Register 4: Returns, Exchanges, and Voids

October 01, 2024

This step will teach you how to find previous transactions in order to process refunds, exchange items, or to void the transaction entirely. You will also learn how to do returns and exchanges for transactions that did not go through our point of sale system. Other Register operations such as how to work with your Classes and Reward points are also covered below.

To enlarge the video screen, please click the Full Screen button in the lower right of the video window, just to the left of the Vimeo logo.

More Operations in the Register

In the previous step, you learned the Register basics, and worked your way through a test transaction. There are other Register operations you will need to know how to do, and in this step you will learn about the following items:

Opening and Closing Procedures
Working with Classes
Managing Reward Points
Register Returns
'Legacy' Returns
Exchanges
Voiding Transactions
Changing a Transaction After the Purchase

Additional Register Features

You can get to this part of the system when you first log in by clicking on the Register button on the left.

Till Opening and Closing Procedures

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We have a Shift Management feature that will track all tender types you work with throughout the day and which allows you to Pay In or Pay Out from the Register as needed. You also get a report that shows you what the system tracked and helps you count the cash in your drawer. Click here for more info (this link will open in a new browser tab): Shift Management

Working with Classes

You can add Class registrations to your Register the same way you add your products. First you will want to make sure to have the Customer name loaded into the Register so that the class registration will properly show their name and will be associated with their account. If you have created a class and if it has upcoming sessions, you can search for it and select it from the drop list (see below). Note that your products will display a Price Tag icon and other types of items might have other icons and your classes will display a Graduation Cap icon in the drop list and also in their line item entry.

Once you have clicked on the appropriate class, a Available Classes side panel will pop up with upcoming sessions listed. You'll be able to see the available seats for each session, if you have set those for the class, and you can click on the session you want to register it for this participant.

After you have selected your class, you'll see a list of dates and times for any sessions in the series, if it has them. Please note that in your Register, you are able to overbook a class if you want. The system assumes you know more than it does about class seats you have available, so if you add a line item for a class that has no available seats the system will show you how many seats you're overbooking. If you need to purchase more than one seat for a class, you'll need to search for it again and add it to the Register again for the session you need. For everything else, the line item will behave as you would expect in the Register, meaning you can apply discounts (if you have set the class to be eligible for discounts on its Pricing tab) and will generate Reward points (if you are using that system, and if you have set the class to be eligible for Rewards on its Pricing tab). You can check out with the class registration and the customer can pay for it in the normal way. For more info on how to work with creating and working with your classes, click here: Classes.

Managing Rewards from the Register

What do you do if a transaction goes through and one or more of the products didn't generate reward points as they should have? What happens if there's a mistake with a customer's Reward Coupon and it accidentally gets deleted? You have control over the Reward Points and Reward Coupons for your customers, and you can always adjust them or work with them as needed. Here is how.

If you haven't yet configured your Rewards program, click here to do so: Point of Sale Settings: Customer.

When you have a Customer loaded into your Register, you can see how much they need to spend to earn a Reward Coupon, and if they earn a Reward, the system will let the sales clerk know at that time (if you have set it to do so, see Settings link above). To work with a Customer's Rewards from the point of sale Register, click on the Customer's name and in the Edit Customer panel, click on the Settings tab.

If you know the Customer should not be in your Rewards program, you and turn Off the Rewards Eligibility, and none of their purchases will generate Reward Points (by default, this is set to On). You can manually adjust the current number of points the Customer has in the Rewards Accrual field. You can also look at the customer's Reward Coupons by clicking the View Coupons button. You can see a list of all Reward Coupons the Customer has earned, see which have been Redeemed (and you can click on the Transaction ID in the Redeemed column to view the transaction where they were used and in the Issued column for the transaction in which they were earned). On the far right you can click to delete a Reward Coupon. If for any reason you need to create a Coupon for the Customer, click the Add Reward Coupon button.

You can click the Rewards History button to see a list of all added, edited, and removed reward points. If a Manual Adjustment was made, you can click the Talk Bubble icon to view the Reason for the adjustment. You can also click the Transaction ID for each transaction that generated reward points to see the full transaction details. Coupon entries will show when reward points were reduced to create a new Reward Coupon.

Register Returns

There are several ways you can access completed transactions in order to process Register Returns (return transactions on purchases that were completed in the Rain point of sale Register).

The easiest way is to scan the barcode on the original transaction receipt into the area where you scan products. If the transaction went through the Rain system, the details will pull up immediately.
You can load the Customer into the Register, click on any of the Customer Action icons in the upper right, and on the right side of the Customer Actions panel find the transaction in the list. Click on it to load it into the Register. You can use the Search tab to search by transaction or item among the completed transactions.
You can load the Customer into the Register, click on their name, and go to their History tab to find the transaction. Click on it to load it into the Register. You can use the Search tab to search by transaction or item among the completed transactions.
If you don't know the Customer's name, you can go to Reports and click on the End of Day and go to the day the transaction happened and find it in the list of Transactions at the bottom of the report. Click on the ID to open the transaction.
If you don't know the Customer's name or the date or even the total amount of the transaction, you can go to the Transaction Detail or the Sales Details report, set a time frame in which you know the transaction happened, then search for the item being returned. A list of all separate transactions including that product for that date range will load, and you can find the one you want and click on the Transaction ID to open it.

Once you are in the Transaction View, click the Return Items button to begin processing your Return. Please note that if you don't have a Customer name loaded, you will not be able to return to On Account.

