---
title: Refunds, voids and adjustments
slug: refunds-voids-and-adjustments
category: Payments & Billing
url: https://alaga.io/help/article/refunds-voids-and-adjustments
audiences: business_owner, manager
updated: 2026-08-20
source: Alaga Help Center
---

# Refunds, voids and adjustments
Sidebar: **Business Settings → Payment Settings → Transactions**.

**All refunds happen here**, not on the invoice, not on the appointment, and not at Checkout. Find the payment in the transactions list and refund from it.

## What you can refund

- **The full amount**
- **A partial amount** — for a service that was only half delivered, or a goodwill gesture
- **The tip only** — leaving the sale intact, which is what you want when a tip was mis-entered

Give a reason and add an internal note. The note is for you and your team, not the customer, and future-you will want it.

## What happens automatically

- **The money goes back to the original payment method.** There is no way to redirect a refund to a different card or to cash — that is a rule of card processing, not an Alaga limitation.
- **Processing fees come back proportionally.** Refund half the sale, get half the fee back.
- **A full refund returns products to stock.** If the customer brought back a bag of food, your inventory corrects itself.

## Timing

The customer will not see it immediately. Refunds typically take a few working days to appear, and can take longer depending on their bank. Tell them that at the counter or they will ring you about it in two days.

## There is no void

Alaga has no separate "void" that erases a transaction. A refund is the mechanism, and the original payment stays on the record with the refund against it.

That is the correct behaviour for your accounts — a day's takings that quietly changes after the fact is not something you want. It does mean a mistyped sale leaves two entries rather than none.

## When a refund is the wrong tool

**A price entered incorrectly, before payment.** Fix the invoice or the cart. Nothing has been charged, so there is nothing to refund.

**A customer disputing a charge with their bank.** That is a dispute, handled under **Payment Settings → Disputes**, and refunding while a dispute is open can leave you out of pocket twice. Respond to the dispute instead.

**A cash sale.** There is no card payment to reverse. Hand the money back and record it so your day still balances.

**A deposit against a cancelled booking.** Decide whether your cancellation policy means the deposit is retained. If you are returning it, refund it; if you are keeping it, do nothing — see *Rescheduling, cancelling and no-shows*.

## Who can do it

Refunds are limited to managers and owners. Front-desk staff cannot refund, which is deliberate.

## Keeping it clean

- **Refund from the original payment**, not by creating a negative sale.
- **Write the reason.** "Customer unhappy with groom" tells you something in six months; a blank field does not.
- **Check the day's End of Day report after refunding**, so the figures you close on are the ones that actually happened.