Returns and credit notes

A return is a new document, not an erased bill

A settled bill is a tax invoice. It is never edited and never deleted. When money goes back to the customer, the product issues a credit note against that bill: a separate document, with its own number from its own series, that reverses the part of the sale being returned — the items, their tax, and the proportional share of any discount that was on those lines.

That is why your reports show a sale and a return rather than a smaller sale. Both are real events and both are auditable.

Where the button is

Returns are issued from the order's page in the back office, not from the till. Open Orders, find the settled bill, and use the return action there.

If you are standing at the till when a customer asks for a refund, the bill you need is in Orders under the same bill number that is printed on their paper.

When a return is allowed

The product refuses a return for five reasons, and it names the one that applies:

• The bill is not settled. Only a bill that was actually paid can be returned. An unpaid order is voided instead.
• The bill was complimentary. No revenue was recognised, so there is nothing to give back.
• The bill is past the return window. The window is seven days from the bill date. It is fixed for the whole deployment rather than set per kitchen, so there is no screen that changes it.
• Nothing is left to return. Every line has already been returned in full.
• That is more than was sold. You asked for more quantity than remains on a line.

Doing it

1. Open the settled bill in Orders and start the return.
2. Set the quantity to return on each line. A partial return is normal — return two of the four plates, not the whole bill.
3. Give a reason. It is recorded on the credit note.
4. Choose how the money goes back: cash, UPI, card, or onto the customer's credit book. Credit needs a customer on the original bill.
5. Approve it with a manager PIN. Every return is approval-gated, whatever the amount.

On success you get the credit-note number, and the note is sent to the printer.

The whole return is one atomic act with its own identity, so if the screen loses the answer and you submit again, the same credit note comes back — the refund is not paid twice.

Return, or void?

• Void is for an order where no money has changed hands. It needs a reason, and a manager PIN once a kitchen order has been fired. If a payment exists on the order, void refuses and points you at a return.
• Return is for money that has already been taken.

What does not work offline

A credit note needs a number from the return series, and those numbers are not reserved on the device the way sale bill numbers are. A return therefore needs a connection, and the till says so rather than queueing a credit note it cannot number. Take the customer's details and issue it once you are back online.