Refund Report

Refunds play an important role as they ensure that customers are reimbursed if they’re unsatisfied with your products or services. Managing refunds is crucial to keeping customers happy by providing them a better experience with your store.

Report Pundit’s Refund Report records the details of money returned by a Shopify merchant to unsatisfied customers when they return the product/service. These reports help the merchant keep track of the refunds issued, monitor customer satisfaction and have a proper record of financial transactions for filing taxes.

The refunds could be partial or in full. Full refunds are when the entire amount paid by the customer is refunded. Partial refunds, as the name suggests, refer to part of an order total that is refunded. For example, if a single item is returned from an order of 5 products, the merchant will provide a partial refund for the returned item. If all the products are returned, the merchant will initiate a full refund.

Sometimes, refunds are issued even when the products are not returned. For example, shipping refunds, refunds on products whose values are much lower than the shipping cost, and perishable products.

How the Refund Process Works

Let's assume that Great Artworks, an e-commerce store, offers a clear refund policy for returned items. A customer named Michael decides to return a sculpture, entitling him to a refund equal to the price of the artwork. The cost of return shipping is the customer's responsibility and not included in the refund. For example, if Michael buys the sculpture for $200 and decides to return it, he'll be refunded $200 provided he covers the return shipping cost.

In some cases, Great Artworks will refund both the product AND shipping cost. This can occur if an item is defective, damaged, or not as described. Let's say Sally buys the same artwork as Michael and receives a damaged sculpture. She originally paid $30 for shipping; upon return, she'll be refunded the total amount of $230 ($200 + $30). Refunding both product and shipping cost for defective items is a common policy for customer satisfaction.

Data Fields in the Refund report

• Date: the date on which the refund was issued. The date will usually be a few days after the order date as very few orders are refunded on the same day
• Order Name: the order name related to which the refund has been issued
• Product Title: name of the product for which the refund was issued. When refunds are not issued for a product, the refund values will be shown as zero against the product column
• Returned Quantity: the total number of items returned by the customer
• Transaction Date: the date and time when the transaction occurred
• Net Refund: Similar to Net Sales, the Net Refund deducts the discounts offered and gives only the net value of the amount to be returned
• Shipping Refund: the shipping amount that is refunded for the order
  
• Tax Refund: the tax amount related to the product that’s been refunded
• Total Refund: the amount of refund that is issued. It includes the shipping and tax amount and excludes any discount offered as part of the product/order

How to view the Refund Report

Viewing the Commission Report is fairly simple. Just follow these few steps:

1. Go to ‘Library’ on your Report Pundit app.
2. Click ‘Sales & Order Reports’.
3. Select ‘Refund Report’.
4. Alternatively, you can search “Refund Report” in the search bar in the library.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why do I need the Refund Report?

The Refund Report lists all the refunds the merchant has issued for a selected time frame. The refunds are tracked so the customers are correctly reimbursed for the dissatisfied product or service.

• What purposes does the Refund Report serve?

The Refund Report is used for the following reasons:

1. Track the refund amount to be issued to customers
2. Pay taxes based on adjusted sales to government entities
3. Helps the merchant identify refund reason patterns

• Can I include the refund reasons in the report?

Report Pundit offers the flexibility to add the refund reason information in your report. You can add new fields on your own, or contactsupport@reportpundit.com and our support team will add them for you.

• Where can I run the Commission Report in Report Pundit?

Report Pundit App -> Library -> Sales & Order Reports -> Refund Report