> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.komerza.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Customers & Store Credit
> Customer records, the customer dashboard, and how store credit works
Every buyer who orders from your store gets a customer record, and every store can optionally issue **store credit** - a per-store balance customers spend at your checkout. Credit is the answer to a lot of awkward situations: refunds on payment methods that cannot be reversed, goodwill, prepaid top-ups, and affiliate balances converted into spend.
## Customer records
Customers are created automatically at checkout and are managed under **Customers** in the dashboard. Records can be searched by email, and the [Customers API](/api-reference/endpoint/customers/get-list) supports listing, searching, creating and adjusting balance programmatically.
Team members need customer permissions to view or edit them. See [Teams & Permissions](/guides/teams-and-permissions).
## The customer dashboard
Every store includes a customer-facing dashboard on the store's own domain at `/dashboard` - for example `https://yourstore.mykomerza.com/dashboard`, or `/dashboard` on your custom domain.
This is separate from your merchant dashboard, and there is no central Komerza
login for buyers. Customer accounts exist per store.
Sign-in is passwordless: the customer enters their email and receives a **6-digit code**, valid for 5 minutes and usable once. Signing in creates the account if it doesn't exist, so there is nothing for them to register first. There are no passwords to reset and no signup form to fill in.
Inside, customers get their orders, delivered items, a Downloads centre collecting every file and key across their orders, support tickets, their store balance, and the affiliate area if you have affiliates enabled. The dashboard is available in nine languages.
## Enabling store credit
Store credit is the **Customer Balance** payment method, enabled under **Online Store → Settings → Payment Options**. Once enabled:
* Customers can pay with their balance at checkout.
* Balance becomes available as a refund destination on orders.
* Customers can top up their balance through checkout, paying the amount plus the gateway fee.
* Affiliates can convert commission into credit, if you allowed that in [affiliate settings](/guides/affiliates).
Store credit is **not cashable**. It can be spent at your store and never
expires, but it cannot be withdrawn as money. Issuing credit is a commitment
to supply goods, not a cash liability you can settle later.
## Credit as a refund destination
For several payment methods, balance is the **only** refund destination Komerza can process, because the gateway has no refund API or the payment was settled manually:
* All cryptocurrencies
* Custom payment methods, Cash App, PayPal Friends & Family, legacy PayPal
* NMI, MoneyMotion, Pandabase, Storrik, VenPayr
* Any order that was delivered manually
In those cases you can still return the original payment yourself, outside Komerza. Two rules to remember:
1. A **top-up order can never be refunded to balance** - that would double-credit the customer.
2. Refunding a top-up to the original card also **claws back the credited balance**.
For split payments (balance plus a gateway), a refund returns each part to its own source. The full flow is in [Managing Orders](/guides/orders#refunds).
## Adjusting a balance directly
Balances can be adjusted through the [update balance endpoint](/api-reference/endpoint/customers/update-balance), which is how you would script goodwill credits, promotional balances, or a migration of account credit from another platform.
Credit is a useful service recovery tool precisely because it is instant and
costs you no gateway fees. A customer whose crypto order went wrong is usually
happier with immediate credit than with a manual refund that takes days.
## What customers can't do themselves
* **Change their email address.** The email is the account; there is no self-serve change or account merge.
* **Manage subscriptions.** There is no self-service billing area, so cancellations and changes come to you. See [Selling Subscriptions](/guides/subscriptions).
* **Delete their account or export their data** from the dashboard. Those requests are handled manually - direct them to Komerza support.
## Next steps
Refunds, destinations and split payments.
Enabling Customer Balance at checkout.
Converting commission into store credit.
List, search, create and adjust balances.