Refunds

Refunds are normal transaction activity with refund-specific behavior layered on top.

In practice, that means Common Cents does not add a separate base transaction type in the form’s Type picker. Instead, a normal transaction can be marked as a refund, linked back to an original transaction, and then displayed and filtered as Refund in transaction lists.

How refunds appear in transaction lists #

Refunds are explicitly labeled in the Type column as Refund.

That gives you a cleaner review experience than showing a row as Normal and then asking you to infer that it was also a refund.

Important list behavior:

• refunds are directly filterable from the Type filter
• the original transaction can have multiple linked refunds
• refund rows can link back to their original transaction
• an original transaction with linked refunds can expose View Refunds in Related Actions

The fastest way to create a refund #

The easiest path is to start from the original transaction.

From the transaction row’s Related Actions menu, choose Start a Refund.

Common Cents then opens a refund draft that already carries over the important context from the original transaction:

• the same account
• the same payee
• the same detail structure or split structure when applicable
• a positive inflow amount that reverses the original direction
• the original transaction link

The submit button changes to Create Refund so you can tell you are in the refund flow and not creating an ordinary transaction.

You can also record a refund from the normal transaction form #

If you are adding a normal transaction manually, you can use Mark as refund.

When that is turned on:

• the amount stays positive because refund amounts are inflows
• the form shows an Original Transaction section
• you can use Link Transaction to connect the refund to the transaction it reverses

That link is optional, so Common Cents also supports a one-sided refund when you need to record the money back first and clean up the relationship later.

How linked refunds are reviewed #

When an original transaction has one or more refunds against it, Common Cents gives you two ways to review them:

• in transaction tables, Related Actions can show View Refunds
• in the edit transaction modal, the footer can show View Refunds on the left side

Both entry points open a bottom sheet with the related refund transactions.

That lets you inspect the linked refund history without losing your place in the original transaction.

What can and cannot start a refund #

Start a Refund is intentionally limited to eligible source transactions.

It is meant for normal spending-style outflows, not every row in the system.

It is not available for:

• income transactions
• transfer-linked transactions
• refund transactions
• read-only transactions

When to edit, refund, or delete instead #

Use Start a Refund or Mark as refund when the original activity really happened and money later came back.

Use Edit when the original row exists but its details are wrong.

Use Delete only when the transaction should not exist at all.