Who this is for: studio operators (admin panel) · Product: Podyx V2
Every payment in Podyx has a status and a history, so you always know where money is: waiting, taken, failed or returned. This article covers what those states mean and how to handle refunds well.
🔄 The payment lifecycle
Payments move through clear stages: pending, captured, failed, and refunded. You can see where any transaction sits from the Purchases tab, along with what was bought and the underlying payment provider detail.
Cash payments run through a manual approve or decline queue, so nothing is marked paid until you confirm you actually received it.
↩️ How refunds work
There are two ways money comes back, and the difference matters:
A money refund is always the full amount. You can issue one at any time from the purchase record, and it goes back out through Stripe or Square. A client who cancels before your booking cut-off time receives a full refund automatically.
To return part of an amount, use store credit. Podyx does not do partial money refunds. If you want to give back half a session fee, or hold something back for a late cancellation, issue that amount as credit on the client's account instead.
Every refund carries a reason. That reason is worth writing properly, because it is what makes sense of your numbers months later when you are looking at why a month came in light.
⚠️ The Podyx payment processing fee is not returned when you refund a booking, because it covers costs incurred at the time the booking was made.
🎟️ Consider credits instead
Before refunding, ask whether credits would serve everyone better. A refund is revenue leaving permanently. A credit keeps the money with you and gives the client a reason to come back. For late cancellations especially, credits turn an awkward moment into a retained customer, and they are also the only way to return a partial amount.
💡 Offer the choice. "I can refund you, or I can put it on your account as credit so it is there whenever you rebook." Most people take the credit.
🛡 Built-in protections
No double charges. Payment creation is idempotent, so a retry or a double-click cannot charge someone twice.
Provider webhooks keep Podyx in step with Stripe and Square, so statuses stay accurate without you refreshing anything.
Multi-currency support, set per studio.
🧠 Why it matters
You always know what is owed and what has actually landed.
Refund reasons turn into insight rather than a gap in your reporting.
Credits protect revenue that a refund would send away for good.
✅ Summary
Watch payments move from pending to captured in Purchases, and approve cash manually. Money refunds are always for the full amount and can be issued at any time, while cancellations before your cut-off refund in full automatically. To give back part of an amount, issue store credit instead, which keeps the money and the client with you.
Related: Credits · Purchases · Connect Your Payments · Invoicing