Refunds on an invoice

Charlie05

How do I put a negative amount into an invoice to represent a refund.

Alexia

Hi, @Charlie05.

You wouldn't do this from the invoice itself. On your transactions page, you'll create an expense transaction from the appropriate bank account, for the amount of the refund. As the category, choose "Refund sent for an Invoice in Wave".

You'll then have the option to choose a specific invoice. Let me know if that helps!

Charlie05

Hi Alexia. Thank you for replying. I just want to put a negative figure in the invoice. The stuff i do is really basic and i do not have the whole accounting system

Alexia

Hi, @Charlie05.

You could just add a line item for the refund and give it a negative value, then record a negative payment for the invoice. I can't recommend you do that given that it'll complicate things if you ever do decide to use our accounting tools in the future.

If you can give me a bit more details about your business and about this specific transactions, I might be able to offer a different way to handle this.

Charlie05

Thats the problem. It wont allow me to put a negative sign in fron of the line item.

Alexia

Hi, @Charlie05.

Are you trying to do this from the iPhone app? That would explain the problem. The keyboard that appears on iPhones for that field doesn't give you access to a minus sign. It's a design choice of the iPhone calculator keyboard and we can't affect that ourselves. If this is the case, you can copy a minus sign from outside of Wave, or from a different field (one that presents a full keyboard), and paste it in that field.

Charlie05

Thank you so much. Your suggestion worked perfectly.

Alexia

Happy to hear it, @Charlie05!

Sarahdriver

Alexia, how would you suggest refunding a bond or deposit?

Alexia

Hi, @Sarahdriver.

If no invoice was issued, I would recommend using a journal entry to do this. Just credit your bank account for the amount of the refund and debit the account that you chose as a category when you accepted that money (for a deposit, this should be a liability account).

You can create a journal transaction by clicking on the "More" button on the top right of your Transactions page and choosing "Journal transaction".

I hope this helps!

hksuzukimusic

I have an additional question on refunding an invoice. You originally wrote above - "create an expense transaction.... As the category, choose "Refund sent for an Invoice in Wave". Can you clarify if I need to make a new category account?
I have been issuing refunds as an expense, but my accountant has been unable to tie my refunds to my invoices. i.e., we download all the files and he uses the invoice_items.csv to calculate my income. Because my refunds are not linked to my invoices, we are having problems reconciling. any suggestions?

Alexia

Hi, @hksuzukimusic,

No, it won't be categorized as an expense, with an expense account. I just noticed that you used the older version of Wave, which makes it a little less intuitive. On the older version, you'll have to add that transaction as a negative payment to your invoice. Considering that you can't add a payment to an invoice on the Invoices page if it's fully paid, there are obstacles to go around.

Let's say you have a refund for $50, here's what you'd do.

• Find that invoice on the Invoices page and click on the invoice's number.
• On the following page, click on "remove payment". Take notes of the date of that payment, since you'll add it again soon.
• Click "Record a payment" and record a new payment for $-50.00, use the date that you refunded your client as the date of this transaction.
• Click "Record a payment" again and add the original payment for $50.00 to that invoice. Make sure to use the same date and information as you did originally.

If you then want to write-off that invoice entirely, you can do so by following the instructions here.

hksuzukimusic

Thanks. Is it possible to move the current version of Wave? Any steps I could take, or song and dance I could do?

hksuzukimusic

Also, it won't let me add a negative payment. I deleted the original payment so that I could add a payment

Alexia

I'll have to look into this, @hksuzukimusic. But I do have a have a different method. I tested this one and it shouldn't cause any issues.

1. Go to your transaction page and click on "Add an income".
2. Write $-16,550.00 as the amount.
3. Categorize it as an invoice payment for that invoice
4. Go to your invoice and add the original payment again.

No, there isn't currently a way to speed up the migration process for a specific account. We're moving our users over as fast as we can while ensuring the integrity of their data. We are moving forward at a good pace, but I can't give you a timeline as to when your specific account will be moved over.

hksuzukimusic

thank you. I've confirmed that method works.

Topteam

@Alexia said:
Hi, @Charlie05.

You wouldn't do this from the invoice itself. On your transactions page, you'll create an expense transaction from the appropriate bank account, for the amount of the refund. As the category, choose "Refund sent for an Invoice in Wave".

You'll then have the option to choose a specific invoice. Let me know if that helps!

Hi I HAVE DONE WHAT YOU STATED Alexia. But in my category i am not able to see REFUND SENT FOR AN INVOICE. So i greated an Sales refund in Income.

So on the transaction page I opened an expense (which immediately makes your figure a negative) then under category INCOME - i chose sales refund and for ACCOUNT I chose Bank which is how customer made payment. Is this right?

JordanD

@Topteam This could be a good alternative, however the way that Lexi previously explained would ensure that the refund let's you know which invoice it was for. I'd maybe consider adding that the description or notes of the transaction you've created in the event that you forget which invoice was refunded.

