Square Community Moderator

How to Process Refunds with Square: Questions and Answers

In this post we’re sharing some of the common questions around processing refunds with Square. You can issue a refund from the Square app, Square Terminal, or from your online Square Dashboard. Learn more about how refunds work.

 

If you have any additional questions about refunds please reply below. 

 

How do I process a refund from the Square app?

 

Watch this video to learn how to process a full refund or an itemized refund from the Square app.

 

 

Here are the steps to issue a refund from the Square Point of Sale app:

  1. Tap the three horizontal lines in the upper right corner to navigate to the menu.
  2. Tap Transactions.
  3. Select the payment you’d like to refund > tap Issue Refund.
  4. 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.
  5. Tap Next.
  6. Select items to restock and choose a reason, or tap Skip Restock.
  7. Tap Refund.

 

You can also process full, itemized or partial refunds from your online Square Dashboard.

 

How do I refund a Square Online payment?

 

For payments made through your Square Online site you can refund the payment and cancel the order, or you can refund the payment without canceling the order. Visit Square Support for step-by-step instructions to cancel and refund Square Online orders.

 

Is there a fee to refund a payment?

 

No, there is no fee to refund a payment. The full amount of the payment is refunded to the customer.

 

How long does a refund take to be processed? 

 

Refunds can take between 4 and 14 business days to be processed by Square and your customer’s card issuing bank. Learn more about how refunds work in this Square Support article.

 

Will my customer be notified when the refund has been initiated? 

 

If your customer paid by card and entered their email address or phone number to receive a digital receipt they will receive a notification when the refund is initiated. However, if your customer paid by cash or other tender they will not automatically receive a notification. 

Once you have refunded the payment you can send your customer an updated copy of their receipt. To resend a receipt: go to the Transactions section of your Square app or from your online Square Dashboard > select the transaction > select Issue Receipt.

 

Will I be notified when the refund has been completed?

 

When a refund to a card payment is initiated you will receive two email notifications - one when the refund is requested and another when the refund has been completed. 

 

You will not receive email notifications for cash or Other Tender refunds (e.g. cheque), as these types of refund are completed immediately.

 

When I try to refund a payment I see ‘Refund Error: Transaction can’t be refunded after 120 days from the original sale’

 

Refunds processed through Square on a mobile device must be requested and completed within 120 days of the original transaction. Payments refunded via your online Square Dashboard can be refunded within one year of the original transaction date.

 

Payments processed through your Square Online site are only eligible to refund within 120 days.

 

Do I need my customer's card to process a refund? 

 

No - you can process a refund from the app or from your online Square Dashboard or from your Square Point of Sale without your customer’s card. 

 

My customer hasn’t received their refund yet, what should I do? 

 

Refunds can take up to 14 business days to be completed. Your customer should contact their bank or card issuer directly if they haven’t received their refund. If your customer has already reached out to their issuer please contact our Customer Success team directly.

 

How do I include my refund policy on my Square receipts?

 

You can customize your refund and return policy from the Receipt settings of your online Square Dashboard. Your policy will appear on email, text, and printed receipts. If a return policy is absent, it’s assumed there’s no policy. Be sure to clearly state if you don’t offer refunds or warranties.


For Square Online, you can include information about return policies in the Store policies section of your checkout page. Head to our Support Centre to learn how to manage checkout options.

Seamus
Square, Australia
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Our main reason for preferring SquareUp to PayPal and slowly increasing the number of transactions SquareUp processes is that the merchant fee is refunded if a customer is refunded.

 

Now that you are going to charge fees on refunds the main reason for preferring SquareUp to PayPal has evaporated.

 

Being charged for refunding a customer (from April) is wrong:

Typically the customer has made some kind of mistake on their order.

Legally we're obliged to refund them in full.

Why are you penalising the merchant for doing the right thing?

 

Now looking for a third party provider that isn't going to charge for refunding a customer.

 

😞

P.S. Perhaps it's just an April fools joke?

Born under a wondering star
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Thank you for sharing your honest feedback on the upcoming changes to fees on refunds, @Slick1. I'll relate your concerns to our team for consideration. We don't make changes like this lightly, and appreciate you taking the time to write in. 

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I hope SquareUp reconsiders.

 

If you want to be better than PayPal you're not going to achieve this by being the same?

 

🙂

Born under a wondering star
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