TernFlow: one queue for refunds and disputes across 12 Shopify stores
When refunds and chargebacks are spread across separate store admins, deadlines slip, currencies don't reconcile and nobody can say who approved what. TernFlow pulls every case into one queue with deadlines, owners and an approval trail. Below: what it does, how it's built, and where the same pattern fits outside e-commerce.
What goes wrong when disputes live in 12 admins
Multi-store retail operations break down when customer service reps have to jump across separate dashboards without shared queues, cross-store context, or strict permission boundaries.
Deadlines slip
Every dispute has a response deadline set by the payment provider. Spread across stores and providers, nobody sees which one expires tomorrow — and an unanswered dispute is usually a lost one: the payment plus the dispute fee.
Currencies don't reconcile
A refund in EUR on a USD store, a payout after fees and conversion. The numbers in the admin, the payout and the books rarely match without someone fixing them by hand.
Approvals are invisible
Each order's timeline shows that a refund happened. It doesn't show why, whether it was within policy, or who signed off — and across 12 stores, nobody sees the whole picture.
Work doesn't carry across stores
Even with one login, agents switch between 12 admins. Queues, filters, notes and assignments stay in each store.
Three parts, one workspace
A single operational command center designed for fast response, exact financial clarity, and authorization rules calculated by code.
| Case | Type | Store | Amount | Status | Respond by | Owner / Rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #TF-8920 | Chargeback | Demo Living EU | €320.00 | Needs response | 2 days | Marcus K. |
| #TF-8917 | Chargeback | Demo Apparel US | $212.00 | Needs response | 18 hours ⚠ | Unassigned → Lead |
| #TF-8921 | Refund | Demo Apparel US | $148.50 | Approved | — | Sarah M. |
| #TF-8919 | Chargeback | Demo Home UK | £85.20 | Under review (bank) | — | Sarah M. |
| #TF-8918 | Refund | Demo Apparel US | $64.00 | Auto-approved | — | Rule R-03 · under $75, not shipped |
Automate your refund workflow with absolute control
Watch how webhooks from 12 Shopify stores ingest disputes, apply automated deadline rules, and keep an append-only audit trail for every euro recovered.
How it's built
The queue reads from its own database, not from Shopify. Events arrive through webhooks, which keeps the workspace fast and inside Shopify's API limits.
Verified and de-duplicated
Each webhook's HMAC signature is validated and its unique ID is stored. Repeated deliveries from Shopify are recognized and skipped immediately, preventing duplicate cases or double-refunding.
Failures are visible
Failed background jobs retry automatically with exponential backoff. Persistent errors divert to an operator review queue. A scheduled hourly job compares database records with Shopify to catch any undelivered webhooks.
Writes respect API limits
Refunds, notes, and dispute evidence packages are dispatched back to Shopify through a rate-limited queue per storefront, staying well within Shopify GraphQL API leak-bucket thresholds.
Sized for the real load
Disputes and refunds represent a tiny fraction of total order volume. The architecture avoids bloated distributed dependencies, running reliably on standard cloud VPS infrastructure.
Built so the expensive mistakes are hard to make
Code-enforced software guards that prevent costly human errors before anything reaches Shopify.
Refund limits by role
Agents can refund up to $100. Above that, a lead approves before anything goes to Shopify.
No refunding twice
Before a refund, the system checks what has already been refunded on that order, including goodwill credits.
A reason on every refund
A reason code is required, so reports show refunds by reason, store and approver.
Deadlines escalate
Disputes with less than 48 hours to respond move to the top of the queue and notify the lead.
Evidence is checked before it's sent
The system assembles order details, tracking and customer messages and flags anything missing. A person reviews and submits the response.
How a project like this runs
Transparent milestones with fixed scopes, parallel validation, and clear handover standards.
Operations Audit
Workflow bottleneck mapping across stores, payment providers, and approval paths. You get a clickable core-flow prototype (5–6 screens) and a written fixed-price build specification.
Build
Live working demos every 1–2 weeks with fast async feedback loops to keep your launch date on track. Connected to test stores on a staging environment with real API endpoints, database migrations, and responsive UI components.
Pilot verification
The workspace runs on one or two stores for two weeks. We verify and reconcile cases against the store admins before complete rollout.
Handover
Deployed to your cloud account, with documentation, a runbook for common failures, an automated CI/CD pipeline, and complete intellectual property ownership.
When an off-the-shelf tool is enough
If you run one or two stores, Shopify's built-in admin and an existing chargeback app are usually enough — and some of those apps charge only a share of what they recover.
A custom workspace starts to pay off when refunds, disputes and approval rules span many stores, currencies or payment providers, and when you need your own business rules calculated by code rather than another vendor's recurring per-seat fees. The audit tells you which side of that line you're on.
Many sources, deadlines, money, one accountable person
The same structure — one queue, deadlines, approvals and a full record — fits wherever claims and returns cost real money.
Freight claims
Damage reports, BOLs and PODs from carriers and customers in one queue, with filing deadlines and evidence attached to each claim.
Warranty returns
Return requests matched to orders and serial numbers, routed for technical inspection, with supplier credits tracked to closure.
Callbacks & complaints
Customer complaints linked to the original job, technician and materials, with a rule calculated by code on who pays for the return visit.
What a client would own
We build software for you to own, not to rent back from us.
Code in your repository
Under your organization's Git account with full commit history.
Deployment on your cloud
AWS, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, or your own dedicated private servers.
Direct infrastructure billing
Hosting and API costs billed straight to your accounts at provider prices, with no markup and no per-seat fees from us.
Maintainable documentation
Architectural blueprints and runbooks so any competent in-house or outside team can maintain and extend it.
Claims, disputes or returns spread across too many places?
Book a 30-minute call. Show us where cases come from and who approves them — we'll tell you whether a shared queue, a few rules in your current tools, or nothing at all is the right fix.
Prefer email? Reach us at info@solvilab.com