How do I enter a Vendor refund?

Hi,

This support article appears to be written for a different version of QBO than I have. I'm using QBO Self-Employed and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a vendor refund entered. Any time I try to enter the expense as a positive amount it just converts back to a negative amount.

How do I enter a refund received for a prior expense (e.g. service credit or returned supplies)?

Greetings, gsowa.

Welcome to the Online Community. Let me clear things up regarding recording vendor refund.

At this time, we don’t have any specific categories for refunds/reimbursements in QBSE. To straighten out your record, you can exclude the refund transaction when you categorize your business-related expenses since you’re not receiving or spending anything from your account.

We love to hear customer’s ideas since it guides us on how we can improve the product. I suggest you let our Product Development Team know that adding a category for refunds/reimbursements is a great feature to have.

You can send send through the following link: https://selfemployed.uservoice.com/forums/242769-general.

If you have additional questions about working in QBSE, you can browse each topic found on this link: https://community.intuit.com/quickbooks-self-employed.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to help. Wishing you the best with your business endeavors. Have a great day ahead.

Sorry to be so dense, but I just don't get this.  How does Step 2: Link the deposit to the vendor credit work?  Within these steps, I don't understand 'd', as I am not able to locate the 'Add to Expense' or 'Add to Check' sections when creating an Expense or Check entry. 

My scenario involves a returned item to a hobby store and I'm trying to figure out how to enter the appropriate transaction(s) to account for the deposit we received from this return.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.   Thanks in advance.

There seems to be miscommunication on how some small business owners use quickbooks.   I often don't have much time to pre-emptively categorize transactions before making purchases or returning items.  I make the purchase with my business credit card and once the transaction shows up in my quickbooks online feeds I categorize it and I'm done (I hope).  When I return an item I wait for it to show up in quickbooks then categorize it appropriately.  This is more efficient for my time and hope this is an acceptable way of entering transactions.  None of the previous solutions address this type of entry.  Can I categorize the return I made that shows up as income in my feeds under the expense category with the same vendor ?  would this be acceptable and balance out the initial transaction and return?  

Pleased to see you here, @gratitude.

Allow me to add more information on how recording a vendor refund works in QuickBooks Online.

In recording a refund transaction, you cannot categorized a refund (which is shown as positive amount or income when downloaded from your bank) as an expense account right away. To avoid getting a negative balance for your vendor, let's follow the correct process of recording a vendor refund in the system.
    

1. Click the Plus icon (+).
2. Choose Bank Deposits.
3. In the Deposit To drop-down, select the account where the money will be deposited.
4. Type in the Date.
5. Enter these fields:
   • Received From: Choose the vendor who sent you the refund.
   • From Account: Select the Accounts Payable account or the account used in the expense transaction.
   • Amount: Enter the vendor check amount.
   • Memo, Chk No, and Pmt Meth are optional fields.
6. Click Save and Close.

Once a deposit is entered, you'll see a positive balance in your vendor's information page.  To zero it out, you'll need to link the deposit to a vendor credit. Here's how:

1. Go to the Plus icon (+).
2. Select Expense or Check.
3. Choose the payee.
4. Once you select a payee, you'll see a window on the right corner of the screen showing the deposit transactions you've created.
5. Click on Add.
6. Click Save and Close.

That should do it!

For additional insights, you may check out this article: What is the difference between Pay Bills and Write Checks?.

Feel free to leave a comment below if you have follow-up questions about recording refund transactions in QuickBooks Online. I'm always here to help.

I have had the exact same problem many times. I have found that with older transactions, I can go into the "split" view, and categorize the cash refund deposit as coming *from* an expense account, which puts a negative line item into the expense account, despite the deposit having a positive value. I have also run into times where I cannot for the life of me get this to work, so success may be limited.

Welcome aboard to the Community, @climatelog.

When getting a cash refund for purchases, you'll need to record them first using a vendor credit and deposit in QuickBooks Online. Once done, the next process would be linking both of the transactions to keep expenses accurate.

To ensure the refund hits the expense account, enter a vendor credit through these steps:

1. Click the Plus sign.
2. Select Vendor Credit.
3. In the Vendor drop-down menu, select your vendor.
4. Depending on how you record purchases with this vendor, enter the Category details or Item details.
5. Select Save and close. 

Here's how to make a deposit:

1. Select the Plus sign.
2. Select Bank Deposit.
3. In the Account drop-down menu, select the account where you got the refund.
4. In the Add funds to this deposit section, fill out the following fields.
   • Received from: Select the vendor who gave you the refund.
   • Account: Select Accounts Payable. Important: You need to pick Accounts Payable so you can tie the refund to the vendor credit. This may seem a little strange, but it’s the best way to do this.
   • Payment method: Enter the method your vendor used to refund you.
   • Amount: Enter the amount of your refund.
5. Select Save and close. 

The next step would be linking the bank deposit to the vendor credit:

1. Click the Plus sign.
2. Select Pay Bills.
3. Select the bank deposit you just created. You’ll see the amount of the vendor credit in the Credit Applied field. The Total payment should be $0.00.
4. Select Save and close. 

Once done, you can match the downloaded transaction from bank feeds showing as income to the deposit (see screenshot below). Since the deposit is linked already, it'll automatically be recognized as an expense.

Please visit the Enter a refund from a vendor article for future reference. It provides additional insights about the process.

Let me if you have further questions or concerns, and I'll be sure to get back to you.

This doesn't answer the original question because "Vendor Credit" is a premium feature that isn't available for QBSE. This answer has been given multiple times on this question, and it's annoying that it keeps being given!

