A return is its own record
In StoreWave, the original sale is never edited. A return is a separate record that points back to the sale, lists what came back and why, and shows how the customer was paid back. The sale still happened, so your sales reports stay true, and the return appears alongside it in your returns reports.
That also means nothing can be quietly changed later. Every return shows who took it and when, and cancelling one leaves a record too.
Taking a return
- Find the sale, from the receipt or the sales list.
- Choose the items and quantities coming back. Only what is still returnable is offered, even if part of the sale came back before.
- Pick a reason: damaged, faulty, wrong item, changed mind or expired.
- Choose whether each item goes back into stock. Damaged goods do not have to.
- Settle it.
Four ways to settle
- Refund to how they paid. Cash back to cash, card back to card. A refund can never be more than that payment took in, so a sale paid partly in cash and partly by card is refunded correctly on each.
- Store credit. The value goes onto the customer’s account to spend next time, in full or in part.
- An exchange. The customer swaps for something else, such as a different size, in one step. The returned item comes back into stock, the new one goes out, and if the prices differ, only the difference is paid or refunded.
- Nothing yet. A return can be recorded now and settled later, for example while a faulty item goes back to the supplier.
Refunds come out of today’s drawer
A cash refund comes out of the drawer that is open when it is given, so it appears on today’s shift and today’s cash-up, not the day of the original sale. That keeps every day’s drawer honest. There is more on shifts and cash-up.
Your returns policy, built in
Set the number of days a customer has to bring something back, 14 by default. Outside that window, a return is refused unless you allow exceptions, and each exception is recorded under the name of the person who approved it. That keeps the policy on your sign and the policy at your till the same. There is a guide to writing one that pays for itself.
Returns reports
Returns have their own reports, so you can see:
- Why things come back, by reason, which points at a supplier with a quality problem or a product that is described badly.
- What comes back most, by product.
- Who takes returns, by staff member, which is the report that catches a refund problem before it grows.
Who can do what
Refund authority is the classic way money leaves a shop unnoticed, so it is separate from selling. You decide which roles can see returns, which can give refunds, and which can cancel a return.