At a glance
Total amount refunded to customers via Square in the period (/v2/refunds). Refunds in retail-led Square stores are typically 2, 5% of volume; ecom-led merchants run 5, 12%; subscription / SaaS-via-Square run lower (1, 3%). Spikes signal product issues, fulfilment errors, or a bad ad campaign sending unqualified buyers.
| What it counts | SUM(amount_money.amount) over /v2/refunds WHERE status = COMPLETED, in each currency. |
| API endpoint | GET /v2/refunds. Returns full refund records linked to the original payment. |
| Currency | Per-currency. |
| Partial refunds | Counted at the partial amount, not the full original payment. A USD 100 sale partially refunded USD 30 contributes USD 30 here. |
| Refund window | Square allows refunds up to 1 year from the original payment for cards, 60 days for some wallets. |
| Cash refunds | Counted if rung up through Square POS as a cash refund. Off-system cash refunds (handed cash without ringing it up) don’t appear in any API. |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | >10% of total volume for the period. |
| 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 for the Austin bookshop:| Reason | Refund count | Refund amount |
|---|---|---|
| Customer changed mind (POS) | 28 | USD 612 |
| Damaged shipment (Square Online) | 9 | USD 482 |
| Wrong item shipped | 3 | USD 156 |
| Cancelled subscription / preorder | 2 | USD 590 |
| Total refunds | 42 | USD 1,840 |
- 1.4% refund ratio is excellent for a bookshop. Books are mostly returnable but rarely are; pricing transparency, low-defect-rate physical goods, and walk-in foot traffic (customer can inspect before buying) all suppress refunds. Compare to apparel ecom which runs 15, 30% return rates.
- Online refund-rate (USD 482 / USD 21,300 = 2.3%) is materially higher than POS (USD 612 / USD 85,780 = 0.7%). Universal: ecom returns are 3, 5x retail returns due to absence of pre-purchase inspection.
- One USD 590 refund is the cancelled preorder (a multi-volume hardback set). A single large refund can dominate the absolute number for small merchants. Always slice by amount to see whether refund spikes are spread or concentrated.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair |
|---|---|
squ_refund_rate | The rate-form of this metric. |
squ_total_volume | The denominator for refund-rate. |
squ_dispute_rate | High refund-rate often prevents disputes (refunded customers don’t escalate). |
squ_top_decline_reasons | High decline + high refund = bad-traffic signature. |
Stripe stripe_refund_volume | Cross-PSP comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Square Dashboard:Reports → Refunds with the same date range.Common divergences:
| Reason | Direction |
|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days (refund vs original-sale day) |
| Pending refunds | Square’s view may include PENDING; this card is COMPLETED only |
| Cash refunds | Cash refunds count here; some Dashboard tiles only show card refunds |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
“What’s a healthy refund-volume ratio?” Industry-dependent. Books / homeware: 1, 3%. Apparel / shoes: 15, 30% (try-on returns). Digital / SaaS: <1%. Restaurants: <0.5%. Compare yourself to your peer benchmark, not a generic number. “Square Refund vs Square Void, difference?” A void cancels an authorisation that hasn’t been captured yet (no money moved). A refund returns money already captured. Voids don’t count here; only refunds do. “Cash refunds, do those count?” Yes if rung up through Square POS as a cash refund. Pure off-system cash refunds (handed cash without ringing it up) don’t appear in any API. “Same-day refunds, do they net against same-day volume?” Not in this card. The volume card and refund card are independent. Same-day refunds appear in both. “Subscription cancellations with prorated refund, how counted?” Square Subscriptions issues a/v2/refunds with the prorated amount. That’s the value here. Full original sale stays in the volume card.
“Multi-location, can I see refunds per location?”
Yes; /v2/refunds carries location_id via the linked payment. Slice in the underlying data.
“Refund processing fees, are they refunded too?”
Square refunds the processing fees on a refund (no fee asymmetry). This card reads only the customer-refunded amount, not the fee component.
“Why do I see a refund for a payment from 5 months ago?”
Square allows refunds up to 1 year from the original payment for cards. Period attribution: refund is counted in the refund period, not the original-sale period. So a Q1 sale refunded in Q3 increases Q3’s refund volume.