Refunds and credit notes

Two separate mechanisms: a refund against a payment, and an RMA resolution against a return. They do different jobs.

Refunding a payment

On the invoice, Refund payment. Pick which payment to reverse, and optionally an amount for a partial refund. Leave the amount blank for a full one.

• If the payment came through Stripe, the refund is created on your Stripe account and the Stripe refund id is stored as the reference.
• If it was a bank transfer, cash or cheque, the reversal is recorded here and you move the money yourself.

Either way a negative payment row is written rather than the original being edited: the payment ledger is append-only, so the history of what you charged and refunded stays intact. The invoice's paid amount drops and, if it is no longer fully covered, it returns to sent. You cannot refund more than the original payment.

The RMA flow

Returns under Operate. The state machine runs:

draft → awaiting receipt → received → refunded | credited | rejected

• Mark received: puts the returned units back on the shelf. Every line with a SKU is credited to stock with the RMA number as the ledger reference.
• Issue refund: records the refund amount and closes the RMA with a refund resolution.
• Issue credit note: records the credit amount and closes the RMA with a credit-note resolution.
• Reject: closes it with your reason.

Every step writes to the activity feed against that customer, so the customer record reads back as the full story of the return.

What a credit note does not do

Issuing a credit note on an RMA records the credit and the amount. It does not raise a negative invoice in Printer's Friend, apply the credit automatically to the customer's next invoice, or write a credit note into Xero or QuickBooks. Those are manual steps today. Do not assume the ledger has it.

Similarly, Issue refund on an RMA records the intent: it does not itself move money at Stripe. If the customer paid by card and you want the money back on their card, do the refund from the invoice as well, using Refund payment.

Which to use

• They paid, they want money back: refund the payment on the invoice, and raise an RMA if garments are coming back so the stock is credited.
• They paid, they will reorder: RMA with a credit note, then apply it by hand to the next invoice.
• They have not paid: do not refund anything. Amend or void the invoice.

Stock, once

Only Mark received credits stock. Refunding or crediting does not touch inventory, because the garments either came back, in which case receiving them handled it, or they did not.

Still stuck?

Email hello@printersfriend.com and quote the name of this page. Support is on every plan, with a reply within 1 business day.