When you refund or cancel an order in your Shopify shop, Shopify tells your MemberArea, and your MemberArea follows up on the order it created for that purchase. This article explains what happens to the buyer's access, the order, your stock and an affiliate's commission, and where you can check the result. It is about purchases your customers make in your shop.
The two switches
Two switches decide whether access is taken back. Both are on unless you changed them:
| Switch | What it does |
|---|---|
| Revoke access on refund | A refund takes back the access the refunded items unlocked. |
| Revoke access on cancellation | A cancellation takes back the access the whole order unlocked. |
You find them on your Shopify page at /admin/settings/integrations/shopify
in the Rules tab, which appears once your shop is connected. A change is
saved right away. If saving fails, the switch jumps back and a message says
so. The same switches also appear in the Rules step of Set up Shopify,
where they are saved when you press Finish setup. The switches count for
the whole shop, not for a single mapping, and they apply to refunds and
cancellations that arrive after you change them.
The switches only decide about access. The order, the stock and the commission follow the refund or cancellation either way.
What each event does
| Event in Shopify | Access | Order | Stock | Commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full refund | Taken back, if the refund switch is on | Refunded | Goes back | Reduced by the refunded share |
| Partial refund | Taken back only for items refunded in full, if the refund switch is on | Partially refunded | Unchanged | Reduced by the refunded share |
| Refund of an amount without items | Stays | Partially refunded, or refunded if it covers the whole payment | Unchanged | Reduced by the refunded share |
| Cancellation | Taken back for the whole order, if the cancellation switch is on | Cancelled, no money is booked back | Unchanged until the refund arrives | Reversed in full |
Stock here means the stock of products that track stock in your MemberArea catalog.
Full refunds
A refund counts as full once every item of the order is refunded in its full quantity. Your MemberArea then marks the order as refunded, puts the stock back, and reduces the commission by the share of the payment that was refunded. With Revoke access on refund on, the buyer loses the access the order unlocked.
Access the buyer also paid for in another order stays. If the same course came with a second order that is still paid, the member keeps it.
Partial refunds
A partial refund books the refunded amount on the payment of the order, which then counts as partially refunded. Access is only taken back for an item whose whole quantity is refunded. If a buyer bought three seats of a course and you refund two, the access stays, and the note reads "Partial refund of some units, access stays untouched." Once the third seat is refunded as well, the access goes.
A refund of an amount without any items, such as a goodwill payment, books the money and leaves the access alone. The note reads like "Refund of 500 cents without line items, access stays untouched."
Stock only goes back once the whole order is refunded. A partial refund leaves stock as it is.
Cancellations
A cancelled order is marked as cancelled. The affiliate commission on it is reversed in full, and with Revoke access on cancellation on, the buyer loses the access the whole order unlocked. With the switch off, the access stays and the note reads "Order cancelled, revoking is switched off for this shop."
A cancellation books no money back. The payment of the order stays as it was, and the order list shows Cancelled. Money, the refund status and stock only follow a refund. When you cancel an order in Shopify and refund it, Shopify sends the refund as a separate message. Once that refund covers the whole order, the stock goes back and the order counts as refunded. A partial refund after a cancellation is booked as a partial refund, and the order stays cancelled.
The result does not depend on the order in which Shopify's messages arrive. An order that is refunded in full ends up as refunded, every other cancelled order as cancelled.
A refund that follows a cancellation is handled by the refund switch, Revoke access on refund. If you want buyers to keep their access through a cancellation with refund, switch off both switches, not only the cancellation switch.
Affiliate commissions
When an affiliate earned a commission on the order, every refund reduces it by the share of the payment you refunded. Refunding half of the order takes back half of the commission. A cancellation reverses the whole commission, even though it books no money back. A refund that arrives after the cancellation does not take the commission back a second time. This works the same way with the access switches on or off.
Where you see the result
Open your Shopify page at /admin/settings/integrations/shopify and choose
the Webhook log tab. A refund appears as refunds/create, a cancellation
as orders/cancelled, each with the result Processed and a note on what
your MemberArea did.
Open Payments, then Sales, then Orders to see the order. The status reads Refunded, Partially refunded or Cancelled, and the Refunded column shows the amount. For a test order, choose Show test orders first.
Notes in the webhook log
| Note | What it means |
|---|---|
| "Full refund, access revoked (...)." | The whole order is refunded. The brackets count what was taken back per type, or read "nothing to revoke". |
| "Partial refund, access revoked for n item(s) (...)." | Some items were refunded in full, and their access was taken back. |
| "Partial refund of some units, access stays untouched." | Only part of an item's quantity was refunded. |
| "Refund recorded, the refunded items were not mapped." | The refund is booked, but the refunded items unlocked nothing. |
| "Refund recorded, the order has no member to revoke from." | The refund is booked, but the order has no member. |
| "Refund recorded, revoking is switched off for this shop." | The refund is booked, and Revoke access on refund is off. |
| "Order cancelled, access revoked (...)." | The order is cancelled and its access was taken back. |
| "Order cancelled, revoking is switched off for this shop." | The order is cancelled, and Revoke access on cancellation is off. |
| "No matching order for this refund." | Your MemberArea has no order for it, for example because it was placed before you connected the shop. |
| "No matching order for this cancellation." | The same for a cancellation. |
Special cases
Each refund is booked once. If Shopify sends the same refund again, nothing is booked a second time and the note reads "This refund was already recorded."
Sometimes Shopify reports a refund while the paid order is still on its way in. Your MemberArea then tries the refund again a little later on its own, once the order is there. Until then, the row can show Retrying with "The order for this refund has not been imported yet, trying again shortly."
Your MemberArea books a refund in the currency the order was paid in. If Shopify reports a refund without items and with an amount only in a different currency, nothing is booked and the note reads "Refund in a foreign currency without an amount in the payment currency, nothing booked." Access, order, stock and commission then stay as they were. If Shopify sends that refund again, the note reads "This refund was already recorded."
Automations
You can react to refunds and cancellations with your own automations. The trigger Shopify Refund starts once for each new refund, also for a refund of an amount without items and also when Revoke access on refund is off. For a refund in a foreign currency without an amount in the payment currency, it starts with the amount 0. The trigger Shopify Order Cancelled starts once per cancelled order, whether Revoke access on cancellation is on or off. If Shopify sends the same message twice, neither trigger starts a second time. How to set up automations for your shop is in Sending member events back to Shopify.
Taking access back
Removing a mapping does not take anything away from buyers. The confirmation Remove mapping says so: "Buyers keep the access they already paid for. New purchases of this product will not unlock anything." To take access back from one buyer, refund the order in Shopify. That works for earlier orders even after the mapping is gone.