> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Refunds Over Time, Adobe Commerce > Refunds Over Time for Adobe Commerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > The day-by-day count and value of Credit Memos created over the last 90 days, plotted as a time series. Lets Operations spot batch postings, weekly cycles, post-promotion return waves, and supplier-defect spikes that aggregate-only cards smooth away. | | | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | For each day in the 90-day window: `COUNT(creditmemo_id)` and `SUM(creditmemo.grand_total)` where `created_at` falls in that day (UTC by default). Two parallel time series shown on the same chart with dual axes. | | **API field** | `entity_id`, `created_at`, `grand_total`, `base_grand_total` from `GET /rest/V1/creditmemos`. | | **Why daily over weekly** | Many supplier-defect waves and shipping-incident batches play out on a 1-3 day cycle. Weekly bucketing hides the within-week pattern (especially the Mon-Tue Customer Service catch-up after weekend RMAs). Daily granularity is essential for incident-correlation. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | The value series uses `grand_total` (tax-inclusive). Toggle the chart to `subtotal` for tax-exclusive product-only refund value. | | **Shipping inclusion** | Included in `grand_total` series. Filter to product-only via `subtotal` toggle. | | **Discounts** | Already deducted, the customer-paid net is what `grand_total` represents. | | **Cancelled / voided orders** | Excluded (no Credit Memo possible on `canceled` orders). | | **Currency** | Mixed-currency `grand_total` for visual scale. Toggle to `base_grand_total` for FX-neutral history. | | **Channels / sources** | All Adobe Commerce sources: storefront, Admin-created, B2B portal, Marketplace if installed. Off-platform refunds invisible. | | **Multi-store scope** | All Store Views aggregated; per-Store-View filtering available via the chart legend. | | **Time window** | `90D` rolling. Sentiment alert is at the aggregate level; this card is exploratory rather than alerting. | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card directly. Use [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-rate) for alerting; use this card to investigate the shape behind the alert. | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Adobe Commerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A B2B-leaning industrial-supplies merchant on Adobe Commerce 2.4.7. Snapshot taken 13 May 26, looking back 90 days. **Aggregate stats over the window:** | Metric | Value | | -------------------------------- | --------- | | Days in window | 90 | | Total Credit Memos | 1,143 | | Total refund `grand_total` | \$284,600 | | Mean Credit Memos / day | 12.7 | | Median Credit Memos / day | 11 | | Standard deviation | 7.4 | | Days above mean + 2σ (>27 memos) | 6 | **Drill into the 6 outlier days:** | Date | Credit Memos | `grand_total` | Likely cause | | --------- | ------------ | ------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | 18 Feb 26 | 41 | \$14,200 | Backlog catch-up; new CS hire's first week | | 24 Feb 26 | 38 | \$12,700 | Weekend backlog (Mon AM batch) | | 6 Mar 26 | 52 | \$28,900 | Single B2B account returned a \$24k bulk shipment, plus weekly DTC catch-up | | 19 Mar 26 | 31 | \$9,400 | Post-promotion return wave (5-day delay after 14 Mar promo end) | | 14 Apr 26 | 47 | \$19,300 | Supplier sizing-error wave (uniform line, see [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-value) example) | | 28 Apr 26 | 36 | \$11,800 | Continued uniform-line returns | **Pattern analysis:** 1. **Day-of-week bias is strong.** Monday averages 18 Credit Memos vs Sunday's 3. CS teams batch-post on Monday morning after the weekend's RMAs queue up. This is a posting artifact, not a real refund spike. 2. **Tuesday is the second-highest day** for the same reason; carry-over from Monday's backlog. 3. **Friday afternoon spikes** appear before holiday weekends (President's Day Friday 14 Feb showed 24 vs Friday baseline 14). CS clears the queue before time off. 4. **The 6 Mar single-day \$28,900** spike is one large B2B return masking the daily count. The dollar series shows a clear spike; the count series shows a moderate spike. Reading both axes catches this. 5. **The supplier-error wave starting 14 Apr** is the most actionable signal. The uniform-line refunds are still elevated 4 weeks in (28 Apr at 36, well above mean+2σ). Operations should check if the corrective action (sizing chart correction, supplier rework) is landing. 6. **Cross-link with [Top Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/top-refunding-customers)** filtered to the post-14 Apr window: the top 10 refunded SKUs should now be uniform-line items if our hypothesis is correct. ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Refunds Over Time | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Refund Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refunded-orders) | Aggregate of this card's count series. | | [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-value) | Aggregate of this card's value series. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-rate) | The normalised version. Useful when order volume itself swings (Black Friday, January). | | [Top Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/top-refunding-customers) | The SKU concentration behind a daily spike. | | [Cancellations Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/cancelled-orders-over-time) | Sister card for pre-capture cancellations; pairing reveals whether spikes share a cause. | | [Orders Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/orders-over-time) | The denominator shape. Lets you visually rule out "more orders, more refunds". | | [Revenue Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/revenue-over-time) | Promotion windows show in revenue; the post-promotion return wave shows here 7-21 days later. | | [`shopify.refunds_over_time`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refunds-over-time) | Cross-platform peer. