thread Re: Difference between returns and refunds by amount in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

Sherwood — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 04:07:31 GMT

I can't find an explanation of what "Refunds by Amount" means

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

EJ_ — Wed, 14 Mar 2018 21:23:46 GMT

The "Refunds by Amount" would indicate the partial refunds that you issue that don't include a selected item for the refund itself.

For example, if you sell Item A ($10) and Item B($10) together, and issue a refund by selecting Item B as the item being refunded, that would be an item level or itemized refund for $10.

On the flip side, if you sell Item A ($10) and Item B ($10) together, and issue a partial refund by manually entering $10 for the amount refunded rather than selecting an item, this refund amount would appear in your "Refund by amount" section.

Does that make sense? It can be a bit confusing, so let me know if you have more questions.

Difference between returns and refunds by amount

ecarr — Sun, 29 Mar 2020 18:02:41 GMT

In the reports section, there are two rows, one for returns and one for refunds by amount. sometimes the return value goes to returns and sometimes it goes to refund by amount. what is happening?

Re: Difference between returns and refunds by amount

JustinC — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 23:01:46 GMT

@ecarr Looks like I found your answer on this thread I moved you to 🙂

Re: Difference between returns and refunds by amount

CoastBeer — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 18:05:47 GMT

@JustinC can you please also point me to the solution for this? I'm having the same problem. We are cancelling orders on the weebly online site but the # of items sold in Sales reports still includes those that were cancelled, as if they were sold, implying just a refund of $$ without an item attached. When a full order is cancelled, one would assume the items would be put back into inventory and not show on a sales report.

Re: Difference between returns and refunds by amount

JustinC — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 13:01:35 GMT

Hey there @CoastBeer

Canceled orders will reflect as a custom amount refund, and will not update your inventory levels . From an Item Sales Reporting standpoint, the quantity sold will auto adjust to account for the returned items included in the order.

If your reports appear otherwise, reach out to our CS Team so they can surface any discrepancies to our Engineering Team and fix your report.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

Ruthm — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 04:10:22 GMT

Is there a way to do refunds by amount so they are accounted in the net sales like other refunds? We often do refunds by amount to adjust the price of an item when a customer was mischarged due to a typo or forgotten discount. It really messes up accounting that these are not included in our net sales and show on a random line Below the bottom line. It inflates our net sales and makes it difficult to reconcile square with our POS system at the end of the night/week/month/year. Please advise

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

sayra — Sun, 12 Dec 2021 19:19:55 GMT

Hey @Ruthm,

If a transaction is refunded but later processed for the correct amount your books should balance your net sales. A refund will never show under your net sales in Square, this is a feature request that’s not available at this time.

Thank you.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

DonDT — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 17:00:18 GMT

I am still confused by what the difference between "Returns" and "Refunds by amount" is. I need to report this for taxes. I just need the total amount of refunds processed. What number would that be? Or would that be the total of the Returns and Refunds by Amount rows? Please help.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

BernadetteA — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 20:53:05 GMT

Thanks for posting, @DonDT

Per EJ's response above;

"The Refunds by Amount would indicate the partial refunds that you issue that don't include a selected item for the refund itself.

For example, if you sell Item A ($10) and Item B($10) together, and issue a refund by selecting Item B as the item being refunded, that would be an item level or itemized refund for $10.

Returns would indicate that the customer returned an item for an exchange or credit, instead of receiving the funds back.

We have limited access to account through this public forum, but our support team can assist with any account-specific questions you have regarding the reporting page. Please feel free to reach out to our team here when you have a moment.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

jen15 — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 00:11:43 GMT

did you ever find a solution for this? I am having the same problem with reconciling from the sales summary.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

MayaP — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 18:50:47 GMT

Hello @jen15, Thank you for reaching out. Please see the previous posts from EJ, as well as JustinC and sayra. Since we cannot discuss account-specific information through the Seller Community Forum please reach out to Direct Support about your sales summary report, 1-855-700-6000 squ.re/contactsqsupport. They can certainly help and investigate this further. Thank you for working with us to get this figured out!

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

Thevaultri — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 21:13:44 GMT

Hey, actually refunds do show in the net sales. “Refunds by amount” do not.

If I refund a whole transaction, it shows up on the report under “refunds” which is indeed accounted for in net sales calculations.

however, If I refund only part of the transaction, (like if a cashier miscopied a price and charged someone $5 over what our POS says an item cost, and then we refunded the customer just that $5) then the refund shows up on a different line item down below net sales that reads “refunds by amount”.

Having some refunds included in net sales, and some refunds not included in net sales is a nightmare when reconciling square to our POS, it inflates our sales numbers innacurately.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

Thevaultri — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 21:14:24 GMT

Nope! Nobody at square seems to understand what i’m talking about and why it is an issue 🤷🏼‍♀️

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

Thevaultri — Sat, 26 Nov 2022 21:09:58 GMT

How then are we supposed to refund a customer five dollars when I accidentally typed $15 for an item that should have been $10? there’s no way i can find to do that without using “Refunds by amount”…but “refunds by amount” don’t deduct that $5 from the net sales like refunds do, which means at the end of the day square is showing our net sales as $5 higher than our POS system is showing.

Re: Please explain "Refunds by Amount" on the Sales Summary Report

luvtbeach — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 20:05:46 GMT

I completely understand and wish they would fix it.