Refunds raised in Shopify
Yessort mirrors the refund as a return
When someone refunds an order in Shopify, Shopify tells Yessort. Yessort records it as a return against the order, raises the credit note, and puts stock back wherever the refund says to put it back.
It does not push a second refund out. Shopify has already moved the customer's money, and refunding again would pay them twice. The order's fulfilment status reads Returned as soon as the return exists — see order statuses and customer returns for the return's own lifecycle.
What decides what happens to the stock
Two questions decide it, not one. Most people only think about the second.
- Did the line dispatch?
- Was Restock ticked?
| Line dispatched | Restock ticked | What Yessort does | Where the stock ends up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | Yes | Restocks the return line | The receiving site's returns location |
| Yes | No | Scraps the return line | Discarded — nothing goes back |
| No | No | Holds the units back from sale | The site's held-back location |
| No | Yes | Nothing — the order releases the stock itself | Back in sellable stock |
The full lookup, including who has to act next, is in refund choices and stock.
A line that dispatched
The goods have left the building, so the refund is a genuine return and Yessort records one.
- Restock ticked — the return line restocks. The goods go back into stock at the receiving site's returns location.
- Restock unticked — the return line is scrapped. The customer is credited, but nothing goes back into stock, because dispatching the order already took those units out.
Both raise a credit note. Scrapping does not write anything off on its own — the cost left the books when the order dispatched, and it stays gone.
A line that never dispatched
This is the one that surprises people. Nothing physically came back, so there is nothing to receive and Yessort creates no return line for it. What happens next depends entirely on the tick.
Restock unticked. The units are real and still on the shelf, but the refund has told Yessort to keep them off sale. So Yessort moves them out of sellable stock and into the site's held-back location. On-hand does not change and nothing is written off — only the availability figure drops, which is the point: without the move, the units would flow straight back into Available and Yessort's next availability push would put them back on sale in the store, undoing the hold the refund just asked for. See held-back stock.
Restock ticked. Yessort does nothing here. The order's own update releases the stock the line was holding, and it returns to Available on its own.
You can only refund what left the building
A refund for more units than the line dispatched is trimmed to the dispatched quantity, and the credit is trimmed in proportion. Refunding three of a line that dispatched two returns two, and credits two.
Where the goods land
The site comes from the Shopify location on the refund line, where that location is mapped to a Yessort site. An in-store return therefore restocks that shop rather than the warehouse. Where the refund names no mapped location, the goods go to the channel's default site.
Within the site, the goods land in the returns location. Stock sitting there is not necessarily sellable yet — see the returns location for what has to happen before it can be picked again, and for what Yessort does at a site that has no returns location.
The money side
The credit uses Shopify's own figure for the line — the goods value plus its tax, after every discount the customer received. It does not use the list price, which would credit back more than the customer actually paid.
Refunds of shipping only, or of a flat amount with no lines attached, create no return and move no stock, but the amount is still credited against the order.
See what Yessort posts for the entries behind all of this.
Refunds you raise in Yessort instead
A return opened in Yessort works the other way round: Yessort pushes the refund out to Shopify, and tells Shopify not to restock. Yessort holds the authoritative stock figure and has already put the goods back itself, so letting Shopify restock as well would count them twice. See process a customer return.