Introduction

Refunds are a common part of any e-commerce business—whether you're dealing with cancellations, product issues, or customer dissatisfaction. With circuly, refunds can be managed efficiently while giving you full control over what gets refunded and how much.

circuly not only handles the transactional communication triggered by the refund but also allows you to customise the refund amount, taking into account factors like delivery costs, usage time, or repairs.

Tip: This process can also be automated using circuly’s API. See our API docs for more.

Article overview

• Overview
• Payments that can be refunded
• Checking whether a payment can be refunded
• Choose what to refund
• Refunding the same invoice more than once
• Step-by-step guide for circuly users

1. Payments that can be refunded

Refunds can be processed for:

• Recurring payments
• One-time payments (e.g., initial payment, shipping costs etc.)
• Buyout payments

2. Checking whether a payment can be refunded

You can only refund payments that have already been charged. If a payment is uncharged or scheduled for the future, the Refund option will be disabled (greyed out).

To check charge status:
Look at the "Paid" column in the Invoices tab.

If the column isn't visible:

• Click on the eye icon (top-right corner of the table)
• Check the box for "Paid" to enable the column

3. Choose what to refund

Once the refund window is open, every line item on the invoice—the product itself, shipping, insurance, and so on—is listed separately, with its own quantity, price, and refund amount field.

Option 1: Full refund

• Switch on the Full refund toggle to refund every line item at its full amount in one action.

Option 2: Refund specific line items

• Leave "Full refund" off and check the box next to the line item(s) you want to refund.

Option 3: Custom (partial) amount

• With a line item checked, edit the value in its Refund amount field to enter any amount up to what's still refundable on that line.
• Useful when deducting delivery, repair, or other costs, or refunding only part of a period.

The window totals show:

• Total refund—what you're about to process now
• Refundable amount—the maximum still available for that line item

4. Refunding the same invoice or order more than once

If you need to do another refund on the same invoice you can do so as long as there is an amount connected to it that hasnt already been fully refunded.

• The window will show what's already been refunded and what's still refundable, per line item.
• A line item that has been fully refunded is greyed out and can no longer be selected.
• A line item with a remaining balance stays selectable, and can be refunded again—fully or partially—as many times as needed until nothing is left on it.

5. Step-by-step: How to process a refund

Step 1: Find the invoice

• Go to the Invoices tab in your circuly Hub
• Click on the Invoice ID (coloured text) to open the invoice detail view

Step 2: Open the refund window

• Click the Refund invoice button in the invoice window

Step 3: Choose what to refund

• Toggle Full refund ON to refund everything, or
• Check the line item(s) you want to refund and, if needed, edit the Refund amount field to enter a custom value.

Step 4: Add a message to customer (optional)

Use the Message to customer field to add a note for the refund email.

Note: This will only show in the refund email if your Refund Invoice email template includes the variable {{description}}.

Final step: Confirm refund

• Double-check the refund amount (displayed on the Refund € button)
• Click Refund to complete the process

Once processed:

• The payment status updates to refunded
• A Refund Invoice is emailed to the customer

‍

‍