When a customer's own change leaves them owed money, and you have not turned on automatic refunds, Tacey holds the refund for you. Open the order in Tacey and click Approve refund. Tacey checks the amount with Shopify once more and sends it.
When a refund waits for you
Refunds wait for your approval when Refund customers automatically is off, which is the default. That covers:
a customer who applied a discount after checkout with Apply a discount, and chose to get the difference back to their card;
a customer who swapped to a cheaper product with Replace product;
a customer who lowers a quantity or removes an item with Change quantity or remove items. This includes an item that was charged import duty, and an order where you chose to refund shipping on a partial reduction (see below). The customer is told the store will review the refund; they are not turned away.
A refund from a cancellation is not held here.
How to approve it
Open Orders and choose Needs your action, or click Show these orders on the Home card.
Open the order. At the top you will see A refund is waiting for your approval, with the note: "The customer's own change left them owed money on this order. Nothing has been refunded yet."
Click Approve refund.
That is it. There is no amount to type.
What happens when you click
Tacey does not trust a figure saved earlier. It asks Shopify what the customer is owed right now, then refunds exactly that, once. For a lowered or removed item the money goes where the Where the refund goes setting of Change quantity or remove items says: back to the original payment method, or store credit. The order page shows the destination before you click and again afterwards.
The amount you see on the order page is the one Approve will send. The ledger and the notification show the amount at the moment the customer edited, and say so. If the two differ, trust the order page.
If the customer made more than one change that each left money owed, the page tells you: "This one refund covers more than one change the customer made on this order." You approve once and they get one refund for the total.
The result messages
Message | What it means |
"Refund sent. The ledger records it." | Done. The money is on its way back to the customer. |
"Shopify no longer shows this customer as owed money, so no refund was sent. The ledger records why." | Someone already refunded them, for example by hand in Shopify, or the balance changed. Nothing was sent twice. |
"Shopify did not accept the refund. Nothing was sent; the ledger records Shopify's reason so you can refund by hand." | Refund them yourself in Shopify. The reason is on the order's ledger. |
"Shopify could not be reached. Nothing was recorded as sent; try again in a minute." | A temporary problem. Click Approve refund again shortly. |
"There is no refund waiting on this order any more." | It was already handled. |
When the refund includes shipping or import duty
The Change quantity or remove items tool has a setting, Also refund shipping on a partial reduction. It is off by default, so no shipping is refunded unless you turn it on. What the order page shows depends on it.
Situation | What the order page shows | What one click of Approve does |
The setting is off and the order paid for shipping | The item refund, and a line such as "Shipping ($15.00) is not part of this refund. Refund it in Shopify yourself if you want to." | Sends the item refund only. Shipping stays with the customer's order until you refund it yourself in Shopify |
The setting is on and the order paid for shipping | Item refund and Shipping and duty refund, each with its amount, and "These go out as two refunds, the items first and then the shipping and duty." | Sends the item refund, then the shipping and duty refund. Each is sent once |
The customer removed an item that carried import duty | Usually one Item refund, with "Shopify lists no separate shipping or duty refund for this order, so this is one refund." | Sends the one refund. Shopify has already counted the duty inside it. The order then reads "Import duty was included in the items refund" and is settled. Nothing more is sent |
You added a charge after the edit, so the items net to nothing owed | "The items net to nothing owed to the customer, and the shipping and duty refund below is still sent." | Sends only the shipping and duty refund |
Two held refunds on the order go to different places (the card and store credit) | A message that the two refunds go to different places | Sends nothing. Refund the customer by hand in Shopify, then click Approve refund again: Tacey sees nothing is owed and records that the refund was made outside Tacey |
Every figure is Shopify's own, read at the moment you open the order. If it changes before you click, nothing is sent and you see the new figures.
"I refunded this by hand in Shopify"
If you already refunded the customer in Shopify, use this button to tell Tacey. It records the refund you made and sends nothing. If the items are still owed to the customer, it does not close the refund: it tells you there is nothing to record yet and asks you to approve the refund instead.
Clicking twice is safe
Approving uses the same reference each time, so if you click twice, or two people approve at once, Shopify sends one refund, not two.
What this does NOT do
It never refunds more than the customer paid.
It does not let you change the amount. To refund a different amount, refund by hand in Shopify. If you then click Approve refund, Tacey sees nothing is owed any more and sends nothing.
It does not choose a destination for you. Discount and replace refunds go to the original payment method. A removed or lowered item goes where you set Where the refund goes; to change it, change that setting before the customer edits.
The refund never expires. It waits for you as long as it takes, which is also why it is worth checking Action needed regularly: your customer is waiting too.
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