How to enter a sales refund for a customer return?

jdefl4444 · ‎March 05, 2026

Self-Employed Quickbooks question: I sell online and receive a lump sum several times a week for the sales from the previous days. How do I categorize a refund (full or partial refund) issued to a customer for one of those sales? Quickbooks sees the refund transaction as an expense, but this is actually negative revenue. There is no expense category for customer refund. Bottom line is that the original income for the sale should somehow be deducted from total income so that taxes aren’t incurred on it. Thank you for your help.

Jane_M · ‎March 06, 2026

Thanks for reaching out with the details, @jdefl4444. As you've pointed out, there isn't a specific category for customer refunds in QuickBooks Self-Employed. In this case, I recommend reaching out to your accountant to determine the best way to record these refunds so your records align with your Schedule C.

Once you have clarified the exact category for customer refunds, here's how you can record a lump sum transaction for partial or full refunds, especially if the transaction involves different categories:

Go to Transactions.
Find the refund transaction (it will show as a negative/outgoing amount).
Click on the transaction to open it.
Click Split under the Type column.
Choose Business, Personal, or click Add line to split the transaction by amount or percentage.
Under CATEGORY, select the same category you use for your sales deposits.
Click Save when done.

For additional help categorizing your transactions, you can check this article: Categorize transactions in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

If you have other questions about the program, please don't hesitate to click the Reply button below.

View solution in original post

Jane_M · ‎March 06, 2026

Thanks for reaching out with the details, @jdefl4444. As you've pointed out, there isn't a specific category for customer refunds in QuickBooks Self-Employed. In this case, I recommend reaching out to your accountant to determine the best way to record these refunds so your records align with your Schedule C.

Once you have clarified the exact category for customer refunds, here's how you can record a lump sum transaction for partial or full refunds, especially if the transaction involves different categories:

Go to Transactions.
Find the refund transaction (it will show as a negative/outgoing amount).
Click on the transaction to open it.
Click Split under the Type column.
Choose Business, Personal, or click Add line to split the transaction by amount or percentage.
Under CATEGORY, select the same category you use for your sales deposits.
Click Save when done.

For additional help categorizing your transactions, you can check this article: Categorize transactions in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

If you have other questions about the program, please don't hesitate to click the Reply button below.

Jane_M · ‎March 07, 2026

Hi there, @jdefl4444. I just wanted to follow up to check if the resolution we provided helped resolve your issue.

Please let us know if everything is now working as expected or if you’re still experiencing any problems.

We’ll be glad to assist further if needed.

jdefl4444 · ‎March 08, 2026

Thanks very much for the answer. I realized that I've been entering this wrong for years. I tried to reply to you several times in the past few days and I kept getting an authentication error. Same for choosing the Accept button, which finally just worked. Hopefully this will post. Thanks again for the excellent support!

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How to enter a sales refund for a customer return?