Skip to main content

Get 50% OFF QuickBooks for 3 months*

Buy now
Switch to QuickBooks and 70% off for 3 Months
December 11, 2018
Solved

How to handle a return / exchange?

  • December 11, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 2 views

Hi, 

I sold an item to a customer for (using arbitrary figures) $400 and he now wants to return the item and exchange it for a $600 item. He has already paid. 

I need to:

return the item to inventory 

No refund needed since the item that he is exchanging for is more expensive. 

Create a new sale order and charge him the difference



What is the best way to handle this? 

Best answer by qbteachmt

"return the item to inventory"

Customer Credit Memo. List the item and the Amount you agree to accept it back.

"since the item that he is exchanging for is more expensive."

New Invoice..

"Create a new sale order and charge him the difference"

New Sales = New Invoice. Apply the Credit Memo to the open balance; they still owe the difference.


3 replies

Level 4
December 11, 2018

given that there is an amount due, this can be done using just an invoice - no c/memo needed - by entering the return quantity as a negative and the new item on the next line as a positive

February 11, 2019

I have an almost identical problem, although I would like to use the situation you put forth in this post. When I create a new order with the negative item (valued less than the new item), quickbooks automatically changes the negative to a positive when the document is saved. Is there a company setting that allows negative quantities to be entered on documents?

 

 

qbteachmt
Level 11
February 11, 2019

@Aaron29

 

Why are you using a Negative anywhere? You make a Credit Memo (customer return) and there is no Negative entry anywhere. Then, you are either refunding that value or applying it to their Next order.

qbteachmt
Level 11
December 11, 2018

"by entering the return quantity as a negative and the new item on the next line as a positive"

I used to do things that way; then I realized that in Transaction reports and in the Customer transaction listing, everything shows as 0, and you have to Open it to see what was the Actual sales info. And by having Credit memos, I know that involved a Return.


qbteachmt
qbteachmtAnswer
Level 11
December 11, 2018

"return the item to inventory"

Customer Credit Memo. List the item and the Amount you agree to accept it back.

"since the item that he is exchanging for is more expensive."

New Invoice..

"Create a new sale order and charge him the difference"

New Sales = New Invoice. Apply the Credit Memo to the open balance; they still owe the difference.


April 15, 2022

I have the same issue and i tried to create Credit memo. However, the credit memo status is always showing "unapplied" and i am not able to link any invoices to it. 

QuickBooks Team
April 15, 2022

Let's perform some troubleshooting steps to correct the credit memo status, SSKGLOMIX.

 

We can run the verify and rebuild tool to check if it has something to do with your data. This tool self-identifies the most commonly known data issues within a company file and self-resolves most data integrity issues. Just follow the steps and detail in his article: Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

 

Then, we can delete and recreate the credit memo and manually apply it to your invoice. Let's create a back up your company file first just in case you ever run into problems we can use it to restore your data. Let me walk you through the steps on how to do it:

 

To delete the credit memo: 

  1. From the Customers menu, pick Customer Center.
  2. Select the customer's name.
  3. Double-click the Credit Memo transaction.
  4. Click the Delete icon, then OK.

 

To recreate the credit memo: 

  1. From the Customers menu, pick Create Credit Memos/Refunds.
  2. Select the correct customer from the Customer:Job drop-down menu.
  3. Enter all the necessary details.
  4. Click Save & Close.
  5. Once the Available Credit window shows up, choose Retain as an available credit.
  6. Click OK.

 

If you don't want to apply the credit memo to other open invoices, we can uncheck the Automatically apply payments option. Here's how:

 

  1. Click Edit at the top and select Preferences. 
  2. Go to Payments from the left menu.
  3. Select Company Preferences. 
  4. Make sure that the Automatically apply payments is not selected.

 

For more details, just click this article: Give your customer a credit or refund in QuickBooks Desktop for Windows. On the other hand, you can also check this link for your future reference about QuickBooks Desktop and how to resolve issues when applying for a payment: 

 

 

Let me know in the reply section below if you still have questions or concerns. I'll be around to answer them for you. Take care and have a great day ahead.