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Adobe Commerce Admin:** > **Reports > Sales > Refunds** with "Show By" set to "Day", date range matching this card. The chart and table show daily refund value (using `base_grand_total`). The count series is not shown; for daily count Admins must use the Credit Memos grid. > **Sales > Operations > Credit Memos** sorted by `Created` descending; export to CSV and group by date for a daily count. Adobe Commerce admin does not natively chart the count series. **Why our number may legitimately differ from Adobe Commerce Admin:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | **Time-zone**. Daily buckets in Admin use Store View locale; this card uses UTC by default. A Credit Memo posted at 23:30 PST on Monday lands on Monday in Admin and Tuesday in this card. | Bucket-shift on day boundaries | | **Currency**. Admin's value series uses `base_grand_total`; this card defaults to mixed `grand_total`. Toggle the chart to `base_grand_total` for like-for-like. | Material for multi-currency stores | | **Reports indexer lag**. The Refunds report relies on the `sales_refunded_aggregated` table, refreshed nightly. Today's Credit Memos may not show until tomorrow's index run. This card refreshes every 5-15 min. | Vortex IQ ahead by \~12 hours on most-recent day | | **Off-platform refunds invisible to both** | Both views miss gateway-only refunds without Credit Memos. | | **Sync lag at recent-end** | This card 5-15 min behind real-time. | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when these connectors are connected for this merchant):** | Card | Expected relationship | What divergence tells you | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`stripe.stripe_refunds_over_time`](/nerve-centre/stripe/stripe_refunds_over_time) | Stripe's daily series should track this card's value series for Stripe-paid orders | Days where Stripe is materially higher mean somebody refunded on Stripe Dashboard; days where this card is higher mean Credit Memos posted for non-Stripe payment methods (PayPal, manual). | | [`paypal.pp_refunds_over_time`](/nerve-centre/paypal/pp_refunds_over_time) | PayPal's subset | Same pattern, scoped to PayPal. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.refunds_over_time`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/shopify/refunds-over-time) * [`bigcommerce.refunds_over_time`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/bigcommerce/refunds-over-time)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **Why is Monday always the highest day?** CS teams batch-post weekend RMAs on Monday morning. The customer's actual return decision happened over the weekend; the Credit Memo is dated when CS clicks "Submit". This is a posting artifact. To see "true" daily refund pressure, look at when the *order* was placed (not when the Credit Memo was created) using the cohort-refund variant. **Can I see this by Customer Group (B2B vs DTC)?** Yes. Apply a Customer Group filter via the chart legend. Useful when you suspect a single channel is driving the pattern. **A single-day spike, real or batch posting?** Three diagnostic checks: (1) does the count series spike but value series stay normal? Then it is many small partial refunds, often a backlog clear. (2) Does value spike but count not? Then it is one whale refund, drill into [Top Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/top-refunding-customers) for the SKU. (3) Both spike together? Real event, possibly a supplier defect or a faulty batch shipment. **Why is Sunday always so low?** CS doesn't process refunds on Sundays for most merchants. The data is correct; the operational rhythm is the cause. Use 7-day rolling rather than daily for trend. **My multi-currency, the value series looks weirdly wavy, why?** The default uses mixed-currency `grand_total`. A day with one large refund in USD plus normal day in GBP looks like a spike if you're reading the chart in GBP-mental-model. Toggle to `base_grand_total` for FX-neutral comparison. **Why does today's last data point look low?** Because today is incomplete. The day-to-date count cannot match a full day. Most charts dim or annotate "in progress" on the trailing day. If yours doesn't, ignore the trailing data point or annotate it manually. **The 90-day window doesn't include my Black Friday spike, can I extend?** The default is 90 days. The card supports 180-day and 365-day views via the manifest. Beyond that, OpenSearch index retention defaults to 13 months; older data needs a custom backfill query. **Can I overlay an event marker (promo end, supplier change, system upgrade)?** Yes via the Vortex IQ workspace annotations. Mark events on the timeline and they overlay across all time-series cards (this one, [Revenue Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/revenue-over-time), [Orders Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/orders-over-time)) for incident-correlation. **Why don't `stripe.stripe_refunds_over_time` and this card always match day-by-day?** Even on a Stripe-paid order, the day a Credit Memo is posted in Adobe and the day the refund hits Stripe's API can differ by a few seconds (Adobe calls Stripe API; the API call returns; both write timestamps). On day boundaries, this matters. Aggregate over 7 days and they match closely. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Refunds Over Time* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Adobe Commerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.