Sales processed through Lightspeed Payments can be refunded through either the POS or through your Back Office.

To be eligible for a refund, the transaction must be:

• Less than 90 days old.
• An eligible payment method. Some payment methods, such as Interac, must be refunded to a present card.
• Not have been previously refunded.

Sales that do not meet these requirements will need to be refunded to a different payment type or to a present card through Standalone Mode.

Sales that are currently involved in a chargeback dispute should not be refunded without first contacting Lightspeed Payments support.

Refunding a sale through the Back Office

Sales can be fully or partially refunded in the Financial Services tab of your Lightspeed Back Office. This option is ideal when refunding at the POS isn't possible, such as for sales made in Standalone mode or during a previous business day.

Refunds processed through the Back Office will appear in your Lightspeed Payments reporting but not in other reports. In some regions, you can create a transaction within the Back Office to adjust its reporting to account for this type of refund.

Performing a Back Office refund

In your Back Office, refund a sale to return its payment to the customer independent of their original order.

1. In your Lightspeed Back Office, navigate to Financial Services > Payments.
2. Search for the payment you wish to refund.
3. Click on the payment to open the details.
4. Click Refund.
   
5. Enter the amount to be refunded and a note if applicable.
6. (Optional) Click Email Receipt.
7. Click Done.

Once the refund has been completed, the amount will be deducted from that day's settlement total. Refunds typically take 2-7 business days to settle to your customer's account.

Adjusting Back Office reporting

In some regions, you can adjust Back Office reports to reflect the payments you refund via the Financial Services tab. To do this, create a Back Office transaction from the Receipt Report to record a negative adjustment to your revenue.

1. Access the Receipt Report in the Back Office.
2. Use the calendar icon in the upper-right corner to select the day that you processed the Back Office refund.
3. Click Create new transaction.

   

4. Specify the Description, Amount, Payment method, Transaction owner, and Accounting group.
   • Description: Enter a description of the transaction. This will appear in the Products and Product Mix reports as the name of a product you returned.
   • Amount: Enter a negative value equal to the refund you previously processed. For tax-inclusive countries, use the total including taxes. For tax-exclusive countries, use the amount before taxes. For example, you’d enter -25 if you refunded $25 with VAT included.
   • Payment method: Select the payment method for the transaction, which is used only for reporting purposes.
   • Transaction owner: Select the POS user who handled the transaction to include it in this person’s Staff Report.
   • Accounting group: Select an accounting group to classify the transaction’s negative revenue. This selection also determines the applicable taxes for the transaction The accounting group itself will appear in the Products and Product Mix reports.

   To make it easier to track revenue from the transactions you create in the Back Office, consider creating a dedicated payment method, POS user, and/or accounting group called Back Office corrections (or similar).

5. (Optional) Include Tip, Payment method for gratuity, and Available tags.
6. Click Create Transaction.

   

7. Since you're modifying past sales data, enter a meaningful reason for the change.
8. Click Confirm.
9. Click Reload data to refresh the listed receipts. Receipts created in the back office appear in yellow, with BackOffice listed as the device.

Refunding a sale through the POS

Depending on the POS user permissions you’ve configured in the Back Office and your POS configuration, you can refund receipts directly from the POS. 

Standalone sales cannot be refunded from the POS and must either be refunded from the Back Office or from the terminal itself.

The ability to refund items on a receipt with Lightspeed Payments is currently in beta and is available to select merchants. To inquire about partial refunds, contact your account manager.

To refund a receipt:

1. Log on to Restaurant POS with your Lightspeed username and password.
2. Navigate to Receipts in the navigation menu.
3. From the Receipts screen, locate the receipt you wish to edit.
4. When you have selected the desired receipt to edit, tap Receipt actions.
5. Tap Refund.
6. Select the items you wish to refund.
7. Tap continue to refund reason.
8. Select the reason for the refund.
9. Tap Continue.
10. Tap Refund.

Once the refund has been completed, the amount will be deducted from that day's settlement total. Refunds typically take 2-7 business days to settle to your customer's account. 

FAQs

• No. Sales paid for via Interac must be refunded to a different payment type or to a present card.

• No. Preauth sales must be captured before a refund can take place. If the payment has not yet been processed, you can cancel the payment instead.

• To be eligible for a refund, the transaction must be:

  • Less than 90 days old.
  • An eligible payment method. Some payment methods, such as Interac, must be refunded to a present card.
  • Not previously refunded
  • Not currently involved in an active chargeback dispute against it.

  If you are unsure why the refund option has been disabled, contact support.

• To process refunds on the POS, you must select Enable refund processing on the POS for Lightspeed Payments on your POS configuration. Additionally, you must also be logged into a user account with the refund permission.

• No. Once a refund has been initiated, the refund cannot be canceled. If the refund was processed in error, the card will have to be charged again for the correct amount with the customer’s consent.

• Once a refund to a customer's credit card has been initiated, the cardholder can expect their funds to settle into their account in 2-7 business days, depending on their bank's policies.