Disputes & refunds

Start refunds in Elara whenever the original payment is present there. This keeps the payment, order, inventory, gift-card balance, and customer access aligned with the money. Issuing refunds requires payments:update.

Refund a customer payment

Use this path for a completed customer payment that does not belong to a POS order:

1. Open Customers, select the customer, and find Payments & refunds.
2. Find the completed payment and select Refund.
3. Confirm the full amount and optionally enter a reason.
4. Select Issue refund.

This action refunds the entire payment to its original payment method. Provider-backed card payments cannot be partially refunded here. A POS-owned payment directs you to its order instead, because refunding only the payment would skip the order ledger.

After the provider confirms the refund, Elara marks the payment Refunded. A one-time membership or credit pack bought by that payment is cancelled, and an untouched gift card bought by it is voided. A refund does not cancel a provider-backed recurring membership or change a booking, so review those separately.

If the result says the refund is processing, do not retry it. The payment and related access remain unchanged until the provider confirms settlement. If the outcome is unknown, check the original payment in the provider before doing anything else. Retrying without checking can return the money twice.

Refund a POS order

Use this path for an order or item sold through Point of Sale:

1. Open Point of Sale and find Recent Orders.
2. Select the completed order and choose Refund.
3. Choose the available refund:
   • By item refunds the selected quantities and restocks those product units.
   • By amount refunds a flat partial amount without choosing stock to restock.
   • Full refund returns the remaining balance and restocks all remaining product units.
4. Review the amount, add an optional reason, and confirm.

Connected card charges support full refunds only. Item and amount refunds are available for record-only tenders such as cash and gift card. The gift-card-funded share of each refund is returned to the gift card. A partial amount refund does not restock products unless it closes the order's full remaining balance. Partial refunds stay in the order's refund history and leave the order Completed; when the full order total has been refunded, the order and linked payment become Refunded. Refunding every unit on a membership line cancels the access sold on that line, and a full refund removes any remaining access granted by the order.

If a connected-card refund is still pending, Elara leaves the order, inventory, and access unchanged until the provider confirms it. Do not issue another refund while it is pending.

When to use the payment provider

Use a provider or previous platform directly only when:

• you are responding to a dispute, which is managed in the provider dashboard;
• Elara identifies the payment as imported and tells you to refund it in the platform that took it; or
• Elara refuses an automatic refund because value has already been used and its error directs you to refund the remaining value manually.

Do not use a provider dashboard for an ordinary CRM or POS refund. In particular, do not issue a partial provider refund for a POS order: it cannot identify which stock or access should be reversed in Elara.

Reconcile a provider-side refund

Record the provider refund reference and amount, then return to Elara:

1. For a customer payment, open Payments & refunds. Allow the provider webhook to update the row. If Reconcile appears, use it to check the provider outcome.
2. For a POS payment, open the order in Recent Orders and confirm its refund history, order status, product stock, gift-card tender, and any access sold on the order.
3. Confirm any booking or recurring membership changes separately. A money refund alone does not cancel them.
4. If the provider shows a settled refund but Elara still differs, open Exceptions and follow the recorded repair instructions before making a manual adjustment.

Never edit or delete a provider-backed payment to imitate a refund.

Dispute workflow

1. Review the dispute in the payment provider dashboard.
2. Find the matching customer, sale, booking, or membership in Elara.
3. Collect supporting context such as attendance, waiver status, customer communication, and purchase details.
4. Submit evidence in the payment provider dashboard.
5. Track the result and reconcile any provider refund using the steps above.