At a glance
The total monetary value of refunds issued through Viva Payments in the period. The absolute amount that reduced merchant cash out of bank account, gross of any Viva refund processing fees.
| What it counts | SUM(refunds.Amount) for refunds with IssueDate in the window, in each refund’s CurrencyCode. |
| API endpoint | /api/transactions/{id}/refunds, aggregate query against the refunds collection. |
| Currency | Multi-currency native, no FX. EUR, GBP, RON, etc. summed per currency. |
| Refunds counted | Both full and partial refunds. Partial refunds counted at the partial amount. |
| Refund timing | Issue date. A refund issued on 02 May 26 for an April sale lands in May’s value, not April’s. |
| Disputes / chargebacks | Excluded. Chargeback debits live in a separate transaction stream and are tracked in viv_chargeback_rate. |
| Failed / declined payments | Not relevant (refunds are post-success). |
| Channels | Online + POS unified. POS card-present refunds (returns at terminal) and online refunds both contribute. |
| Refund-on-fee | Excluded. Viva’s refund processing fee (where charged) is not in this number; the value here is the customer-side return only. Fee impact tracked separately. |
| Time window | 30D vsP. |
| Alert trigger | +25% vs prior period absolute volume. |
| Roles | owner, finance |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Viva Payments 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 Greek SMB consumer-electronics retailer (“Hermes Tech”) on Smart Checkout + 3 Smart POS. Window 03 Apr 26 to 02 May 26.| Refund category | Count | Value | Avg refund |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online full refunds (returns) | 142 | EUR 18,400 | EUR 129.58 |
| Online partial refunds (price-match, shipping) | 86 | EUR 3,720 | EUR 43.26 |
| POS in-store returns | 38 | EUR 4,200 | EUR 110.53 |
| Recurring rebill refunds (cancellations refunded) | 8 | EUR 240 | EUR 30.00 |
| Total Refund Value (this card) | 274 | EUR 26,560 | EUR 96.93 |
- Online full-refund avg (EUR 130) much higher than partial-refund avg (EUR 43). This is normal, full refunds are returned products, partial refunds are usually shipping or price-match adjustments. If partial-refund avg starts climbing, you’re issuing larger goodwill credits, often a customer-service trend.
- POS refund avg lower than online avg. POS returns tend to be smaller (single items, accessories); online returns include high-value items the customer wanted to try. Channel mix matters.
- Recurring refund value of EUR 240 is normal. A few cancelled subscriptions per month, refunded as goodwill. If this jumps to EUR 1,000+ you’ve got a churn problem with prepaid annuals or a billing issue forcing refunds.
- Refund value as % of gross is 7.4%. Below 10% threshold but worth monitoring vs trailing 90-day average. Trend visible in
viva_refunds_trend. - Don’t forget the unreturned interchange fee. EUR 26,560 in refunds also means ~ EUR 290 in original Viva fees you paid that don’t come back. The “true cost” of refunds is value + lost interchange. This card understates by that amount.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with Refund Value |
|---|---|
viva_refund_rate | The percentage view; rate-of-change easier to read than absolute. |
viva_refunds_trend | Time-series of this metric daily. |
viva_total_revenue | The denominator if computing rate manually. |
viva_net_revenue | Gross minus this card. |
viv_refund_volume | Sister card alternate slug. |
viv_chargeback_rate | The buyer-initiated cousin. |
Stripe stripe_refund_value / PayPal pp_refund_value | Cross-PSP comparison. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in the Viva Payments Dashboard: viva.com/business/account/login. Closest comparable view:Viva Business → Sales → Refunds (filter same date range, sum the Amount column)The headline tile on the Sales overview also shows period refund total. Other relevant views:
- Disputes view: chargeback values, separate.
- Sales → Reports → Returns by Product: SKU-level breakdown (where commerce platform integrated).
| Reason | Direction | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Time zone | Boundary days off | Athens vs UTC. |
| Issue-date attribution | Differ on month-end | Some Viva views attribute to original sale date; we use issue date. |
| Multi-currency | Ours per-currency, theirs may roll | FX-rolled view available in Dashboard toggle. |
| Refund-fee inclusion | Either | The Viva refund processing fee may or may not be included in the displayed total depending on the report; this card is customer-side only. |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
viva_refund_value ↔ commerce-platform refund value | Should be close for Viva-primary stores | Commerce-platform aggregate includes refunds on non-Viva orders; expect Viva ≤ commerce-platform. |
viva_refund_value + stripe.stripe_refund_value | ≈ commerce-platform refund value | Multi-PSP merchants sum refunds across rails. |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Why is this lower than the deduction I see in my bank statement? Two reasons. (1) Viva refund processing fee, the small per-refund cost, is debited alongside but excluded from this number. (2) Refunds settled across the period boundary, a refund issued late in the period may settle to bank account next period. Refund vs chargeback in Viva, which is which? A refund (this card) is merchant-initiated. A chargeback is buyer-initiated through their issuing bank. Different value, different fees, different KPIs. Seeviv_chargeback_rate.
My partial refund showed up as 30% of the original, why not the full amount?
That’s correct, partial refunds count at the partial value. A EUR 100 transaction refunded partially at 30% contributes EUR 30 here. The original transaction stays in the gross at EUR 100.
Viva charges me a refund fee, where is that?
Not in this card. Some merchant agreements include a small per-refund processing fee (typically EUR 0.10 per refund, or zero); that fee is debited separately and not exposed here. Sum of fees is in the Settlements view.
Why is May higher than April when I’m refunding less?
Issue-date attribution. A late-April sale refunded on 02 May lands in May’s refund value, not April’s. If you process refunds in batches at month-end, expect higher refund values in the first 2, 3 days of each month. Use viva_refunds_trend for daily detail.
Multi-currency, does this card sum across currencies?
No, per-currency totals shown separately. Use viva_revenue_by_country for FX-rolled views.
Recurring rebill cancelled, do I refund it?
Cancelling a future rebill (no money moved yet) is not a refund. Refunding a rebill that was already charged is a refund and counts here.
JP Morgan acquisition impact?
None on refund mechanics or fees.