Refund
Money returned to a customer. Recorded as a negative payment against the original so the invoice’s net stays right.
In Solo Superstars
Refund from the invoice page or by approving a return. The app writes a negative payment row linked to the original and posts contra-revenue, so gross sales and returns stay separately visible.
Live card refunds through Stripe are a later release; today the refund is recorded and the books are posted, and you move the money in your Stripe dashboard.
The original sale is never edited or deleted. The refund is a separate record on its own refund date, so both the sale and the refund stay visible in history:
- On the Accrual view, the refund reduces revenue on the refund date.
- On the Cash view, the refund also reduces revenue on the refund date, because that is when the money left.
- A refund of part of an order reduces revenue only by the refunded amount; the rest of the sale stays counted.
A refund is different from fixing a payment you entered by mistake. Deleting a mistaken payment removes it from the day it was entered, as if it never happened. A refund records something that really happened, on the day it happened.
Example
Refund $75 of a $250 order: debit 4900 Sales Returns & Allowances 75, credit 1310 Stripe Clearing 75.
Harbor Lane Coffee sells a wholesale customer $600 of House Blend 1kg in March, paid in March. Two bags arrive damaged and the café refunds $60 on April 3. March revenue stays $600 on both views. April shows −$60 in Sales Returns & Allowances on both views, because the money went back in April.
Codes shown are the defaults a new workspace starts with. Yours may be renamed or renumbered — check Accounting › Chart of accounts. See the full default chart.
Also called
- reimbursement to customer
Related
- Payment — Money received against an invoice, by card, bank transfer, check, cash or other method. Clears the receivable.
- 4900 Sales Returns & Allowances — Contra-revenue for refunds on returned items, their tax and shipping. Keeps gross sales visible while reducing net revenue.
- Store credit — A refund issued as credit the customer can spend with you later. A liability, not cash.
- Credit memo — A document reducing what a customer owes without returning cash, such as a discount after the fact or a goodwill adjustment.
- Refund date — The date a refund was issued, received or recorded in the books.
- Chargeback — Money a card processor takes back from you after a customer disputes a card payment with their bank. Usually comes with a separate dispute fee.