Store Credits Management – Tekmetric

What Is Store Credits Management?

Store Credits Management allows your shop to create, track, and redeem store credits directly in Tekmetric — helping you handle overpayments and prepayments without needing a manual workaround.

With store credits, you can:

Turn cash or check overpayments into usable credits for future work.
Add credits directly to a customer's account for future visits — no repair order required.
Apply credits toward any repair order (RO).
Track all store credit activity for your customers and your shop.
Refund store credit balances from the customer's account.

Key Limitations

Credits can only be created from cash or check payments.
Maximum credit per transaction: $1,000. (Note: This is a built-in security measure designed to protect your shop and prevent money laundering activity).
Credits cannot be transferred between customers or shop locations.
Credits do not expire until they are used.
Only Owners, Administrators, and Service Advisors can create or redeem credits.

Why It Matters

Store credits help you:

Keep revenue in-house instead of refunding it out.
Provide flexibility to customers who overpay or want to prepay.
Reduce accounting friction by automatically tracking credit balances and activity.

How Store Credits Work

Issuing a Store Credit from an Overpayment

When a customer overpays with cash or check on a repair order, you can convert the extra amount into a store credit instead of returning change.

To issue a credit:

Go to the RO Payment screen.
Take a cash or check payment that exceeds the balance due.
Click Pay & Post (or Take Payment, then Post RO later).
Tekmetric will prompt you to store the extra amount as a store credit.
The RO updates to show a $0 balance and a new credit balance for the customer.

🎥 Watch how to issue a store credit

Adding a Credit Directly to a Customer's Account (New in 2026)

You can now add a store credit directly from a customer's profile — no repair order needed. This is useful when a customer wants to prepay for future work, leave funds on account, or when you want to add a credit outside of an active RO.

To add a credit from the Customer Profile:

Go to the customer's profile and click on the Wallet tab.
Click Add Credit.
Enter the amount and confirm the payment method (cash or check).
Click Confirm to save the credit to the customer's account.
Once confirmed, Tekmetric generates an invoice outlining the store credit adjustment. You can share this invoice with the customer for their records.

The credit will be available immediately and can be applied to any future RO.

Every credit entry includes a record of who created it, so your shop always has a clear paper trail if you ever need to review activity.

🎥 Watch how to add a credit to a customer account

Applying Store Credit to an RO

Store credits can be used as full or partial payment on open ROs.

To apply a credit:

Open the Payment screen for an RO.
Select Store Credit as the payment method.
Choose how much of the customer's credit to apply.

Tekmetric automatically applies the oldest credits first (FIFO order).

🎥 Watch how to apply store credit

Viewing Store Credits

You can view store credit activity in two places:

🧍‍♂️ Customer Wallet

Found under the customer’s profile.
Shows the total available balance, issue dates, related ROs, and who created the credit.
Helps you confirm balances instantly without checking multiple ROs.

📈 Store Credits Report

Available to users with Financial Report access (Owners/Admins).
See total credit liability, average balance per customer, and aged credits over 90 days.
Two tabs:
- Customer tab: Manage outstanding balances and reach out to customers with aged credits.
- Transactions tab: View every credit issued or used, including employee and RO details.

Note: Store credits are not reflected in the Payment Details report, since they represent deferred revenue (a liability), not new income.

🌅 End of Day Report

Reflects any cash or check prepayments captured for that day.
Because these payments are taken before actual work is conducted, they are recorded as deferred revenue (meaning no sales are recorded at the time of the prepayment).
Once the credit is applied to pay down an active RO, the sales for that RO will be represented in your sales summary, and the payment method will be logged as "credit applied."

Refunding Store Credit Balance

In case you no longer want to carry the liability, or perhaps the customer no longer wants to keep their funds at the shop (e.g., dissatisfaction with shop, moving away, etc.), you can issue a full or partial refund of the customer's store credit balance with one simple workflow in the Customer Wallet.

To issue a refund:

Go to the customer's profile, and click on the Wallet tab (found in Customer Details).
Click on the Refund Balance button.
Choose whether you're refunding via cash or check and fill in the refund associated information.
Refunding the full store credit balance will be preselected, but you can un-click the check box and write in the partial refund amount if needed.
Click Complete to process the refund.
You'll be routed back to the customer wallet, and the customer’s overall store credit balance will be deducted accordingly.
The system will post a negative payment of type “store credit refund” to the Customer Wallet, Store Credit Report, End of Day Report, Payment Details Report, and Cash Drawer report.

🎥 Watch how to refund store credit balance

Common Questions

Why can’t I create store credits from a card payment?

There are a couple key reasons why we don’t allow credits to be created from a card payment.

Credit cards are regulated with strong consumer protection policies. So if you issued store credit instead of returning funds to the card, a customer could claim you denied them their rightful refund, leading to regulatory or reputational issues.
Also, store credits represent a liability on your books. Creating them from cash/check is straightforward because you already physically hold the funds. With credit cards, you don’t truly “own” the money until the dispute window closes. So turning card payments into store credit prematurely can complicate your accounting and expose you to double liability.

What to tell your customer:

“Because you paid with a credit card, we’re required to refund the overpayment directly to your card. If you’d like store credit for future visits, the best way is to pay with cash or check.”

Can customers use store credits to pay their A/R balance?

Yes — you can apply store credits toward any open RO, including those in A/R. Just open the RO and apply the credit payment from there (store credits can’t be applied directly from the A/R report).

Can store credits be transferred between customers or shop locations?

Not currently. Each store credit is a liability tied to the specific customer and location where the overpayment occurred. Transferring those funds would alter who the liability belongs to, which could create accounting and compliance issues.

Best Practices

✅ Only issue credits for cash or check payments.
✅ Confirm your user permissions before creating or applying credits.
✅ Double-check the RO number and customer before applying credit as a form of payment.
✅ For large or unusual cases, contact your internal admin or Tekmetric Support.