Refund the amount you're giving back rather than the whole ticket. The order tracks the running total refunded and stays partially refunded until nothing is left. Each tender reverses the way it arrived: cash from the drawer, guest credit to the balance, charge to site as a negative line on the folio, card back to the card it came from.
The family in site 14 ordered three bundles Wednesday night. Thursday it rained all day, they burned one, and at checkout they hand back two, still wrapped, still dry. You're going to take them back. The question is what happens to the money, the folio, and the count on the shelf.
Can you refund part of a sale?
Refunds are partial and they add up. Take back one bundle today and another tomorrow, and the order tracks the running total refunded against it. While there's still a balance the order reads as partially refunded, and it flips to fully refunded only when nothing is left. Leave the amount blank and it refunds whatever remains.
That distinction sounds small until you're the one reconciling. An order marked refunded that was only half refunded is a hole in your numbers that nothing else will catch.
Where does the refunded money go?
This is the part that keeps your books honest, and it's worth knowing before you're standing at the counter with a guest waiting.
Where the money goes
For the family in site 14, nothing was ever charged to a card. The order was on their folio, so the refund is a credit on that folio and their checkout total is $20.33 lighter. No card to hand over, no cash out of the drawer, no envelope.
When one order was paid across more than one tender, the refund is allocated in a fixed order: the folio first, then guest credit, then cash. Fixed order matters. A refund that picks a different path each time makes a shift impossible to reconcile.
Does a refund put the stock back?
When the whole sale comes back, the items go back on the count automatically, the same way a voided order restocks. Two dry bundles are two bundles you can sell tonight, and the stock ledger carries the movement with the reason attached, so the shelf count and the sales record don't drift apart.
What does the refund history show?
Every refund event on an order is kept as its own line: the date, the amount, the items, and who approved it. Not a single "refunded" flag, a log. Two weeks later, when the guest emails asking why their card shows one amount and the folio shows another, the answer is on the screen in front of you rather than in someone's memory of a rainy Thursday.
Refunds are manager level, which is the right default for a store staffed by seasonal help. The clerk hands the bundles back and calls a manager, and the approval is on the record.
The refund you can explain in November is worth more than the twenty dollars it moved in August.
Should you void it or refund it?
One rule to teach at the counter. If the sale hasn't been paid yet, void it: the order cancels and the stock returns. If money already moved, refund it. Voids are for mistakes made in the last thirty seconds. Refunds are for everything else, and they leave a trail because they should.