> ## 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.

# Refund Rate, Square

> Refund Rate for Square 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:** [Payment Gateway](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type)

## At a glance

> Refund volume as a percentage of total Square volume. The companion to [`squ_refund_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square/refund-volume). Industry-benchmarked: bookshops 1, 3%, apparel 15, 30%, digital \<1%. Spikes signal product / fulfilment issues; gentle creep signals subscription churn.

|                    |                                                                                                |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **What it counts** | `SUM(refunds.amount) / SUM(payments.amount) * 100` over the period, both `status = COMPLETED`. |
| **Currency**       | Per-currency rate.                                                                             |
| **Time window**    | `30D vsP`.                                                                                     |
| **Alert trigger**  | `>10%` absolute, OR `+30%` relative spike. Sentiment inverse-gauge: good \<=3, warn >=8.       |
| **Roles**          | owner, finance, operations                                                                     |

## Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Square data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

## Worked example

30 days, Austin bookshop:

```text theme={null}
Refund volume    = USD 1,840
Total volume     = USD 129,020
Refund rate      = 1,840 / 129,020 * 100 = 1.43%
```

Subset:

| Subset          | Refund rate                           |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------- |
| POS chip + tap  | 0.7%                                  |
| Square Online   | 2.3%                                  |
| Cash App Pay    | 1.5%                                  |
| Square Invoices | 12.3% (the one preorder cancellation) |

Reads:

1. **Blended 1.43% is well below the 10% alert threshold.** Bookshops sit in the 1, 3% peer band.
2. **Invoices subset 12.3% is a single-event distortion.** One USD 590 refund on a USD 4,800 invoice base. Always slice when sample is small.
3. **Online 2.3% is normal for non-apparel ecom.**

## Sibling cards merchants should reference together

| Card                                                                      | Why pair                                                  |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| [`squ_refund_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square/refund-volume)       | The numerator.                                            |
| [`squ_total_volume`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square/total-volume)         | The denominator.                                          |
| [`squ_dispute_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/square/dispute-rate)         | Inverse-correlated; refunding promptly prevents disputes. |
| Stripe [`stripe_refund_rate`](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/stripe/refund-rate) | Cross-PSP.                                                |

## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard

**Where to look in the Square Dashboard:**

Square Dashboard does not surface refund-rate as a headline KPI; you compute from refunds tile / sales tile.

**Why ours may differ:**

| Reason          | Direction                                                                 |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Period boundary | A refund processed today for a payment from last month: how it's bucketed |
| Cash inclusion  | Both numerator and denominator                                            |

**Cross-connector reconciliation:** refund-rate diverges across PSPs by traffic mix; multi-rail merchants typically see 0.5, 1.5pp difference between Square (retail-leaning) and Stripe (digital-leaning) for the same business.

## Known limitations / merchant FAQs

**"My rate jumped to 8%, what to look at first?"**
Slice by reason, channel, and SKU. Most rate spikes are concentrated (one bad shipment, one defective product). If spread across many SKUs, it's a customer-quality issue (bad ad traffic).

**"Industry benchmarks for Square retail?"**
Bookshops 1, 3%. Coffee / cafe \<1%. Apparel boutique 8, 15%. Salon services 0.5, 1%. Restaurants \<0.5%.

**"How do I bring my rate down?"**
Three levers: better product descriptions (online), better fitting/sizing data (apparel), faster customer service (cancellations before fulfilment cost real money).

**"Subscription refunds, prorated, count here?"**
Yes; the prorated amount is the refund value.

**"Cash refunds in the rate?"**
Yes if rung up as a Square cash refund.

**"Multi-currency, single rate?"**
Per-currency rate (refund-USD vs volume-USD; refund-CAD vs volume-CAD).

**"Refund-rate vs return-rate, are they different?"**
Yes. Return-rate is units returned ÷ units shipped (commerce-side metric). Refund-rate is dollars refunded ÷ dollars charged (payment-side). They diverge when a return is replaced rather than refunded.

**"Square Online vs in-store rate, why so different?"**
Online customers can't inspect before buying; returns are 3, 5x higher than walk-in. Universal across retail-plus-ecom.

***

### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

*Refund Rate* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Square 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.