A July sale refunded in August: which month is worse off? Both answers are defensible, so Baiord asks you once and then applies your choice consistently.
The two options
| Option | What it means | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| The month the refund arrives | A July sale refunded in August reduces August. Closed months never change. | Anyone settling month-end profit shares, paying a partner or a team on last month's figures. A number you have already paid out on should not move. |
| The month of the original order | A July sale refunded in August reduces July. Each month eventually shows what its orders truly earned. | Anyone judging a month's trading on its merits — which products actually worked in July, refunds and all. |
You are asked on the dashboard the first time: "One quick choice: which month should a refund's loss count in?" It is changeable afterwards in Settings → General, under Refund losses count in.
What it actually changes
Only the dating of three events: a buyer refund, a supplier recovery, and a returned unit credited back. Nothing stored is altered, and no total is invented. Summed over all time the two views are identical — they only ever disagree about when.
It affects your dashboard, analytics and summaries. Each of those prints which basis it is using underneath, so nobody reading your screen has to guess.
The monthly P&L always uses the arrival-month basis, whichever way you set this. A statement whose definition changed with a setting would not be a statement, and the arrival basis is the one to settle month-end shares on.
Cancellations are not affected
eBay's refund on a cancelled order is excluded from all of this. It is the cancellation itself, shown against the sale and dated with the order.