How to issue a return if a customer has lost a check: search by customer, discount card or product

A situation where a customer wants to return a product but has lost the receipt is one of the most common in retail. To handle such cases, Torgsoft provides a special mode called «Return without a Receipt». 

Business owners and cashiers often ask: how to find the required transaction in the database so as not to refund extra money, how to prevent fraud by customers, and how to correctly process the operation if the product was purchased by a non-identified customer. 

This mode is needed to maintain customer loyalty, comply with consumer protection legislation, and at the same time keep warehouse and financial accounting accurate by strictly linking the return to an actual previous sale in the system.

Below is a complete instruction on how to process such a return in different ways.

Returning a product using a discount card or identified customer data

If the customer is in your customer database and has a discount card, finding their purchase is very easy, even without a paper receipt.

1. Go to the menu item «Document» — «Return».

2. Create a new return document by clicking the «Create Return» button, or use the keyboard shortcut «Ctrl + F4».

3. Scan the barcode of the customer’s discount card, first placing the cursor in the «Barcode» field.

4. If the customer has a discount card registered in the system but does not have it with them, select the customer manually from the directory using the «Select Customer» button.

5. After the customer is entered, information from their personal card will be displayed on the «Customer Information» panel.

6. To select a product, click the «Select from the List of Sales» button, or press the «F11» key.

7. In the list that opens, only the products purchased by this specific customer will be displayed.

8. Select the product to be returned. The document will show the same product quantity as in the sale. If the customer returns only part of the quantity, select the product, open the editing form using the «Edit» button, and enter the required quantity.

9. After specifying the products, click the «Refund Money» button.

Returning a product by barcode for non-identified customers

If the customer was not added to the database and made the purchase as a regular «Customer», and has lost the receipt, the sale can be found directly by scanning the product itself.

1. In the «Return» form, create a return document using the «Create Return» button, or press «Ctrl + F4».

2. Scan the barcode of the product brought by the customer.

3. The program will open the «List of Sales» form, where all sales of this specific product will be shown.

4. There is also another method without scanning the product: click the «Select from the List of Sales» button, or press «F11». To see products sold to unknown customers, make sure to enable the «Sales to Customer» switch in the list window.

5.   Find the required sale in the list, using the date and time the customer may remember as a reference, select the product, and refund the customer using the «Refund Money» button, or press the «F6» key.

Important conditions and restrictions when processing returns

• Return period control. The program automatically controls how much time has passed since the purchase. Product returns are possible only within the period specified in the program settings: Settings — Parameters — General — Maximum return period. If the number of days since the purchase exceeds this period, the program will display a notification and block the operation. According to Ukrainian legislation, the 14-day return period is calculated without including the day of purchase itself.

• Filter by stores, or Accounting Center. By default, the list of sales displays only products purchased at the current accounting center, meaning your store. If the customer purchased the product in another store of your retail chain, you can display it by clearing the «Accounting Center» filter using the «Delete» button.

• Refund method. When paying money back for a product, the program allows you to choose the compensation method. If the customer paid by bank card, it is recommended to select the checkbox «Return in the same form in which the payment for the product was made». In this case, the money will be refunded by cashless payment through the bank terminal using the same details. If the payment was made to the company’s current account, select «Return everything from the current account».