How to bulk partially refund Shopify orders for a specific amount
Refund a specific dollar amount on existing orders without specifying individual line items.
Goal: Partially refund multiple Shopify orders for a specific dollar amount each, without needing to specify which line items to refund. This is useful for goodwill refunds, shipping adjustments, or other scenarios where the refund amount doesn't correspond to specific products.
Prerequisites:
You have Altera installed on your Shopify store
The orders you want to refund already exist in your store and have been paid
You know the order names (e.g., #1001) or IDs of the orders to refund
Step 1 - Prepare your refund spreadsheet
Create a spreadsheet with these columns. Each row represents one order to refund.
Name | Command | Line: Type | Refund: ID | Transaction: Kind | Transaction: Amount |
#1045 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 7.50 |
#1046 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 4.25 |
#1047 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 12.00 |
Key columns:
Name is the order number shown in your Shopify admin. You can also use the ID column with the numeric Shopify order ID.
Command must be
UPDATEto modify an existing order.Line: Type must be
Transactionso the row is treated as a financial transaction.Refund: ID tells the app this transaction belongs to a refund. Set to
1when issuing one refund per order.Transaction: Kind must be
refundto indicate this is a refund transaction.Transaction: Amount is the amount to refund in your store's currency. Use a positive number.
Step 2 - Import the file
Go to Apps > Altera > Import, upload your file, and confirm the import. The sheet name or file name should contain "Orders".
Outcome
Each order listed in the file receives a partial refund for the specified amount. The refund appears in the order's timeline in the Shopify admin. No line items are restocked since this is an amount-only refund.
Example
To issue a $7.50 courtesy refund on three orders:
Name | Command | Line: Type | Refund: ID | Transaction: Kind | Transaction: Amount |
#1045 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 7.50 |
#1046 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 7.50 |
#1047 | UPDATE | Transaction | 1 | refund | 7.50 |