How to book a refund from a vendor against a customer if I am job costing?

There is a BILL credit is QB desktop, but not in Online.  But there are so many different ways to do this.

I would do one of the following things: (this is if you do not already have the cash back recorded somewhere, and it is physical cash you received back)

1. Make an adjusting entry.  Date it the date of your return.

  Then you CREDIT the Materials account (where the original material purchase was posted) 

   And you DEBIT the Sales (or the account where you posted this billed amount to the customer).  Sometimes people set up the expenses that are billed for as INCOME or INCOME:  Reimbursed Expenses, and some people actually just credit the expense.  So pull up your bill to the customer, see where the materials you billed for are posted, and this will be your DEBIT.

NOTE:  Make sure you put the customer name in both the lines, under column for NAME.

OR

If it was near the date of the purchase, you can always go into the original purchase, add a line and post it to the same expense or COGS account, then make a note under Description, "returned "X" items, cash refund on xx/xx/xxxx. And put ( $xx.xx) in the amount column.  This is negative by the way.  If there is already a number in the transaction, and the credit/negative, does not exceed the initial amount it will let you add this negative line.  If it is more than the transaction you cannot.

NOTE: This should already be posted to the client, so the new amount will automatically show on the job cost report.

-formybookkeeper.com

There is a BILL credit is QB desktop, but not in Online.  But there are so many different ways to do this.

I would do one of the following things: (this is if you do not already have the cash back recorded somewhere, and it is physical cash you received back)

1. Make an adjusting entry.  Date it the date of your return.

  Then you CREDIT the Materials account (where the original material purchase was posted) 

   And you DEBIT the Sales (or the account where you posted this billed amount to the customer).  Sometimes people set up the expenses that are billed for as INCOME or INCOME:  Reimbursed Expenses, and some people actually just credit the expense.  So pull up your bill to the customer, see where the materials you billed for are posted, and this will be your DEBIT.

NOTE:  Make sure you put the customer name in both the lines, under column for NAME.

OR

If it was near the date of the purchase, you can always go into the original purchase, add a line and post it to the same expense or COGS account, then make a note under Description, "returned "X" items, cash refund on xx/xx/xxxx. And put ( $xx.xx) in the amount column.  This is negative by the way.  If there is already a number in the transaction, and the credit/negative, does not exceed the initial amount it will let you add this negative line.  If it is more than the transaction you cannot.

NOTE: This should already be posted to the client, so the new amount will automatically show on the job cost report.

Regards,

formybookkeeper@gmail

Hi,  sachinpatel25!

You will need to use the same "Account" and "Customer/Project" for the original charge and refund to have these transactions go to the same place in QuickBooks.

So let's say:

• The original charge of $212.35 was going to the Cost of Goods Sold account and assigned to the Customer/Project "Hardy Remodel"
• Now, locate the refund  you received that was recorded in QBO and change the account to go to Cost of Goods Sold and the Customer/Project to "Hardy Remodel" 
• Now you have these two transactions in the same account and under the same Customer/Project
• Your project screen will reflect the change (see the last screenshot)

Hi Anna - Thank you very much for your guidance and the step by step instruction.  Let me throw a wrench into this by supplying additional information that perhaps I should have included before.

(1) Whereas your example assumes the original purchase of $212.35 was made by credit card, in actuality we used our Debit card and therefore our cash balance in the bank immediately decreased by $212.35 so I assume the "Credit Card Credit" screen would not be where I book the refund.

(2) When booking our expenses, not only do we tag each expense under "Customer/Project", but we also use the Item Details and not the Category Details.

Overall, if there is an equivalent screen to Credit Card Credit that can be used for refunds that are made to our Debit Card (our Bank Account) then this would be exactly how I would like to book the refund.

I've attached a picture of how we book our expenses if it is of any help.  Thanks so much!

Hi Anna - Amazing!  I was able to follow your video step by step and was able to achieve what I was trying to do.  Thank you very much for the video as it helped me navigate through the appropriate screens to ensure  I was recording this refund appropriately.  I would have never tripped upon the "Track Return for Customers" so that I could tag the refund to the Hardy Remodel client.  Thank you very much for taking the time to put this together.  You're a rock star!

Thanks,

sp