Lost & Found connects a customer's lost-property report with recorded found property, an operator-confirmed match and a traceable return. Similarity is a suggestion; it does not establish ownership or authorise release.
Queues and matching
The /lost-found dashboard has Lost reports, Found items, Likely matches and Returns. Summary
cards show open reports, available items, suggested matches and items awaiting return. Item-type filters apply
across queues without changing the overall counts. Claimant contacts remain private.
Record found item captures item type, found date, description, colour, venue, found location and custody reference. Recording can generate explainable likely matches. Review a suggestion's reasons before confirming or dismissing it. Confirming prevents competing matches from claiming the same item/report. A confirmed match cannot be dismissed through the suggestion action.
Use Email collection details to review the collection window and send through the configured email route. Notification evidence keeps the delivery outcome. Sending is a separate permission from matching. Reports without a match can be closed with a reason; matched reports must complete through the return workflow.
Ownership, payment and return
- In Returns, Confirm ownership & return records how ownership was verified and the customer's acceptance of the return method and total.
- Choose collection or postage/courier if enabled. Enter actual shipping cost for a postal return. A collection cannot include postage.
- The agreement freezes the match's fee, shipping and return details. Online recovery creates a customer payment link; rotating a link replaces access without changing the agreed recovery evidence.
- For a return without an online recovery record, record the full agreed payment reference or an explicit waiver of the full charge. Once an online recovery record exists, release requires its full live provider-confirmed payment with no refund or active refund; test payment, manual reference and waiver cannot substitute.
- Postal completion records dispatch/tracking reference; collection does not. The completed evidence is frozen with the returned item/report.
The recovery fee can be off or charged per returned item; actual postage is independent, so fee-off postal returns may still have a charge. Only an agreed total of zero is a no-charge return and cannot record payment or waiver. For eligible manual settlement, payment needs a reference and waiver needs a reason; they cannot be recorded together. Confirming a match or notifying a claimant never releases the item. Online recovery currently supports GBP and GB sellers.
Website form and settings
| Settings section | Implemented controls |
|---|---|
| Website form | Create/reuse a public form, enable/disable intake, privacy notice, saved-form preview and installation snippets for website embedding/button links. |
| Collection | Collection location, times and instructions used for customer communication. |
| Admin fee | Recovery fee, currency, postal-return option, seller Payment Profile, live/test mode, recovery and postage VAT selections, and a preview of online payment/Soupy-share allocation. |
| Matching | Explanation of matching and operator review; do not assume a free-form threshold editor from the section title. |
The public form collects item type, date lost, description, colour, venue, remembered location, name, email and optional phone; a submitted report receives a confirmation screen without exposing other reports.
The public reporting route is /lost-property/{publicId}; the private recovery payment journey is
/lost-property/recover/{redemptionId} with its required access token. Missing/disabled intake, unavailable
payment setup or an invalid recovery link presents an unavailable state instead of a usable transaction.
lost_found.view permits dashboard access; lost_found.items.manage records found property;
lost_found.matches.manage governs matches and recovery; lost_found.notifications.send permits claimant
email. Settings uses lost_found.settings.view and lost_found.settings.manage. Viewing counts in another
context does not expose claimant details or grant these actions.