Refund

Local Acquiring

Refund

PayCools supports initiating refunds via the Merchant Dashboard or the Refund API. You can process refunds manually in the Merchant Dashboard, or integrate refunds into your own business workflows via the API.

1

Refund Business Overview

What Is a Refund

• Refund path: funds are returned from the merchant account via the original channel used by the user at payment
• Refund types: full refunds and partial refunds are supported
• Trigger method: initiated by the merchant via API, or operated through the Merchant Dashboard
• Fees: depending on the specific product and channel, refunds may incur fees (please consult your sales representative)

2

Refund Types

Type	Description
Full refund	Refunds the entire order amount; requires that the order has not been refunded and the refund validity period has not passed
Partial refund	Refunds part of the order amount; supports multiple partial refunds (cumulative amount must not exceed the original order amount)

note

Multiple Partial Refund Cumulative Rule: Multiple partial refunds can be initiated for a single order. The system accumulates the refunded amount and validates the remaining refundable amount; the cumulative refund amount must not exceed the original order amount. For example, for an original order of 100, refunding 30 first and then 50 is valid; refunding another 30 would fail (only 20 remains refundable).

3

Refund Statuses

Status Code	Status	Description
PENDING	Refund pending	The refund has been accepted and is awaiting processing; if it cannot be executed temporarily due to insufficient balance or other reasons, it will remain in this status and be retried automatically
PROCESS	Refund processing	The refund is being processed
COMPLETED	Refund successful	Funds have been returned to the user's account
FAILED	Refund failed	The refund failed (e.g. abnormal order, channel rejection, account issues)
CANCELLED	Refund cancelled	The refund order has been cancelled and will no longer be processed

note

Refund Cancellation (CANCELLED): When a refund cannot be executed temporarily due to insufficient balance or other reasons, the refund order remains in PENDING (refund pending) and PayCools automatically retries at regular intervals; if it still cannot be completed (e.g. prolonged insufficient balance), the refund order will be set to CANCELLED (refund cancelled) after 7 days. Merchants can re-initiate the refund after topping up the balance.

4

Refund Validity and Fees

Dimension	Description
Refund validity	Refunds are typically available within a certain time window after order settlement; the specific validity varies by channel / country
Refund to original channel	Funds are returned via the original channel used by the user at payment; some channels may not support this (payout must be used instead)
Fees	Depending on channel and product configuration, some refunds include fee reimbursement while others do not
Time to arrival	Depends on the original channel; usually real-time to several hours,个别 channels may be T+1

warning

Due to channel restrictions and different fee-bearing party configurations, some refunds include fee reimbursement while others do not. For specific rules, please consult your sales representative.

5

Refund vs Void

Dimension	Refund	Void
Applicable timing	Settled orders (usually have a longer refund validity)	Only orders paid the same day but not yet settled
Fund flow	The order has been settled; funds must be returned from the merchant account to the user	The order has not been settled; it is voided directly and funds were not actually settled to the merchant
Coverage	Supports a wider range of channels and countries	Currently only supports Thailand dynamic QR codes
Time window	A longer window after settlement	Same day, before settlement (e.g. before Thailand's 23:00 settlement cutoff)

6

Use Cases

E-commerce refunds: After purchasing goods, a user requests a return and refund due to product issues or personal reasons.

• Full refund (entire order return) or partial refund (return of some items)
• Processing time: depending on the channel, usually real-time to several hours

Service cancellation refunds: A user cancels a booked service for some reason, and the amount paid needs to be refunded.

• Hotel booking cancellations, flight ticket refunds, event registration cancellations
• There may be refund time restrictions (e.g. full refund available 24 hours before departure)
• Remaining amount after deducting a penalty: partial refund

Duplicate payment refunds: Due to network issues or other reasons, a payment was made twice, and one of them needs to be refunded.

• After identifying the duplicate order, the merchant initiates a full refund for one of them
• It is recommended that merchants implement idempotency / duplicate-prevention logic to reduce such scenarios

Price adjustment refunds: After a product price change or a promotion takes effect, the price difference needs to be refunded.

• Price protection service: if the price drops after purchase, the difference is refunded
• Use a partial refund to return the price difference rather than refunding the entire order

7

Refund Prerequisites

Before initiating a refund, please confirm that the original transaction meets the following conditions:

• The payment method supports refunds;
• The transaction status is payment successful;
• The transaction currently has no refund being processed;
• The refund amount does not exceed the refundable amount of the transaction;
• The pending settlement balance is sufficient to cover this refund;
• If operating via the Merchant Dashboard, your account has refund permissions enabled.

8

Refunding via the Merchant Dashboard

1. Log in to the PayCools Merchant Dashboard.
2. Go to Transaction Management → Incoming Transactions.
3. Find the transaction to be refunded, click Refund, and follow the on-page instructions to complete the operation.

note

Refunds initiated from the Dashboard do not trigger callback notifications; refund progress can be viewed in the Dashboard

9

Refunding via the API

1. Initiating a Refund

Submit a refund request from your server, associated with the original transaction to be refunded. You need to set a unique refund order ID for this refund, and submit the refund amount and refund reason. Below is an example refund request.

Refund Request Example

curl --location --request POST 'https://globalapi-dev.paycools.com:8902/open-api/payment/refund' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "appId": "your appId",
    "sign": "***********************,
    "param": "{\"originalTransactionId\":\"CU5U4892099236335616\",\"mchRefundOrderId\":\"T0WRCHULVhpkJOGs\",\"refundReason\":\"testRefund\",\"refundAmount\":100,\"countryCode\":\"PH\",\"refundCallbackUrl\":\"http://www.test.com\",\"timestamp\":1722415059}"
}'

Refund Response Example

{
  "code": 10000,
  "message": "Success",
  "data": {
     "mchRefundOrderId": "UDzQ37ruxde2T6vuy",
     "refundTransactionId": "R2104894311513591808",
     "refundCreateTime": "2026-09-29 19:21:26",
     "refundAmount": 100,
     "refundStatus": "PENDING"
  }
}

After PayCools receives the refund request, it returns the refund order information and the current refund status. Successful acceptance of the refund request does not mean the refund has been completed.

2. Confirming the Refund Result

After submitting the refund request, you can confirm the refund status via the refund result notification or by actively querying, and update your refund records accordingly. While the refund is still processing, please wait for the final result. Once the refund status is updated, PayCools will send the refund result to the notification URL you configured. After receiving the notification, please verify the signature and update your refund records.

Refund Result Notification Request Example

{
    "param": "{\"eventName\":\"payment.refund.success\",\"feeRefunded\":0,\"mchRefundOrderId\":\"UDzQ37ruxde2T6vuy\",\"originalTransactionId\":\"CU5U4892099236335616\",\"refundAmount\":100,\"refundCreateTime\":\"2026-09-29 19:21:26\",\"refundReason\":\"testRefund\",\"refundReturnTime\":\"2026-09-29 19:38:04\",\"refundStatus\":\"COMPLETED\",\"refundTransactionId\":\"R2104894311513591808\"}",
    "sign": "*******************"
}

Refund Result Notification Response Example

{
  "code": 10000,
  "msg": "string",
  "data": {}
}