Everything about money on an order happens in its "Payment history" section: a chronological ledger of payments and refunds, a settlement summary showing where the order stands, and a menu with four actions, Charge via terminal, Send payment request, Record external payment, and Issue refund.
Viewers don't get Record external payment, Issue refund, or the delete, retry and cancel buttons on ledger rows; those need the Member role or above.
Reading the settlement summary
Below the ledger, three lines tell you where the order stands: "Net payment" (what has been paid minus what has been refunded), "Order total", and either "Balance due" (with a Request payment button) or "Balance to refund" when the order is overpaid. Overpaid happens when a paid item is removed in an order edit, or a payment exceeded the total.
Taking payment
- Charge via terminal sends the outstanding balance to the card reader you pick. The guest pays on the reader.
- Send payment request emails the customer a payment link. The amount is prefilled with what's owed (you can request less, never more), the email can carry a personal message, and the customer pays by card on a secure page branded with your name. Active requests are listed on the order with Resend and Cancel actions. A link stays usable until it's paid or you cancel it. Once paid, the payment appears in the ledger with the requester's email attached, and the customer gets a confirmation.
- Record external payment is for money that changed hands outside SERVOS: bank transfer, invoice, cash at the desk. Pick one of your configured payment methods, adjust the prefilled amount, add an optional note (like an invoice number). It counts immediately and issues a receipt. A mistaken external payment can be deleted from its ledger row.
Nothing caps a payment at the balance. An overpayment shows as "Balance to refund".
Orders from booking sites are the exception. No payment requests, no terminal charges, no refunds in SERVOS. They settle through the channel's guarantee card; see Channel manager.
Issuing refunds
Issue refund asks for an amount (a full refund is the full amount) and a refund method:
- "Original payment method" sends the money back where it came from. If several payments were made, the refund splits across them, oldest first, or you can target one specific payment.
- "Manual" is for money returned outside the system, like cash at the desk for a card payment. Recorded immediately, marked "Manual" in the ledger.
You can never refund more than has been paid in. The optional reason is visible to staff only.
Card refunds process in the background. The ledger row shows "Pending", then "Processing", then settles. A failed refund shows why on hover and has a retry button. A pending refund can still be cancelled.
Refunds, edits, and what they do to the order
The two operations do different jobs:
- Removing a line (in the order editor) changes what the order is worth. Totals and taxes drop, and already-paid money becomes an overpayment.
- Refunding moves money back and never changes what the order is worth.
So the clean flow for "guest cancels one night, give the money back" is: remove the item first, then refund the resulting "Balance to refund".
A refund larger than the overpayment, compensation on items the customer keeps, is fine. The order reads as settled, not as owing money.
Common questions
The customer paid twice by mistake. The order shows "Overpaid" with a "Balance to refund". Issue a refund for that amount to the original payment method.
Can I take a deposit? Send a payment request for part of the total. The amount field accepts anything up to what's owed. The rest stays as "Balance due".
The refund failed. Hover the "Failed" badge for the reason, then retry from the same row. If the card can no longer receive refunds, use a "Manual" refund and settle with the customer another way.
