How to handle order refunds
Refunds happen — wrong print, parent changed mind, quality issue. This guide walks through the full-refund and partial-refund flows on Pro Photo Systems, plus the rev-share + Stripe fee reconciliation that follows automatically.
1.Find the order
In the PPS dashboard, go to Production → Orders → All Orders. Search by parent name, subject name, or order ID. Click the order to open the detail panel.
2.Choose the refund type
Three options: (1) Full refund — entire order amount returned to parent's card, (2) Partial refund — specific dollar amount, (3) Line-item refund — refund only specific products in the order. Pick based on whether the parent is canceling everything, has a complaint about one item, or wants a discount applied retroactively.
3.Stop fulfillment if the order is in progress
If the order has already been claimed in Print Station, click Cancel Fulfillment first — this removes the order from the Print Station operator's queue so they don't print and ship something the parent is no longer paying for. If the print has already shipped, you can still refund but the photo went out the door.
4.Process the refund through Stripe
Click Refund. PPS calls the Stripe API behind the scenes; Stripe sends the funds back to the parent's original payment method within 5-10 business days. The order detail shows refund status as "Pending" until Stripe confirms.
5.Understand the rev-share reconciliation
When a refund processes, PPS reverses its revenue-share take on that order. The next payout reflects the adjustment as a deduction line. Stripe's processing fee on the original charge is NOT refunded — that's Stripe's policy, and it comes out of your gross. So a full refund of a $100 order returns $100 to the parent, costs you the original ~$3.20 Stripe fee, and zeros out the PPS rev-share.
6.Communicate with the parent
Send the parent an email confirmation — PPS doesn't auto-notify on refunds since context varies. Use the order detail page's Send Message link to email the parent from your studio's sending domain. Set expectations: "5-10 business days to appear on your statement."
7.Audit later via Reports
Reports → Refunds shows every refund in date range with: order ID, parent, original amount, refunded amount, rev-share adjustment, who processed it. Useful for end-of-month bookkeeping and identifying patterns (e.g. a specific subject's photos triggering repeated refunds → quality issue worth investigating).