OPD Bill Cancellation and Refunds

Introduction

OPD bills can be cancelled (voided) or refunded (cash returned to the patient). These are distinct operations: cancellation voids the entire bill and reverses the payment, while a refund returns specific items or a partial amount. Both operations create an audit trail and, where configured, require supervisor approval.

Navigation

• Bill Cancellation: Main Menu → OPD → Bill Search → select bill → Cancel
• OPD Refunds (Cashier): Main Menu → OPD Cashier → Refunds for OPD Bills (privilege: RefundOpdBillsFromCashier)
• Pharmacy Refunds (Cashier): Main Menu → OPD Cashier → Refunds for Pharmacy Bills (privilege: RefundPharmacyBillsFromCashier)

Bill Cancellation

1. Locate the bill via OPD Bill Search.
2. Open the bill and click Cancel.
3. Navigate to opd/bill_cancel.xhtml.
4. Enter the cancellation reason.
5. If a bill cancellation approval workflow is configured, the request is queued for supervisor approval (see Bill Cancellation Approval).
6. On approval (or immediately if no approval is required): the bill is marked cancelled=true, and the associated payment is reversed.

Important: A cancelled bill is not deleted — it remains in the system with cancelled=true for audit purposes. The bill items and fees remain visible for reporting.

Bills With a Sample Accepted by the Laboratory

Once the laboratory has accepted a sample for a test on a bill, that bill cannot be cancelled, refunded or returned by anyone. A sample that has only been collected or sent (not yet accepted by the laboratory) does not block anything. No user privilege can override this. It applies to:

• OPD individual bills
• OPD batch bills
• package bills
• collecting centre bills

If you try, the system shows a message like:

Cannot cancel this bill because the laboratory has already accepted the sample for FBC (accepted at 2026-10-08 09:30). Ask a laboratory user with the 'Lab Revert Sample' privilege to cancel the sample collection first.

If the bill genuinely needs to be cancelled or refunded:

1. Ask a laboratory user with the Lab Revert Sample privilege to cancel the sample collection. See Cancelling a Sample Collection.
2. After that, cancel or refund the bill as usual.

A sample collection cannot be cancelled once the report has been approved or printed. From then on the bill stays as it is.

A test whose samples have all been rejected counts as not collected, so its bill can be cancelled or refunded.

Administrators can switch this protection off for a hospital with the application option Block cancellation and refund of OPD, package and collecting centre bills once the laboratory has accepted a sample. It is on by default.

Bill Return / Refund (Cashier)

For returning specific items and refunding the patient:

1. Navigate to Refunds for OPD Bills → the system opens the refund search page.
2. Search for the bill by patient or bill number → opd/opd_search_pre_refund_bill_for_return_cash.
3. Select the bill. The system opens opd/bill_return.xhtml.
4. Select the items to return (tick each service/item being refunded).
5. The refund amount is calculated automatically.
6. Select the refund payment method (how the money is returned to the patient: Cash, card reversal, etc.).
7. Click Save. A refund bill is created and the return is processed.
8. Print from opd/bill_return_print.xhtml.

Note: OPD refund payment method selection was fixed in PR #20645 to correctly handle payment method adjustments.

Bill Refund Page

opd/bill_refund.xhtml is an alternative refund entry page for situations where the return amount needs to be entered manually rather than selected by item.

Patient Refund Payment

opd/patient_refund_payment.xhtml — accepts a pending refund payment for a patient, used when the refund was created previously and payment is processed separately.

Pharmacy Refunds

For pharmacy bill refunds:

1. Navigate to Refunds for Pharmacy Bills → pharmacy/pharmacy_search_pre_refund_bill_for_return_cash.
2. Search for the pharmacy bill.
3. Select items to return, confirm refund amount and method.
4. Save and print.

Technical Reference

Item	Detail
Controller	BillController, BillReturnController
Cancel page	opd/bill_cancel.xhtml
Return page	opd/bill_return.xhtml
Return print	opd/bill_return_print.xhtml
Refund page	opd/bill_refund.xhtml
Patient refund	opd/patient_refund_payment.xhtml
Privileges	RefundFromCashier, RefundOpdBillsFromCashier, RefundPharmacyBillsFromCashier
Bill state	cancelled=true on Bill entity (not retired)
PR reference	#20645 (refund payment method fix)