Process Refunds
From your Square app or online Square Dashboard, you can issue full, itemised, or partial refunds. You can refund funds back to the original payment card or as a store credit via a physical or electronic gift card. Learn how to refund to gift card from the Square Point of Sale app.
Note: Payments can be refunded within one year of the original transaction date. The only exception to this is transactions paid using Afterpay, for which you can 120 days to refund. Learn more about refund timelines.
Refunds In-App
You can process refunds directly from any Square app, including Point of Sale, Invoices, Retail, Restaurants or Appointments. To do so:
Tap ≡ More > Transactions.
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Select the payment you’d like to refund.
You can search by card number, phone, customer name, receipt, notes, or item.
You can also tap the customer's payment card directly on Square hardware to filter card transactions paid to your business.
Once you've located the transaction, tap Issue refund.
Tap Select All Items to refund the entire sale, select the specific items you’d like to refund, or tap AMOUNT to refund a specific dollar amount.
Tap Next.
Choose to refund to the original payment card or via electronic or physical gift card.
Choose a reason for the refund.
Tap Refund.
Refunds Online
Go to Reporting > Transactions from your online Square Dashboard.
Select the payment you’d like to refund.
Click ••• then click Issue Refund.
Under Refund Items, check the box next to Items to refund the entire sale or select the specific items you’d like to refund, then click Refund Items. Alternatively, click Refund Amount to refund a specific dollar amount.
Select a reason for the refund.
Click Issue Refund.
Important to note
Square will debit the refund amount from your Square balance, or if those funds are unavailable, the linked bank account will be debited.
When issuing an itemised refund, the amount being refunded will reflect any applicable taxes (like a sales tax) and discounts for the selected item(s).
For Custom Amount transactions, you’ll have the option to refund any dollar amount up to the total amount of the sale.
Team member commission (if applicable) earned from the original sale will not be changed.
If you issued a partial refund, the remaining portion of the payment can be refunded at a later time. Partial refunds will not include tax and tips in reports.
Since a tip is considered a line item, you can refund it individually. Issuing a refund for a tip will not allow you to adjust the amount since you are unable to issue a partial refund on an item. In order to receive a tip after it’s been refunded, you will need to reprocess your customer’s card.
Cash, Cheques, and Other Tender Refunds
To balance your books, you can refund cash, cheques, and other tender payments within one year of the original transaction date. Keep in mind, Square doesn’t process any funds for these payment types and functions only as an organisational tool. There are no fees for recording other tender payment types.
Refund Afterpay Transactions
If the customer completed a payment using Afterpay Card and Square hardware, you can issue a full or partial refund within one year of the original transaction date. Learn more about how refunds and returns work at Afterpay via their website.
If you’ve returned an order in its entirety and the full amount of the order is refunded, any upcoming payments will be cancelled and any payments you’ve already made will be refunded back to the card you paid with.
The same principles apply if you’ve returned a portion of an order and received a partial refund. Let’s use the below example to show how this works.
Order #123456 totalled $100, and the first payment of $25 was made at the time of purchase.
| Order #123456 | $100 | Payment Status |
|---|---|---|
| First payment | $25 | PAID |
| Second payment | $25 | Due in two weeks |
| Third payment | $25 | Due in four weeks |
| Fourth payment | $25 | Due in six weeks |
The order total was $100 and a refund of $80 was processed.
However, prior to the second payment being made, items totalling $80 were returned. After the $80 refund was processed, the second, third and fourth payments were cancelled. Additionally, the first payment was retroactively adjusted to $20 and the $5 balance was refunded back to the original card the payment was made with.
| Order #123456 | $100 | Payment Status |
|---|---|---|
| First payment | $25 | Adjusted to $20, refund $5 back to card |
| Second payment | $25 | Cancelled |
| Third payment | $25 | Cancelled |
| Fourth payment | $25 | Cancelled |
Review answers to commonly asked questions about refunds.