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Finance & Admin

Refund Eligibility Checker

Refund requests are checked against your policy and routed — refund or soft-decline.

Saves about ~1 hr per week

What it does

  • Reads refund requests against your policy
  • Checks order age, amount, and prior refund history
  • Classifies: approve, deny-with-reason, or manual review
  • Drafts the reply for each outcome

How it works

  1. Refund request arrives
  2. Policy rules checked against the order
  3. Classification: approve / deny / review
  4. Reply drafted per outcome

What's included

  • Policy rules
  • Order lookup
  • Decision + reply routing

Set it up yourself

Follow these 4 steps in order. You will need accounts for: Stripe.

Step 1: Write your refund policy as rules

  1. Put your actual refund policy into a rules doc/sheet: window (days), exclusions (digital goods), amount caps, repeat-refunder limit.
  2. Convert to rules the workflow can test: order age < X, amount < Y, refunds count < Z.
  3. Add edge cases: subscriptions, bundles, sale items.
  4. Get the policy sign-off before automating.
  5. Test the rules against past refunds.

Watch out: The rules must mirror your real policy letter-for-letter — the automation is only as defensible as the policy it implements.

Step 2: Connect the request source

  1. Requests arrive by email (helpdesk or inbox): set the trigger + capture order # and reason.
  2. Use the Stripe restricted key (payments:read) to look up the order.
  3. Map order → amount, age, prior refunds.
  4. Test the lookup.

Watch out: Stripe payment lookup needs the payment ID or charge — have the customer include their order/charge ref, or search by email + amount.

Step 3: Add the classifier

  1. Build: 'Apply the policy. Return JSON: {decision: approve|review|decline, ruleMatched, replyDraft}.'
  2. For review, include what needs a human eye.
  3. For decline, draft a policy-based, kind decline.
  4. Paste with API key.
  5. Test across the rule branches.

Watch out: The decline reply must cite the policy rule, not blame the customer — 'our 30-day window covers this' keeps the relationship.

Step 4: Route the outcomes

  1. Approve → auto-process via Stripe (write scope) or queue for click-to-refund.
  2. Review → your inbox with context.
  3. Decline → send the drafted reply after review.
  4. Log every decision with the rule matched.
  5. Watch for policy abuse patterns.

Watch out: Start queue-only for approvals — click-to-refund in the first month still blocks the write blast while you build trust in the rules.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Refund Eligibility Checker automation do?

Refund requests are checked against your policy and routed — refund or soft-decline. Reads refund requests against your policy

How much time does Refund Eligibility Checker save?

It is estimated to save ~1 hr per week. Actual savings depend on your volume.

Which tools does Refund Eligibility Checker use?

It works with Stripe.

What does Refund Eligibility Checker include?

Policy rules, Order lookup, Decision + reply routing.

Can I set up Refund Eligibility Checker myself?

Yes. The do-it-yourself guide on this page walks through 4 steps, from getting access to testing the finished automation.