Sooner or later every business has to give money back, and Clover makes it simple once you know the flow. The key thing to understand first is the difference between a refund and a void. A refund returns money on a sale that has already settled — the original charge posts to the customer’s account and a separate credit is sent back a few days later. A void, by contrast, cancels a sale before it settles, so the charge never truly leaves the customer’s account. Same-day mistakes are almost always better handled as a void; anything from a prior business day has to go through the refund process below. Follow the five steps in order and you will handle either one confidently.
1.Find the original transaction
- Open the Transactions app on your Clover device. This is the record of every sale your business has run, sorted by most recent. If you know roughly when the sale happened, scroll to that date; otherwise use the search or filter tools to narrow by amount, last four digits of the card, or employee.
- Tap the transaction you want to refund to open its full detail. Confirm the amount, the card brand, and the date match the customer's receipt before you go any further — refunding the wrong sale is the most common mistake, and catching it here saves a headache later.
2.Choose Refund
- With the transaction open, tap the Refund button. Clover will confirm the card and the original settled amount so you can see exactly what is eligible to be returned. A refund sends money back to the same card the customer paid with — you cannot redirect it to a different card or to cash from this screen.
- If the sale was made earlier the same day and has not settled yet, consider a void instead (see the note below). A void is cleaner and faster because the charge never leaves the customer's account in the first place.
3.Choose a full or partial refund
- For a full refund, leave the amount as-is and Clover returns the entire sale. For a partial refund — say the customer kept one item and returned another — tap into the amount field and key in the exact dollar figure you want to send back. Clover handles the tax proration automatically on itemized sales.
- Double-check the figure on screen. Partial refunds can be run more than once against the same transaction up to the original total, so if you return $10 today you can still refund the remaining balance later if needed.
4.Confirm and print the receipt
- Tap to confirm the refund. Clover processes it in seconds and shows an approval. Some devices will ask the customer to tap or insert their card to route the refund back — follow the on-screen prompt if it appears.
- Offer a printed or emailed refund receipt so the customer has proof the return was issued. Keep your own copy too; a matching refund receipt is your best evidence if the customer later disputes the charge with their bank.
5.Void a same-day unsettled sale instead
- If the sale happened today and your batch has not settled yet, open the transaction and look for the Void option rather than Refund. Voiding cancels the authorization before it clears, so the customer never sees the charge post to their statement.
- Once a batch settles — usually overnight — the void option disappears and a refund becomes your only route. When in doubt, void same-day mistakes right away and use refunds for anything from a prior business day.
A note on timing and settlement
Refund approvals happen instantly on the terminal, but the credit itself takes two to five business days to land on the customer’s statement — that delay is controlled by their issuing bank, not by your Clover device. Refunds are also drawn against your incoming batch, so keep enough daily volume or a funded account to cover large returns. Reduce refunds and disputes in the first place with our chargeback prevention guide, and see the full lineup of hardware on our Clover equipment page.
