Void a sale before it settles

When to void

A void cancels a sale, or a payment on it, as if it had not happened. It is the right tool when the mistake is caught quickly: the cashier rang up the wrong order, charged the wrong card, or the customer changed their mind before leaving. For card payments, a void usually needs to happen before the day's batch is closed, while the charge is still pending.

Once the batch has settled, the card payment is final and the right tool is a refund. SeroPOS keeps both in the same place, so staff do not need to remember which screen to use; they open the sale in Recent Transactions and pick Void Sale or Refund Sale. When in doubt, check with a manager first.

Voiding a sale

Open the side drawer and choose Recent Transaction. Search by invoice number or customer, or filter by status, payment mode or date, and open the sale. Choose Void Sale. If the sale was paid more than one way, the till asks which payment to void, so a mixed cash and card sale can be cancelled correctly.

For card payments, the void runs on the integrated terminal and the charge is reversed there, not simply marked as cancelled in SeroPOS. Cash voids are recorded against the sale. Recent Transactions needs an internet connection, since it reads sales from the server. If the till is offline, wait for the connection to return before voiding, and keep the customer informed.

• Side drawer, Recent Transaction
• Find and open the sale
• Choose Void Sale
• Pick the payment to void
• Card voids reverse on the terminal

Before the sale is paid

Many mistakes are caught before payment. Remove a single line by swiping it away in QSR Mode or deleting it on the cart, or tap Clear to empty the cart. Clear is logged as a line void, so the business keeps a record of items removed before payment, and it is blocked while a split payment is in progress.

Lines that have already gone to the kitchen are locked and cannot be removed from the till, which protects against food being cooked and then quietly deleted from an order. Speak to the kitchen and a manager when an order already in process needs to change, so the food, the bill and the records all agree.

Controlling voids

Voids are among the most sensitive actions at a till, so SeroPOS puts them behind role permissions. Sales & Transactions permissions in POS Access cover refunds and editing sales, and the Checkout Buttons group controls Clear. Staff without the permission see a lock and can ask a manager to approve the action once with their password.

For small errors, such as a missing discount or the wrong customer, Edit Sale reopens the sale in the cart so it can be corrected, which is often cleaner than voiding and ringing it up again. The edit sale permission controls who can do this, and the back office activity log helps you review changes.