Process a refund or exchange with Square for Retail
About returns and exchanges
With Square for Retail, you can 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
You can process a return or exchange for a previous transaction from the Square Retail POS app and on your Square Dashboard. You also have the option to issue a refund to a Square gift card or eGift card.
When you process an exchange, the cart total will either be positive, negative, or even depending on the price of the replacement item.
If the new item is more, you can collect payment with any of the standard payment methods.
If the replacement item is the same price as the returned item, you can process an even exchange.
Processing an exchange may have the following effects on your 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 debit the remaining amount from your linked bank account.
You have three options to issue a refund or process an exchange from your Retail POS.
Process a return or exchange for a previous transaction
Retail POS app
- Open your Retail POS app, 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.
- Open your Retail POS app, 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 to update your cart and proceed through the checkout flow.
- Open your Retail POS app, tap Transactions.
- Search the receipt number or full debit/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.
Process a refund for a previous transaction
Square Dashboard
Sign in to your Square Dashboard > then go to Reports > Transactions.
Click on the payment you’d like to refund, then click ••• > Issue Refund.
Choose to:
Refund Items: Select items to refund, then click Refund items.
Refund Amount: Enter the amount you’d like to refund and the reason you’re refunding the payment, then click Issue Refund.
Process an unlinked refund
Retail POS app
Unlinked refunds are refunds that are not linked to a previous payment. The feature allows refunds to be issued without selecting a prior transaction. Unlinked refunds are only available to eligible Square for Retail Plus subscribers using the Square for Retail app.
Open your Retail POS app, tap Transactions.
Tap Unlinked refunds to be directed to Set up unlinked refunds.
Enter value to Amount to refund and information in Describe item(s) in detail.
Tap Next to proceed to Issue refund method
Choose a refund method and enter details > Select a reason for refund in the dropdown menu.
Tap Refund.
Access to unlinked refunds can be managed through your team permission on Square Dashboard separately from general refund access. Access to unlinked refunds is turned off by default.