Orders don't always go perfectly. A customer receives the wrong item. A product arrives damaged. Someone changes their mind. Adjustments are how Catlog handles post-payment changes to orders — specifically refunds and replacements — in a way that keeps your financial records accurate.
Adjustments only apply to orders that have already been paid (fully or partially). For unpaid orders, you can simply edit the order directly.
Refunds
A refund is when you return money to a customer for an item they paid for.
When you process a refund on Catlog, you:
Select the item being refunded
Choose whether to refund the full item price or a partial amount — there's flexibility here, you don't have to refund everything
Indicate whether the refund comes from the customer's outstanding debt (reducing what they owe) or from money they've already paid (meaning you send money back to them)
Record whether the item was physically returned to you
The refund is logged, the sale's financial breakdown updates, and an outflow is recorded if money is actually leaving your business.
Replacements
A replacement is when you swap a purchased item for a different one. The financial implications depend on whether the replacement costs more or less than the original.
If the replacement costs less than the original:
There's a difference owed to the customer. You decide whether to refund that difference to them (creating an outflow) or absorb it as additional profit on your end.
If the replacement costs more than the original:
The customer owes you the difference. You can indicate whether they'll pay it or not. If they will pay, you record how — and if they haven't paid in full yet, a customer debt is automatically created for the outstanding amount. If you decide not to charge them the difference, it's recorded as a forfeit on your side.
Reversing an Adjustment
If you made an adjustment in error, you can delete it. Deleting an adjustment fully reverses everything it created — the outflow record, the debt, the expense entry — and the order returns to its state before the adjustment was made.
Why Adjustments Exist as a Separate Flow
Once an order has been paid, you can't simply edit the items and pretend the original transaction didn't happen. That would break your financial records — you'd have revenue recorded against products that no longer match the order.
Adjustments make post-payment changes explicit and traceable. Every refund and replacement is a deliberate financial event with a clear record, not a quiet edit.
💡 Adjustments aren't just an admin tool — they're how you keep your profit numbers honest even when things don't go to plan.