Hi again, @climatelog.

I appreciate you for getting back to us and adding more details. The answers provided above depend on the QuickBooks product attached to the main question.

Since you're using the Self-Employed version, recording them is unavailable. It will offset the business expense within the system, so I recommend to exclude or tag the refund transactions as Personal.

I understand how the option you're looking for is beneficial to your business. Right now, it's only available to the other versions. To ensure your voice is heard, I can pass along another feature request on my end.

For future reference about excluding transactions, visit the Exclude or delete transactions article. It also provides detailed instructions for accessing Self-Employed through the web browser and mobile app.

Stay in touch whenever you have additional questions about QuickBooks Self-Employed. I’m here to make sure you’re taken care of. Have a great rest of the day.

I dread when having to try to deal with supplier credits and refunds. 

The method of linking the deposit to the supplier credit never works for me as '

you can not add a credit for a supplier without any open bills'

The option to allocate via 'pay bills' does not work as the supplier will not appear there either. 

I don't understand why QuickBooks can't have an easy to use option for supplier credits and refunds like Sage Online and Xero do?!

We appreciate and have taken note of your feedback, KtotheC.

For now, you can only add or apply a vendor credit to an open or partially paid bill. Otherwise, you'll receive the error similar to what you've you shared in your screenshot. Additional details about managing vendor refunds or credits are discussed in these following articles:

• Enter a credit from a vendor
• Enter a refund from a vendor

We'll definitely send your feedback to our product engineers. Most of the recent updates that were rolled out were actually based from the suggestions and feature requests that shared in the Community.

Lastly, you'll want to run the Vendor Balance Detail report if you want to quickly see or review vendor's balances. You can go to the Reports menu and look for Vendor Balance Detail.

Please don't hesitate to reach out to us again if you have other questions in mind. We're always here to help you out again. 

you have to be kidding me!!!!!  what do you mean QBSE can not account for this?????

The question is: How do I enter a vendor REFUND - not a credit memo. Not solved.

How would you point the refund to the expense account that the purchase originally hit?

Thanks for dropping by, @Givemeabreak123.

Let me share with you the steps on how you can enter a refund from a vendor in QuickBooks Online (QBO). 

To start with, create a vendor credit to make sure the credits hit the expense account you use for this vendor. Here's how:

1. Click the + New icon and select Vendor credit or Receive vendor credit.
2. In the Vendor drop-down list, choose your vendor.
3. Enter the Category details or Item details to record the purchases with this vendor.
4. Select Save and close.

Once done deposit the money you got from the refund. Simply follow these steps:

1. Select + New and click Bank Deposit.
2. In the Account drop-down menu, select the account where you got the refund.
3. Under the RECEIVED FROM column, choose the vendor who gave you a refund.
4. In the ACCOUNT column, select Accounts Payable. You need to pick this account so you can tie the refund to the vendor credit. 
5. Enter the method your vendor used to refund you and the amount.
6. Click Save and close.
7.  

For the final step, use Pay Bills to connect the bank deposit to the vendor credit. This way, you can keep your vendor expenses accurate.

1. Click the + New icon and select Pay Bills.
2. Choose the bank deposit you just created. You’ll see the amount of the vendor credit in the Credit Applied field.
3. Select Save and close.

In addition, to track credits for your vendors, you should consider entering bills in QuickBooks. This way you can track your account balance and credits using Accounts Payable. Otherwise, you can enter a note to remind yourself about this credit in the future.

The Community always has your back, so please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day.

Hello there,

I appreciate the follow up.  The steps you outlined require a few steps that many small business owners may find tedious due to all their other responsibilities in running their business.  What would happen if I categorize the refund to the exact same vendor and expense account?  For example, I label the credit as an expense and categorize it to the same vendor ?  Would this put the money back where it came from and balance out the account?  

appreciate your time

Ole

I agree, what everyone is saying here is that the steps quickbooks has created for categorizing refunds are not efficient for small business owners and they should rethink this pathway and simplify it.  If other competitors are making it easier to perform such a routine and frequent transaction, then that should be enough notice for quickbooks to make this a priority to stay competitive.   

We bought QB desktop from a vendor, but it has been past 30 days, but before 60 days. I was told by QB that we can still get our money back. We are now denied. Help! We signed up for QB online in the meantime still giving them business. 

Hi there, Christymoo. 

Thanks for dropping by the Community today. I'm happy to help get you in the right place. Because the Community is a public forum setting, we don't have access to individual accounts. Because of this, I would suggest reaching out to our support team for help. They can look into your account and see if there's any way to get you a refund. To reach them, follow these steps:

How to get a call or chat from us:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to Help, then select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. Select Contact Us.
4. Give a brief description of your issue, then select Let's talk and then choose a way to connect.

Phone support may be limited due to volume. If you have any other questions, feel free to post here. Thanks for your time and I hope you have a nice afternoon. 

I have done this, I prefer to speak to an actual person. Thank you.

This seems like an incredible amount of work and waste of time.  There needs to be a simple way to categorize refunds from vendors.  This is ridiculous... 

Hello @info-ecolawnsult, welcome back to the community.

Thank you for your voice in the conversation. Ongoing feedback like this is really helpful in helping our team prioritize updates and improvements.

Our Product Team has been made aware of the conversation so they can look into the flow for vendor refunds.

If you don't have it already, the QuickBooks blog will have ongoing updates on product enhancements, so you can keep an eye out for changes to workflow and more.