The Return panel will open on the side and you'll see a list of all items eligible to be returned (they will have a red arrow). Click on any Items Purchased that are being returned and then Close the panel.

You will see the items being returned as line items in the Register, but they are slightly different from your normal line items:

Item Description - The title of the item, any Options for it (e.g. Color: Red), and whether or not the item will be restocked is displayed here.
Price - You can, if needed, edit this price, but the system will have already loaded the original selling price for the item here.
Quantity - By default, all items purchased in the line item will be here as a negative quantity. For example, if Tyler had bought three of the Aras Eagle Packs, it would display a -3 here, and if he was only returning one of them, the Quantity could be changed to -1.
Restock - In the normal Register, the blue pencil is for line item discounts, but in a Return, the discounts will have already been accounted for, so the function of the blue pencil is to Restock the item (default) or to not restock it.
Refund Options - Once you have your line item(s) configured, click the Return button to choose how the funds will be returned.

When the Refund Options panel opens, the amount being refunded will automatically be loaded into one of the payment method boxes. If you wish for the funds to go back a different way, in order to choose how the funds go back to the Customer, you can change the field that has an amount in it to $0, and that amount will automatically be loaded into the Remaining area. Click on the amount field for the method you want to use, and the total that's in the Remaining field will load in there without you having to type it in. Please note that if Credit was not used as a payment method in the original transaction, you do not have the option of returning to a credit or debit card account.

In our example, the customer originally paid with cash, but the store is opting to return the funds to Store Credit. One the refund is set completely, click Close to finish our allocation.

With all of the return funds fully accounted for, the Register will be ready to complete the Return. You'll see each of the payment methods listed as this example: Refund: Account. Click the Complete button to finish the Refund Transaction and print or email the receipt.

'Legacy' Returns

For items that were purchased before you started using our point of sale system, you are still able to process what are known as Legacy Returns. This can be an anonymous return that does not need to include a Customer. Please note that if you don't have a Customer name loaded, you will not be able to return to On Account. This method of returning items is quite simple: just search for the item being returned (or click the blue + button to create it), and then give it a -1 Quantity (or whatever negative number is needed for however many items the Customer is returning). The Register will automatically change to the Return view, and you can process the Return using the steps described above.

Exchanges

Exchanges are equally simple in the Rain point of sale system. Begin with the item(s) being returned, as in our example above. Add the line item for the Return and give it the appropriate negative Quantity to set the line item as a Return. Complete the Return transaction first, by itself. The reason you want to separate the transactions is so your reporting will accurately show your Profit Margins on the items. If you were to do them both in the same transaction, it would result in showing a 0% profit margin on the sale.

After you've completed the Return, add whatever item(s) the Customer is purchasing for the Exchange into a new transaction, and the transaction can be completed in the normal way.

Voiding Transactions

To Void a transaction, you need to reopen it using one of the methods described above in the Register Returns area (scanning the original receipt, clicking the Customer name in the Register and finding it in the History tab, finding the transaction in the End of Day report, or searching for it by item in the Transaction Detail report).

Once you've loaded the Transaction View, click the Void button below. A strong warning will pop up. Of particular importance is that once the Void is done, it cannot be undone or adjusted in any way: it will reverse everything that happened in the transaction. If you are sure you want to proceed with the operation, click Void Anyway. At that point, the only way to view the transaction will be to look in the Customer's History, or in the Voided Transactions report.

Editing a Transaction After the Purchase

Sometimes you need to make changes after a purchase has already gone through. Perhaps it's a transaction that you've already taken money for, and you just need to enter it into the system for the date it happened. Or maybe you accidentally entered the wrong payment method. There are several things you can adjust in a transaction that's already completed, and here are your options:

Date - Clicking the blue pencil next to the original Date of the transaction will pop up a calendar and you can go to the date you need and click on it.
Clerk - You can click on the pencil next to the Clerk name if you need to change the sales clerk that did the transaction.
Sales Rep - If you use the sales Commissions system, you can add or edit the Sales Rep for the transaction if you have permission in the system to do so.
Customer - You can change who the Customer was by clicking the blue pencil near Customer. The system will allow you to Search for the customer you want and click on the name in the drop-list that comes up.
Public Notes - This area for notes print out on the receipt.
Private Notes - In this area you can add or edit notes that are internal to your team only.
Shipping Address - If you are shipping the order, you can edit the address if needed using this link.
Commissionable - If you click this pencil icon, each of the line items in the transaction will have a checkbox that will allow the item to generate sales commissions, if needed.
Payment Methods - What do you do if you selected the wrong payment method when originally running a transaction? In this area, you can click on a Payment Method to change it to something else. Please note that changing a payment method to Credit does not give you the option of running the charge on a card. If you need to do that and you use our integrated processing, you will need to Void the original order and recreate it in your Register. In the same way, you do not have the option of changing the actual amounts charged or the products themselves, and to make changes in those areas, you will need to Void the current transaction and recreate it in your Register.
Edit Transaction - If you need to edit the line items, quantities, Tax Profile, shipping, or discounts on a transaction you can click this button and a view of the transaction will load for you. Please note, this will not allow you to charge more to a card than was originally charged in the transaction. Once your changes have been made, you can click to Update Transaction and the changes will be saved.

Once you have completed your changes, the bottom of the panel will have a Save button you can click to finalize the transaction adjustments.

How can we help?

Register 4: Returns, Exchanges, and Voids