction disappears from your books. But it also means the money leaves your business.

Store credit keeps the cash in your account. The customer gets a balance they can use on their next visit. This works well for:

• Cancellations where you want to encourage a rebooking
• Small goodwill gestures after a minor complaint
• Overpayments that the customer does not want back in cash

Some businesses have a policy: under fifty dollars goes to store credit unless the customer specifically asks for their card. Over fifty dollars, they offer the choice. There is no right answer. Pick a rule that matches how you want to run your business and stick to it.

Handling deposits on canceled reservations

When a customer cancels, Petsoft checks your deposit policy automatically. It looks at how far in advance they canceled and calculates what they are owed.

If the policy says they get half back, you will see a prompt during cancellation with two numbers: the amount to refund and the amount to keep. You can override both numbers if you want to make an exception, but the default saves you from doing math in your head.

Refunds on canceled reservations work the same way as POS refunds. Choose the method, confirm, and the system updates the reservation status to Canceled.

Store credit at checkout

When a customer with store credit checks out, you will see a banner on the POS screen showing their available balance. Click Apply Credit to use it.

If the credit covers the whole bill, the invoice marks as paid with a zero dollar card charge. If the credit only covers part, the remaining balance goes to the card terminal like normal.

You can choose not to apply credit. Some customers want to save their credit for a bigger bill later. Just leave the banner alone and process the payment normally.

Viewing credit balances

To see every customer who has store credit, run the Account Balances report in Reports. It lists names, phone numbers, and balances. This is useful if you want to reach out to customers who have dormant credit and might book again.

Individual customer balances show on their profile under the Billing tab. You can also add credit manually from there without tying it to a refund. Just click Add Credit, enter the amount, and write a note.

When refunds fail

Sometimes a card refund fails. Common reasons:

• The card was canceled or expired since the original payment
• The bank flagged the refund as suspicious
• The original transaction is too old for the network to process a return

If a refund fails, the system shows an error and gives you the option to retry or switch to store credit. Do not keep retrying a failed refund. Call your payment processor if it happens more than once.

note

Refunds to store credit are instant. Refunds to cards usually show up in the customer's account within three to five business days, though some banks take longer.

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Card refund vs. store credit

Factor	Refund to original card	Issue store credit
Speed	3-5 business days	Instant
Cash flow	Money leaves your business	Money stays in your business
Customer retention	Lower	Higher (encourages rebooking)
Best for	Large refunds, customer requests	Cancellations, goodwill gestures, overpayments
Transaction age limit	Usually 180 days	No limit

Choosing a refund method

Failed refund resolution checklist

Step	Action	Notes
1	Read the error message	Identify if it's expired card, fraud flag, or age limit
2	Do not retry more than once	Repeated failures can trigger additional holds
3	Offer store credit	Explain it's instant and applies to next visit
4	If failure persists	Contact your payment processor
5	Document the reason	Add a note to the customer's billing record