Yan

Hi,

I read this thread and it makes little sense to me.

I have a client, they were 2 for a package, now 3. so the price is lower. I edited the invoice and added a -R for revised to the invoice. Now he overpaid. So the invoice shows the amount due ($*.) negative.

The way I think I learned to do it in my accounting course is using a contra revenue account. for the refund.

But anyway, if I follow your steps:

You wouldn't do this from the invoice itself. On your transactions page, you'll create an expense transaction from the appropriate bank account, for the amount of the refund. As the category, choose "Refund sent for an Invoice in Wave".

You'll then have the option to choose a specific invoice. Let me know if that helps!

I do not have the option to choose "Refund sent for an Invoice".

The invoice page does not give me the option to add a payment as it is fully paid (overpaid).
If I choose in transaction add income, add negative income, I cannot choose the invoice if I select "Create Invoice Payment".

I just wasted an hour on this

I think Wave needs to streamline the process. I really do not know if I have the updated version or not as I cannot see the version number anywhere.

How to proceed?

Jusmih

Hi There,
I am also having an issue with refunds. The customer made a purchase and paid for it, the invoice was created and a payment was made for the purchase, the outstanding balance was zero at the point. the next day I had to give the customer a refund, I have followed your advice and issued a "refund sent for an invoice in wave" against the invoice for the customer however it now says that there is an outstanding balance for the original amount on the invoice and its also on my dashboard saying the balance is now due? I thought it would have said refund on the invoice, but its saying payment made, even though I have used the refund option?

JamieD

Hi @Yan. When you are on the transactions page itself, and you create an income transaction -- you should be able to put a minus symbol infront of the dollar amount. From here, you can categorize this as an invoice payment that has been accepted in Wave. You should be able to associate this with the refund that was created for this particular invoice.

@Jusmih In a case like this, you will technically need to write the invoice off as bad debt (not as bad as it sounds) by following this help centre article here; https://support.waveapps.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000031243-Dealing-with-bad-debt-How-to-write-off-an-invoice

Joya

Hello, I've tried to contact customer service but is taking too many days. I've done like > @Alexia said:

1. Go to your transaction page and click on "Add an income".
2. Write $-16,550.00 as the amount.
3. Categorize it as an invoice payment for that invoice
4. Go to your invoice and add the original payment again.

Now that invoice shows up like Overdue. I have the initial payment that the client did, - the negative "payment" I manually added. In my transactions I also have an uncategorised expense for the refund I made by transfer from my bank.

I guess I am missing a step... ?

Barsin

Hey @Joya

I think the issue you might be experiencing is that you now have two transactions tied to this invoice refund.

1) Being the $-16,550 you added as your income transaction which you categorized to the invoice payment
2) The uncategorized expense transaction for the refund.

I think you should try deleting that bank imported expense transaction as it's likely creating a duplicate here. Give that a try and report back!

Joya

Hi @Barsin, I've deleted the bank imported expense transaction. I still have the invoice as overdue.
This is what I need to record:

1. The original invoice was (for example) $1000
2. The client paid it by bank transfer
3. The client requires a refund for half of the amount $500. Refund is done by bank transfer.

What I did was:

(1. Issue invoice)
2. Categorised bank imported transaction of $1000 as Invoice payment
3. Went to the invoice, deleted the original payment.
4. Added income -$500. Categorised as invoice payment.
5. Went to the invoice, added the original payment.

So now that invoice has 2 payments: $1000 and -$500.

Barsin

Hey @Joya

I think in order to keep your books reconciled, instead of deleting your bank imported transaction (which I know I told you to do, but try this instead), you should create an expense category called "refunded transactions" or something along the lines. Then you can categorize the expense to that refund category and still account for all your transactions.

Joya

Hi @Barsin ,

How can I get back the bank imported transaction that I deleted then?
I went to Add Account in Account charts and typed Refund so I could add the category but it doesn't let me do anything.

Barsin

Hey @Joya

You are not able to retrieve this transaction, but you can just recreate it in your transactions page. This will achieve the same results.

Errolp

How would I enter a refund for a Purchase. The Purchase amount involves gst

JamieD

Hey @Errolp. In this case, you would want to go to the transactions page (where the income transaction came in for the refund) and categorize it as a 'refund received for a bill in wave.' If the income transaction wasn't already created, then you would need to create that transaction first, then categorize accordingly.

Joya

Hi @Barsin thanks for your reply. In the end I added an expense and the category Refund. I can't link this Refund with the invoice and I think this is why it doesn't appear when I see the Customer Statement. Is there a way to link the refund to this customer so it appears in his statement?

Thank you

AlexL

Hey @Joya . If you select "Refund sent for an Invoice in Wave" and select the appropriate invoice, it will automatically add the Customer that is on the invoice and associate it. If you select "Refund for Income" when categorizing, it doesn't give you the option therefore it doesn't associate to a customer for you.