Negative values (supplier credits) when splitting withdrawals
TheAutoSparky
Member Posts: 9
In the old Transactions page, I was able to enter a negative value when splitting a withdrawal while reconciling a statement from a supplier.
IE. a credit for a returned item. I don't seem to be able to do that on the new Transactions page.
2
Comments
This is not good. A function that used to work well and now doesn't work. I can't seem to get any help on this either. Vendor credit notes (negative bills) used to come up in the transaction page with ( ) brackets to indicate the negative value. I see that in the new transaction split window, the negative value bills do not appear. This is a major accounting issue, in which I will have to go else where if this is not resolved.
@TheAutoSparky Now it's so less intuitive and harder to use and understand for the everyday folk like you and I - its geared more towards bookkeepers and accountants. It seems they are targeting the software that way. I used to reconcile everything online, synced bank statement, uploaded invoices and got through them. Now I have to print out bank statements and manually re-reconcile them. To me this seems pretty backward and just increases my already hefty workload.
What they had worked, and worked well. I don't understand how you would handle a credit from a supplier any other way than a negative withdrawal. Anything else makes it look like an income which it isn't.
I have since learnt that there is an option when categorizing an income, you can choose to apply it as a refund received for a bill. The problem here is, if the credit note is applied to a different pay period (say, the month after the initial invoice), then I cannot reconcile with supplier's statements.
Previously, I entered supplier's credit notes in as negative bills, then split the withdrawal, which was a payment for a statement for a month, entered negative values for the split where there were credits notes, and applied those transactions to the credit note. Everything lined up. No confusion.
@TheAutoSparky There isn't a real clear cut workaround here for credit notes which is something that we may be looking at adding in the near future... although not ideal, and might not work best with your situation.. you could technically just add a negative invoice for the customer you are working with (although it sounds like you are working with a vendor instead here). If you give provide a bit more feedback on how this feature would benefit you, that would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Jamie,
What I have been used to with QuickBooks previously is the ability to enter one or more splits with a negative amount.
e.g. if I am paying a supplier $100, which includes $120 of expenses and a refund of $20 for a product I've returned to them.
What I have to do at the moment with Wave is enter the transaction as $120 and then do a separate Journal entry for the -$20 amount. Not ideal.
Steve
Hi @steve3140. Thanks for sharing your current workflow/workaround in Wave. As of right now, there still isn't a way to split an income transaction to contain a negative amount (unless you were accounting for merchant account fees on an invoice that was paid to you). I do, however, appreciate the feedback that you've provided us here to see how we can improve on this feature in the future.
I could really do with this too, but with customers. We receive payments from a credit card processor which comprises of refunds and payments all in one combined reconciliation amount weekly. Until this is available as a feature in Wave, I've just taken the one transaction on the bank statement and translated it to two transactions in Wave - one dealing with the refunds and one dealing with the income - both transactions come to the same total as the original bank statement transaction.
Hey @TreasurerCMHA , While there isn't away to split transactions between income and expenses, there is a workaround similar to what you're already doing (taking one transaction and entering two in Wave instead) that will allow your bank transactions to reconcile.
This trick involves recording the component parts of a transaction to a holding account, and then creating a transfer between the holding account and your bank account using the net transaction that is imported by your bank. To do this:
This will clear the balance of your holding account, and reflect each income and expense amount in your Profit & Loss Statement. You'll also be able to reconcile your bank statement against Wave's transactions for your bank account 1:1.
I hope this helps!
We would also like this. It would be much easier just to allow negative values against income categories, thereby adjusting the chart of accounts correctly for those categories.
@James_Hudson , With your suggestion of a holding account, what type of account does this need to be.... because I can not determine how to add both an income and expense in the same transaction.
This would definitely help, especially when we want to record fees not necessarily associated with Merchant Account fees (like COGS direct costs). I know it's not easy, considering how the new platform treats refunds for income/expenses, but there should be a way, for example, to change the direction (+ or -) for a split in a deposit and to allow you to select a non-merchant account fee expense or a refund for income.
I'm looking for a solution to this as well. I have a renter who paid for some expenses to the rental unit. The renter shortpaid the monthly rent as agreed. I need to be able to post the shortfall on the payment to an expense account. I'm not sure how to handle this since I can't make a journal entry any other way now.
Airbnb has a particularly frustrating way of encapsulating several transactions, some positive and some negative, into a single bank deposit. I'm unable to replicate this in Wave. Say deposit was for 900. 1000 of that is income for property #1. Negative 100 is a resolution refund for property #2. I enter 1000 and categorize it as income #1 but when I try to enter negative 100 so my deposit can be reconciled, wave is not allowing it.
<< UPDATE >>
Nevermind, I was able to resolve this with journal transaction =]
Being able to split a transaction with negative numbers would help tremendously. For example, if you paid for something ($200 total), used a store credit ($50) and credit card charge ($150) for the total cost - I still want to account for the full $200 expense on the ledger. This is something that is available in every other software I've used including Mint and Quickbooks. Having to create journal entries to get the numbers right is awkward and time-consuming.
I agree this functionality needs to be added. I run into this type of transaction regularly and work arounds are awkward and time-consuming as cofrenchy pointed out.
Hey @cofrenchy and @mackayr !
You don't have to use journal entries to record these types of transactions any more. Now you can create a separate "Discount" account in your Chart of Accounts, under the Income tab. This could be Store Credit, for example.
This account, when selected as the Category for a transaction split, will change the value of this split to negative
Negative amounts for things like service charges would be VERY useful. Currently, I can use Zap to upload Stripe transactions - negative amounts imported so one transaction per sale - Yay!
Zap will not work properly for PayPal, so two transactions done manually - Boo!
Zap is not your problem, I understand, but the transaction page is SO much more streamlined when it is just one line per sale
And how would this be achieved for negative supplier invoices?
And even for regular transactions, using this blanket Discount income account doesn't account for tracking the 'credit' in its correct account (clothes, rental expense, or whatever). To do that, you still have to go through journal entries.
Did anything ever get resolved on this? I don't understand why it is so difficult. I need to split charges on my Visa statement which includes credits. It's making me crazy!
Doesn't work. The value can only be positive and is a debit not a credit. I need to account for the Cash Rewards amount credited on my SAMS CLUB receipt. I tried creating a new asset account of the type "Receivable" and "Vendor Payments and Vendor Credits". Neither type worked as a credit in the transaction split.
Also added an "Income" type account but it does not show up in the list for transaction splits.
I would also like to see this feature added!