Questions about House Accounts

[mikesclub]

I’m getting ready to start offering House Accounts to my customers, and I have some questions. 

1. If an item is charged to a house account, but not yet paid for, does Square treat that as a completed sale? Several posts on this forum suggest it does. 

2. I created a test house account, and charged several items to it. Then I tried to delete one of the items. There doesn’t seem to be a way to void items. The only option is to issue a refund for that item. When I do that, it appears to treat that action as a true refund, deducted from today’s sales total, even though the item still has not been paid for. Am I misunderstanding something? 

I really want to use house accounts, but both of these issues make it to dangerous, either by double counting a sale, or by refunding something that hasn’t actually been paid for. 

please don’t ask me to contact customer support. Please just tell me how the system is designed to work. 

[TheRealChipA]

Hey there @mikesclub.  So, just think of “House Account” as another payment type, like Cash or Card.  If you do this, then it makes sense when we say that once a transaction is closed to a house account, the sale is completed.  The items HAVE been paid for.  The house account balance is no longer a sale, but rather a balance due to you.  There is no danger of double booking sales or anything like that.  

I hope that helps settle things for you.

[mikesclub]

OK, I get that.

What about my second question? I voided an item (or actually, I refunded an item) on the house account, and it actually refunded money to the customer. But I have not received money for that item.

If that was a credit card sale, that money would’ve gone straight back to the customers credit card, even though they never Paid me any money. Am I correct on that? 

[TheRealChipA]

@mikesclub when you say “I refunded an item) on the house account, and it actually refunded money to the customer” are you saying the customer received actual funds to a card they had previously used?  That would be odd, indeed.

As I understand it (and my tests bear this out), refunds are just credited to the active house account balance. If that’s not what happened with you, then we’ll need to escalate this to a moderator for investigation. 

[mikesclub]

Ok, maybe that’s what happened. I tested it with a cash purchase, not a credit card purchase. 

I’ll test further. 

even so, “refund” is an odd term to use if it really just means “void”. 

Thanks. 

[TheRealChipA · Accepted solution]

I think that they are looking at it this way.

• The transaction and its items were “paid” by the house account.
• Any change to the paid transaction WOULD be a refund to that house account.

Anyway, I would recommend creating a test house account for yourself and closing a transaction to it.  Check the house account balance.  Then, refund an item OR the entire transaction, and check the house account balance, again.  You should see the appropriate credit there.

[MayaP]

Hi @mikesclub , thanks for getting in touch! I hope @TheRealChipA's replies have been useful. If there’s anything else you need, feel free to let us know.

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[CoachNicT]

Hi! I am looking for a way to track items used at events. Staff gets snacks and drinks etc for free during their shift, but I'd like to keep track so I know how much I am using and what I can order for them next meet. I was thinking of using House Account, but then can I void the balance? Or is there a way to do it so Staff do not get charged? Thank you! 

[TheRealChipA]

Hey there @CoachNicT.  

House accounts are not the best choice for accomplishing your task.  Rather, the easiest thing for you to do is to create a 100% discount code.  I would also mark this new discount so that it requires a manager override, just to minimize abuse of it.  Anyway, items that employees take during their shifts can be discounted 100% with this code.  To get a list of items discounted this way, you can run the Item Sales report, add a filter by “Discount,” select the 100% discount code and that will give you a list of all items discounted for staff.

One last bit of Community ettiquette.  Please don’t “hijack” another thread with a question or comment that is not on the original topic.  Yes, this thread is about house accounts, but the original question was already answered and marked with a best answer.  Adding new, unrelated, questions causes confusion for others who find this thread later.  Always start a new thread for new questions.

[CoachNicT]

Thank you! Sorry about that! It's my first time asking a question and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to stay to an existing topic or start a new one.