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L
Lembi
January 4, 2023
Solved

Return the change in cash for a customer that gave me more money than the invoice amount!

  • January 4, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

I have an invoice for $253.23. The customer obviously does not have the exact amount with him so he gave me $255.00

 

Guess what??? I CAN'T GIVE HIM A CHANGE USING QB ONLINE. This is beyond imagination.

On QB Desktop the system will ask you "What do you want to do with the change? Record a Credit or Refund the costumer?

So you just click - and if you choose refund the money is getting out of your Petty Cash. 

 

Now QB Online is AWFUL... Its missing tons of features and this is one of it!

 

What is the solution? Create a MEMO? Than a refund? Lots of STEPS just to give back $1.77??????

REALLY???????

    Best answer by Rainflurry

    @Lembi 

     

    Agreed that QBO should have this function. This is basic.

     

    A workaround is to create two service products, one called "Cash Payment" and another called "Cash Refund".  Select your cash drawer under 'Income account' when setting them up.  Now, when the customer pays with cash, enter a "Cash Payment" line item on the invoice/sales receipt as -$255.00.  What's showing as the amount received (-$1.77) is the cash-back amount.  Enter a "Cash Refund" line item as $1.77.  That will zero out the invoice/sales receipt. That's it.  It's still clunky but a lot better than having to create a credit memo or refund receipt IMO.  Presumably, you're aware that sales receipts are designed to be used when a customer is paying at the time of sale whereas invoices are designed to be used when a customer will pay for the sale in the future.

     

    2 replies

    JessT
    JessT
    January 5, 2023

    Hi Lembi,

     

    It can be inconvenient when a software you use doesn't have a feature that you're used to having, especially when it involves something as simple as returning a change to a customer. I'm here to help.

     

    One thing you'd want to do before recording a payment with an excess amount is to disable the Automatically apply credits option in your settings. That way, the excess amount won't be automatically applied to other open invoices of the customer. Otherwise, you'll need to recreate the payment transaction. You don't have to if there's no other open invoice.

     

     

    To start, yes, you're right about creating a credit memo for the excess amount. After that, you'll want to create an expense transaction for the customer (payee), use the Accounts Receivable (A/R) account in the Category details section, and enter the same amount. This expense will serve as a refund.

     

     

    The next thing that you'll want to do is to link the credit memo to the expense transaction by creating a Receive Payment entry. This will close both transactions and prevents accidentally applying them as payments to future invoices.

     

     

    Check out this article for more refund scenarios: Record a customer refund in QuickBooks Online.

     

    On the other hand, I understand it would help a lot if there's a refund option like in QuickBooks Desktop, so please don't hesitate to submit your feedback. That way, our engineers can consider making changes in future updates. 

     

    If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please don't hesitate to ask. Take care!

      L
      LembiAuthor
      January 5, 2023

      This is WAY TOO MUCH work and it does not work for us!

      You would have to choose a product for the Credit Memo and on the report of this product would be there some money that would looks like a discount or something.... 

       

      I found a work around yesterday and another member of the community just confirmed to be the best option!

       

      Now that said.... QuickBooks Online is missing too many tools and features that we have on Desktop! It make the transition a nightmare .. we had products assembly for example and you have bundles which does NOT control inventory... so its too many things missing! QB online is on market for a long time - Its a shame its not built yet!

      Honestly!

      Rainflurry
      RainflurryAnswer
      January 5, 2023

      @Lembi 

       

      Agreed that QBO should have this function. This is basic.

       

      A workaround is to create two service products, one called "Cash Payment" and another called "Cash Refund".  Select your cash drawer under 'Income account' when setting them up.  Now, when the customer pays with cash, enter a "Cash Payment" line item on the invoice/sales receipt as -$255.00.  What's showing as the amount received (-$1.77) is the cash-back amount.  Enter a "Cash Refund" line item as $1.77.  That will zero out the invoice/sales receipt. That's it.  It's still clunky but a lot better than having to create a credit memo or refund receipt IMO.  Presumably, you're aware that sales receipts are designed to be used when a customer is paying at the time of sale whereas invoices are designed to be used when a customer will pay for the sale in the future.

       

        L
        LembiAuthor
        January 5, 2023

        It took me a while until I think about that work around yesterday. I still think that this is not acceptable. I know the Sales Receipt would work better but we want to create invoices for each customer because of a few specific reasons concerning our business. 

        For once, customers put the invoice and came to pick it up 2 or 3 days later. Between other reasons.

         

        But anyways I do appreciate your help. I could not accept all those steps of creating Memos and all. Its ridiculous because for start if I cannot create a memo towards the invoice,.. I have to choose one product and create the memo our of it - even if my invoice had 15 products...  Then its going to be on the product report ....  what is ridiculous.

         

        I just cannot understand why they don't have this feature of just let us choose between apply credit or refund the change! Super annoying!

         

        Now when I got the same idea as yours I thought just about to create one product:

        Petty Cash... then I choose Petty Cash Bank account as Income and as an expense as well. I put on the description:

        Money refund to customer (Overpaid Cash Refund)

         

        So whenever this happens I jump a line and I add this product on the invoice with the value of $1,77 (of our example) and I give the customer the invoice stamped PAID and he sees the last line as equal the money I just gave him as a change!

         

        Than my register on Petty Cash account will be ok!

         

        Now my question for you....You create two products on your example. What it would be the consequences if I just have one like I did? On my work around I use the Cash Refund and then I just pay the invoice normally.

         

        Anyways I will deposit to the bank for real $255. Whenever my Petty Cash is low I would transfer money from undeposited funds to Petty Cash!

         

        Am I doing something wrong? Thank you and I am sorry for the long text!

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