Creating Customer and Supplier Refunds

how to process customer and supplier refunds

Written By Grainne Reidy (Super Administrator)

Updated at November 2nd, 2023

Introduction

Creating Refunds without VAT

If you do not need to account for VAT on refunds:
  • Customers: Go to Sales > Customers. Under Actions, select Create Refund.
  • Suppliers: Go to Purchases > Suppliers. Under Actions, select Create Refund.
  • Banks: Go to Bank > Unprocessed Imported. Find your Bank Transaction. Click Create New Posting > Create Customer Refund/Create Supplier Refund.

Creating Refunds with VAT

If you need to account for VAT on refunds, use:

  • Supplier Debit: Go to Purchases > Item Invoices > New Debit Note
  • Batch run: Go to Purchases > Batch Invoices > New Batch Debit Note.
  • Customer Credit Notes: Go to Sales > Item Invoices > New Credit Note.
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Posting Refunds

Types of Refunds

Supplier Refunds posts a Purchase Credit Journal which:

  • Increases the selected Supplier Balance
  • Credits the Supplier Control Account
  • Debits the selected bank account 

Customer Refunds posts a Sales Debit Journal which:

  • Decreases the selected customer's balance
  • Debits the customer control account
  • Credits the selected bank account. 
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Info

No VAT can be recorded on Sales or Purchase journals. If you need to record VAT on your refund, post a Customer or Supplier Credit, or Debit Note.

How to Post a Refund

In the Refund screen, complete the following:

  • Customer A/C / Supplier A/C: Enter the customer or supplier name or account code.
  • Exch. Rate: If you select a foreign currency Customer, Supplier, or Bank Account, the rate will default to the latest for that Account's Base Currency. However, you can override it if necessary.
  • Refund Date: This defaults to today's date, but you can override it.
  • External Reference: Enter a journal reference number if relevant.
  • Bank: Select the Bank Account from the list if you need to post an adjustment to a GL Account, user Sales or Purchase Debit, or Credit Journals.
  • BI Code: If required, select a BI code.
  • Description: Enter a Description for the journal.
  • Refund Amount: Enter the refund amount in the customer or supplier currency.
  • BC Amount: This is calculated automatically for foreign currency Customer, Supplier, or Bank Accounts. 

 

To finish, do one of the following:

  • To post the journal, click Process.
  • To post the refund, click Process and Allocate. Go to the allocation screen for the selected customer or supplier. From there you can allocate the newly posted journal as required.
  • To close the screen without posting any transaction, click Close.

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Foreign Currency Refunds

Supported FX Refunds

The following scenarios are supported:

  • Customer/Supplier in the same foreign currency as the bank
  • Customer/Supplier base currency with the bank in foreign currency
  • Bank in base currency with Customer/Supplier foreign currency

Unsupported FX Refunds

You cannot do the following: 

  • Process foreign currency triangulation in refunds, where both the Customer/Supplier and the bank are in foreign currency. Instead, process the refund in two stages:
    1. Process a sales debit or purchase credit journal.
    2. Process a bank debit or credit journal.
  • Post refunds from the Bank Transaction matching screen if the Customer/Supplier is not in the same currency as the Bank Account as the transaction may carry bank charges. You will receive an error message if you try. 
  • Match a single bank transaction to multiple transactions using the Bank Transaction Matching. You need to manually match them in the Bank Reconciliation screen.

To create Foreign Currency refunds:

  1. Go to Sales > Customers or Purchases > Suppliers and find your transaction.
  2. In the Actions dropdown, select Create Refund.
  3. Complete all necessary details. In the Refund screen, the BC Amount field will be calculated automatically.
  4. Click Process.

 

Graphical user interface, text, application, email

Description automatically generated

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Refunds versus Debits/Credits

What’s the difference between Sales Debit Journals and Customer Refunds, or Purchase Credit Journals and Supplier Refunds?

To make posting transactions more intuitive, we have split refunds from the Sales Debit and Purchase Credit Journals. This also allows links to refunds from the Bank Matching screen.


Either option posts the same transaction type, but:

  • Sales Debit & Purchase Credit Journals can only be posted to Posting GL Accounts.
  • Refunds can only be posted against a bank account. 
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