Refunds on return orders

Sterling Order Management System Software allows refunds to be processed on return orders instead of sales orders.

Typically, refunds are processed on sales orders, such as for online transactions; however, for in-store transactions, sales orders are complete at the close of the sales transaction. The process of refunding to the return order provides the ability to post refunds against multiple sales orders. Sales orders are eventually updated with the refund information from the return order. 

Sterling Order Management System Software provides this functionality through the computeRefundPayments API, which scans sales orders associated with a return order and determines the amount to refund from each sales order. The API performs the following tasks:

  • copies payment methods from the sales orders to the return order
  • derives new payment methods as necessary
  • aggregates across linked sales order and blind returns
  • limits refunds per sales order
  • supports transfer of funds to exchange orders
When posting refunds against multiple sales orders, the following criteria is considered:
  • The amount refunded from each sales order
  • The total amount refunded across sales orders
  • The amount refunded from each payment method
Requirements for refunding against multiple sales orders include:
  • Refunds to a payment method cannot exceed the total aggregated amount for that payment method across the sales orders.
  • Refunds to a payment method cannot exceed the total refunded from the sales orders that share the same payment method.

Additionally, customers can be informed of a refund before an in-store transaction is complete. Sterling Order Management System Software computes the refund, gives the customer the option to alter the refund, and then updates the sales order. This functionality provides customers with the opportunity to modify the conditions of the refund before accepting it or reject the refund altogether. For example, a customer may choose to rearrange the order of the refunded payment methods - a debit card might refund to a debit card or cash, depending on whether or not the card is available.

Note: The payment methods of a sales order associated to a return order with refund are updated with only TotalAltRefundedAmount attribute. Therefore, the collected amount on the sales order details screen does not consider the refunded amount processed on the associated return order. Therefore, you must refer to the return order details to see the exact refund amount.