Receipts, Refunds, and Exchanges

Receipt register — a history of all sales for each location. Each receipt is an immutable snapshot of a payment: what was purchased, for what amount, by which method, by which cashier, and during which shift. Based on a receipt, you can issue a refund or exchange directly from the POS interface.

Open: Admin Panel → POS → "Receipts" (🧾 icon in the POS menu). There is no separate "Receipts" section in the sidebar — the register lives inside the POS.

Receipt Register#

Each location maintains its own receipt numbering — numbers run sequentially and do not repeat. The register displays:

sale date and time;
receipt number and associated order number;
items, quantities, and totals;
payment method — cash, card, online, gift card, "on credit", corporate account, as well as split payments (part cash, part card) — amount due and change;
cashier and shift;
type: Sale, Refund, or Advance — an advance receipt for an order that is not yet closed; the advance button appears only where the POS is connected to a fiscal device capable of printing such receipts (Russia, 54-FZ).

The receipt is printed as a tax receipt — with seller details and a breakdown of tax amounts by rate — if a tax number is specified in the location details. The country itself does not affect anything: locations where receipts are printed by a fiscal registrar (Georgia, Russia) simply leave these fields blank, and the receipt prints as before. The type of number (VAT, GST, ABN, TRN, INN, TIN) only changes the field label when printed. A refund inherits the details and proportional share of the tax from the original receipt — as a snapshot from the moment of sale, not from current settings.

Receipts can be reprinted at any time — using the "Print" button next to each receipt in the history.

Printing and Reprinting#

Sale and refund receipts are printed on a thermal printer via Cenaly Hardware Bridge, with browser print fallback. If the printer is offline, the job is queued in the bridge — this is a distinct outcome, meaning that the guest has not yet received the receipt. Learn more in Kitchen and Dining Area Printing.

Fiscal and non-fiscal locations are different stories. If the location hardware includes only a fiscal registrar, the bridge does not print our receipt through it and the browser fallback is not triggered: the POS reports that the fiscal cash register itself is printing the receipt — and that is true, the guest received the document. If there is no fiscal registrar at the location at all, the POS displays a "Non-fiscal mode" badge explaining that "what the POS prints is not a fiscal receipt," and the receipts themselves include the line "Not a fiscal document."

Reprinting an issued receipt is always logged in the sensitive operations log — swapping a guest's receipt is a classic way to siphon money from the cash register. It does not prompt everyone for a manager PIN: only staff roles with "reprint under PIN" enabled. See Loss Prevention.

A receipt refund is also an operation recorded in this log.

Receipt Refund#

Refunds are processed from the receipt history. Available only with an open POS shift.

Full Refund#

Click "Refund" on the desired receipt and select "Entire receipt". The system will refund the full amount, including service charge and tips.

Partial Refund#

Select specific items and specify the quantity to refund. You cannot refund more than was sold: the system checks the remaining balance taking into account previous refunds for the same receipt.

A partial refund returns the cost of the items themselves: service charge and tips are refunded in full only with a full receipt refund. Tax (where present on the receipt) is recalculated proportionally to the refunded amount.

Refund Method#

When processing a refund, specify:

Refund method — cash or card;
Reason — custom text (a list of reasons can be preset: "Settings" → "Orders" → "Refund reasons").

If the refund is issued in cash, the amount is automatically recorded as a payout from the current POS shift — the transaction is immediately visible in the POS report.

A card refund is processed on the payment terminal itself if the original sale contained a terminal transaction ID and the terminal is connected to the bridge: the POS sends a refund command to the terminal, and the operator confirms it on the device. Without these conditions, the refund remains only a record in the log, and the operator refunds the money manually.

Where supported by the POS, a fiscal "refund receipt" is additionally printed.

After saving, a new receipt of type "Refund" is created with a negative amount, linked to the original sales receipt.

Return to Inventory#

Returned items are always returned to inventory: the system automatically restores stock balances for each return line item with a separate document — this is visible in the Inventory section as a guest return. There is no separate "return to inventory" checkbox, and automatic restocking cannot be disabled.

If the item was returned damaged or spoiled and cannot be resold, write it off using a separate inventory document.

Item Exchange#

Exchange is a two-step process:

Return — process a return based on the original receipt (full or partial).
New order — the POS opens an empty ticket, already marked as "Exchange". Add the new items and process the payment as usual.

This way, each step has its own receipt, and the history remains transparent.

Refunds in Financial Reports#

All refunds are accounted for in the Finance section:

"Refunds" KPI — the total amount of refunds for the period;
refunds are deducted from revenue — the final figures reflect net turnover;
refund dynamics are compared with the previous period.

This allows you to track the reasons and frequency of refunds and make quality-related decisions.

What you need to get started#

A receipt rung up on the POS — the registry consists of immutable snapshots of payments; entries are not created by hand.
A role and a PIN — refunds and reprints above the threshold are confirmed by a manager and written to the risk log.
Inventory switched on — if a refund should return stock (Inventory).
The bridge and a printer — to print the refund receipt and reprints.

Limitations#

⚠️ The registry runs on the AWS contour. On the Russian brand (cenaly.ru) functions built on the analytics databases are unavailable, so receipt history is not built there.
There is no separate sidebar section — the registry lives inside the POS.
Refunding one guest's share of a split bill is not implemented: if guests split the bill, the refund is issued in full from the POS.
One gift card applies to an order once; a physical card with a barcode does not exist yet — only a certificate code.
Offline you get the last snapshot of the registry, while the refund record itself joins the queue and leaves when the connection is back.

Troubleshooting#

The receipt is not in the registry. Check the location — the registry is kept per point of sale. On the Russian brand there is no registry at all.

The refund will not go through. A manager PIN is required; also check that the receipt belongs to this location and has not already been refunded in full.

The refund did not return stock. Returning to stock is a separate step of the flow: it only happens if inventory is switched on and the item has a recipe card or a product card.

A reprint asks for confirmation. That is by design: above the threshold a reprint is confirmed by a manager and recorded in the log.

A fiscal refund did not print on the POS. Check the bridge and the fiscal printer: if the model does not support the required document type, the refund is recorded in the registry but no fiscal receipt is produced.

POS — order taking and payment processing
Cash Shift — opening/closing shifts, cash payouts
Finance — revenue, KPIs, and period comparison
Inventory — stock tracking and inventory movement documents
Orders — order statuses and history
Kitchen and front-of-house printing — printing receipts through the bridge, the queue and reprints
Loss control — reprints and refunds in the risky-operations log

FAQ#

Can a refund be issued without an open shift?#

No. Issuing a refund requires an open POS shift — especially if the refund is made in cash (the amount is processed as a cash payout from the POS register). Open a shift in the POS section and retry the operation.

What happens if a single receipt is refunded multiple times?#

The system tracks all previous refunds for each item. With a partial refund, you can only return the quantity that has not yet been refunded previously. It is impossible to refund more than what was sold.

Does a refund decrease inventory stock?#

On the contrary — a refund restores inventory stock, and always does so without requiring a separate option. The original sale already depleted the stock; the refund partially or fully restores it.

Does the receipt appear immediately after payment?#

Yes. The receipt is generated automatically upon processing payment through the POS and is immediately available in the receipt history. It can also be printed from there.

Are refunds visible to staff?#

The "Receipts" log and the "Refund" button are visible to any employee whose role includes access to the "POS" section, provided their shift is open; permissions for refunds and for refunds without an original receipt are configured separately in the role's POS permissions (see POS). Financial dashboards with the "Refunds" KPI are accessible to the owner, manager, and roles with access to the "Finance" section.

🧾 Receipts & Refunds