Process a Return or Exchange with Square for Retail
Returns and Exchanges
With Square for Retail, you will have the option to either process a refund or an exchange through the app on an itemized basis — and if your customer finds something they would like instead, you can process the difference on the spot.
Before you begin
A note about refunds and reporting:
Exchanges won’t reflect on your Square Transfer Summary or on accounting software like Quickbooks.
Your customer’s refund credit is initially drawn from your Square balance. If you don’t have a balance available in your Square account to cover the refund, we will debit the remaining amount from your linked bank account.
Depending on the price of the replacement item, the cart total will either be positive, negative, or even.
If the replacement item is less than the returned item, you can issue a refund to your customer’s card for the difference.
If the new item is more, collect payment with any of the standard payment methods.
If the replacement item is the same price as the returned item, tap Even Exchange to close out the transaction.
Note: When you issue a refund for an item sold as a decimal quantity, you will need to refund the entire item.
Complete return or exchange
You can process a return or exchange through Square for Retail in the Square Retail POS app and on your online Square Dashboard. You also have the option to refund to a Square Gift Card or eGift Card. Review each section below for detailed instructions.
- Tap Transactions.
- Locate the original transaction by either swiping your customer’s card or searching for the receipt number.
- Tap Return or Exchange.
- Select item(s) to restock or Skip this step > tap Next.
- You can either issue a refund or search your item library to add additional items to the cart. The cart amount will automatically adjust, calculating the difference between the original and replacement items.
- Tap Customers.
- Find your customer by searching for their name.
- Scroll down to Activity > tap the transaction to bring up the details page.
- Select Return or Exchange.
- Select item(s) to restock or Skip this step > tap Next.
- Tap Refund or add additional items update your cart and proceed through the checkout flow.
- Log in and select Reporting > Transactions.
- Click on the payment you’d like to refund, then click Issue Refund.
- Enter the amount you’d like to refund and the reason you’re refunding the payment, then click Issue Refund.
- From the Retail POS, tap Transactions.
- Search the receipt number or full credit card number to find the transaction.
- Tap the transaction you wish to refund.
- Select item(s) to refund > tap Return or Exchange.
- Select item(s) to restock or Skip Restock.
- Tap Add Gift Card or Swipe, then swipe or enter the gift card number.
- Tap Refund.
Review Square eGift cards to learn how to refund your customer’s payment to an eGift Card.
Related articles
Review the following Support Center articles to optimize order management and engage with your customers: