How to issue a refund

2 min read

Quick answer #

To issue a refund, sign in to your Pay@ Gateway merchant dashboard, open the transaction you want to refund, click [PH-020], and confirm. Pay@ Gateway supports both full refunds (the entire transaction amount) and partial refunds (any amount up to the original total). The refund is sent to the customer’s original payment method automatically — you don’t need their card details again. Refunds appear in your dashboard as “Pending” until the customer’s bank confirms, then change to “Refunded”.

Step-by-step #

1. Sign in to your merchant dashboard #

Go to your merchant portal and sign in with your usual credentials. You need an account role that includes refund permissions — by default, admin and owner roles can refund; staff roles cannot unless you’ve explicitly enabled it. See [PH-034] for role permissions detail.

2. Find the transaction #

In the Transactions tab, search for the transaction you want to refund. You can filter by:

Date range
Customer name or email
Transaction reference or order number
Amount
Payment method

Click the transaction to open the detail panel.

3. Click [PH-020] #

In the transaction detail panel, [PH-020]. This opens the refund flow.

4. Choose full or partial #

Pay@ Gateway supports both:

Full refund — refunds the entire transaction amount. The transaction status changes to “Refunded”. The customer is fully reimbursed.
Partial refund — refunds a specific amount, less than the original total. You can issue multiple partial refunds against the same transaction until the cumulative refunded amount equals the original. After a partial refund the transaction status changes to “Partially Refunded”.

[PH-021]

5. Add a reason (optional but recommended) #

You can add an internal note about why the refund was issued. This is for your records only — it isn’t shown to the customer. Common reasons: “Item out of stock”, “Customer requested cancellation within return window”, “Duplicate charge”.

The note appears in your refund report and in the audit log for the transaction.

6. Confirm #

Click confirm. The refund is queued immediately.

What happens next #

Pay@ Gateway sends the refund instruction to the customer’s bank within minutes. Then:

Card refunds: customer sees the money in 3–5 business days
EFT / Capitec Pay / PayShap refunds: customer sees the money in 1–2 business days

The customer automatically receives an email confirmation from Pay@ Gateway once the refund is processed. You don’t need to email them separately, though many merchants do as a courtesy.

For more detail on what the customer sees: Refund timing and what the customer sees — Article 26.

How refunds appear in your reports #

Refunds are line items in your daily settlement report and monthly transaction reports. Each refund shows:

The original transaction reference
The refund amount
The refund date
Your refund reason note (if you added one)
The Pay@ Gateway refund reference

Refund amounts are deducted from your next settlement. If the refund is larger than your day’s settlement (rare but possible for a low-volume merchant), the difference comes from your next settlement.

Common questions #

Can I cancel a refund after I’ve issued it?
No. Once submitted, refunds can’t be reversed. If you refund the wrong customer or the wrong amount, you’ll need to issue a new transaction to recover the funds (and explain it to the customer).

Can I refund a transaction from days/weeks ago?
Yes, but with limits. Card refunds work for up to 180 days after the original transaction. EFT and PayShap have shorter windows (typically 60 days). After these periods, the only option is to send the customer a new payment via their preferred method.

Can I refund a transaction that’s still pending?
Pending transactions (authorisation only, not yet captured) can’t be refunded — they can be voided, which releases the authorisation without ever charging the customer. Captured transactions can be refunded normally.