Refunds & store credit

Customers cancel. Pets get sick. Someone pays for a ten-night stay and picks up their dog after three nights because of a family emergency. When you must return money to a customer, Petsoft gives you a few options.

Refunding an invoice

You need the Grant Refunds permission. Open the invoice from the invoice list or from its details page, then click Refund Invoice.

1. Review Existing Refunds at the top of the page. This helps you avoid refunding the same item twice.
2. Under Refundable Line Items, select each line that you want to refund. Select All selects every line.
3. You may select the bypass box to ignore the deposit policy limits. See the section below.
4. Click Refund.

You can only refund whole line items. There is no box for a partial amount. To refund a smaller amount, select fewer lines.

note

Refunds do not go through the card terminal. You do not need to tap the card again. Petsoft sends the refund request to the processor directly.

Deposits limit the refund

If the invoice includes a deposit or a pre-payment, Petsoft limits the amount that you can refund:

"This invoice contains a booking deposit, boarding deposit, or reservation pre-payment. According to the cancellation policies the expected amount to be refunded is $30.00. If line items are selected to be refunded the total refund amount will not exceed $30.00."

To bypass the limit, select:

"Bypass the cancellation policies and refund the entire deposit amount of $60.00."

See Deposit Policies to learn how Petsoft calculates that amount. That page also explains the separate bypass option on the reservation cancellation page.

Where store credit comes from

Store credit is a balance on the customer's account. The customer can spend it on a future visit. Store credit comes from three sources:

1. You sell it. Add an Add Store Credit line to an invoice and take payment for it, like any other product.
2. A customer overpays a pre-payment. The invoice offers a choice: Purchase $X in store credit or Refund $X to [card]. This is a real choice for the customer. Store credit is not just a backup option.
3. The original payment device was retired. Petsoft can no longer credit the card, so it converts the refund to store credit instead.

important

In the third case, Petsoft always asks you first. Petsoft shows this message:

"One or more payments on this invoice were made with a device that has been deactivated. Any affected refund will be converted to Store Credit, and not returned to the original account. Continue?"

If only part of the refund is affected, a Refund Unavailable dialog offers two options: Accept (take the credit) or Go Back. Explain the choice to the customer before you select Accept. The customer receives an account balance, not money back on their card. Tell the customer this before you continue.

warning

Store credit belongs to one facility. Credit earned at one facility cannot be spent at another facility in the same organization. This can confuse staff at organizations with more than one facility. Before you promise a customer that they can use their credit elsewhere, check which facility holds it.

Store credit at checkout

When a customer with credit checks out, Store Credit ($45.00 remaining) appears in the payment options list. It is listed first when it covers the whole balance. Select it, set the amount, and click Pay Invoice.

If the credit does not cover the full amount, the invoice stays open, and you can collect the rest using any other payment method. Petsoft uses the customer's oldest store credit first.

There are two things that you cannot do. You cannot buy store credit with store credit ("Store Credit cannot be utilized to purchase store credit"). You also cannot refund credit that a customer bought using pre-payment funds.

Viewing credit balances

To see every customer with store credit, run the Store Credit report in Reports. The report lists names, balances, and the date each customer last received credit. Use this list to contact customers with unused credit; they may want to book again. The report covers one facility at a time.

You can see a customer's own balance at the top of their profile page.

When refunds fail

The most common outcome is not a failure. It is usually the store credit conversion described above for a retired device.

If you see this message: "A refund is already in progress for this payment. Please try again in a moment." — it means that someone already started the refund. Clicking the button twice by mistake can also cause this message.

Wait a moment. Check the invoice again before you try the refund again. Do not click the button repeatedly, or you may create a duplicate refund.

Any other message is a generic error. Do not keep trying again immediately. Check whether the refund was completed. If the error continues, open a support ticket. Do not call the payment processor directly.

note

Petsoft completes store credit refunds right away. A card refund usually takes a few days to appear, depending on the customer's bank.

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Card refund vs. store credit

Factor	Refund to original card	Store credit
Speed	A few days, depending on the bank	Right away
Cash flow	Money leaves your business	Money stays in your business
Customer retention	Lower	Higher (encourages rebooking)
Where it can be spent	Anywhere	Only at the facility that issued it
When you'd use it	The usual choice	When you sell credit, when a customer wants to keep an overpayment as credit, or when the original device is retired

Choosing a refund method