Refunds, voids and store credit at the till
When a shop should void a sale, refund it or give store credit instead, who may approve each one, and how the money and stock go back.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Retail businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A customer is back with a jacket in the wrong size. Another notices, before leaving the counter, that the same item was scanned twice. A third wants to return a gift but would rather choose something else than take money. Three situations, and a shop needs three different tools for them: a void, a refund and store credit.
Mixing the tools up causes problems that surface weeks later: stock that never came back on the system, a card refund paid twice, or cash handed over with no record at all. Here is when each one fits, who may use it, and what happens to the money and the stock, for shops in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
Choosing the right tool
| Void | Refund | Store credit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Use it for | A mistake caught in the same till session | Goods returned after the sale | A customer who accepts credit instead of money |
| How much | The whole sale | All of the sale or chosen lines | The value of the returned goods |
| Stock | Returned | Put back into stock | Put back into stock |
| In the books | The sale's journal is reversed | A separate document linked to the sale | Issued as a voucher, held as owed to the customer |
| Who | Supervisor or manager | Supervisor or manager | Supervisor or manager |
Void: undoing a mistake on the spot
A void is for a sale that should never have happened: the wrong product scanned, a sale rung up twice, a customer who changed their mind before leaving the counter. In Achekam, a supervisor or manager can void a whole sale, but only during that sale's own till session. Voiding reverses the sale's journal and returns the stock.
Once the session is over, the void is gone as an option and anything further is a refund. That rule protects your cash-ups: a closed session cannot be quietly rewritten after the drawer was counted.
Refund: taking goods back after the sale
A refund is for goods coming back after the sale is complete. A supervisor or manager can refund the whole sale or only some lines, and must give a reason. The refund is its own document, linked to the original sale, and the returned goods go back into stock.
Because the refund is separate and linked, the original receipt stays as it was. Anyone checking later can see the sale, the refund, who approved it and why. If the returned item is damaged and cannot be sold again, tell whoever looks after stock, because the refund will have put it back on the books as stock.
Sending the money back the way it came
A refund should normally go back the way the customer paid. How that happens depends on the provider:
- Paystack, Flutterwave, Stripe and Pesapal. Achekam sends the refund back through the provider, and it counts as completed only once the provider confirms it.
- PayFast, Ozow, Peach and M-Pesa. The refund is made in the provider's own portal and then recorded at the till with its reference. A Kenyan shop, for example, refunds an M-Pesa payment from its M-Pesa portal, then the cashier records the reference at the till.
- Bank transfer at the counter. The refund is paid from the bank and recorded by the cashier.
- Cash. Paid from the drawer, and part of what the cash-up expects.
The risk with portal refunds is doing one half and not the other: refunding in the portal and forgetting the till, or recording at the till and never sending the money. Whoever does one half should do both, there and then.
Store credit kept as a voucher
When the customer is happy to take credit, a till refund can be given as store credit, issued as a voucher. Achekam holds a voucher as a liability until it is redeemed by its code: the shop owes the customer goods to that value, and the books say so. For South African shops, Achekam treats a voucher as lasting at least 36 months. The South African rule on when vouchers and credits may expire is in section 63 of the Consumer Protection Act.
Store credit keeps the money in the business, but it is still owed. Achekam lists expired vouchers with money left on them, and a supervisor or manager who did not issue a voucher can take its remaining balance to income. Keeping that step with someone other than the issuer stops vouchers being created and written off by the same person.
Who may approve, and why logins matter
The cashier at an Achekam till is whoever is signed in; there is no separate cashier PIN. Refunds, voids, cash paid out and discounts above the business's limit all need a supervisor or manager.
That puts weight on logins. Every member of staff needs their own, and a supervisor who signs in to approve something should sign out again before the cashier carries on, because the till acts with the rights of whoever is signed in. The same principle runs through setting cashier discount limits and through cash taken from the drawer, covered in safe drops, cash paid out and banking the takings.
A refund checklist for the counter
- Ask for the receipt, or find the sale on the till.
- Inspect the goods and decide against your returns policy.
- Call a supervisor or manager.
- Choose: void (same session only), refund, or store credit.
- Select the lines coming back and record the reason.
- Return the money the way it was paid, and record the provider's reference where the refund was made in a portal.
- Shelve the goods, or set them aside and report them if they cannot be resold.
Each of these steps leaves its trace in the ledger, which what a till sale posts to your books explains.
Most refund mistakes happen when a queue is building and nobody is sure of the rule. Print the checklist, agree who your supervisors are on each shift, and the next awkward return will be far easier to handle.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
