A return inward records goods a customer brings back. It reverses the sale for those items and, if you choose, pays the customer back. Use it for returns from older sales, or whenever you need more control than the till's quick Refund button gives you.
Before you start
- You need the Returns permission.
- Know which sale the goods came from. Picking the lines from the original invoice is the safest way: it stops you returning more than was sold.
Steps
- Go to Sales → Returns Inward and click New.
- Choose the Customer, the Return Date and the Destination Department (where returned stock goes back to).
- Click Pick from invoice…, choose the sale, and tick the lines and quantities coming back. Use + Add line (free) only for items that were not on an invoice.
- Decide whether the customer gets money back now:
- Tick Refund Customer to pay them back. Then choose the Refunding Account — the cash or bank account the money comes out of.
- Leave it unticked to give the customer a credit instead. Their account shows the amount you owe them, which you can use against a later sale.
- Click Save. The sale is reversed for those items and, for stock items, the goods go back into stock.
Lines from a discounted sale
A line picked from an invoice is refunded at what the customer paid for it: less its own discount, and less its share of any discount on the whole sale. Business Sensor works this out when you click Save, even if you left the line's Discount at 0. After saving, the line's Discount shows its own discount, and the summary shows Share of sale discount. You can type a bigger discount yourself (for example a restocking deduction), but never a smaller one.
Lines added with + Add line (free) are not linked to a sale, so they refund exactly what you enter.
Refunding a card sale back to the card
If every line you picked comes from one invoice that was paid by card through Paystack or Stripe, and you tick Refund Customer, a Refund To choice appears:
- Original card (Paystack / Stripe) — chosen by default. The money goes back to the customer's card through the provider. The Refunding Account is filled in for you and cannot be changed: it is the account that card payment was paid into, so the refund reverses exactly that payment. The screen shows how much of the card payment is still left to refund.
- Refunding account (cash / bank) — pay the customer some other way and choose the account yourself, as usual.
If the provider refuses the refund, nothing is saved and you see the provider's message; you can then refund from an account instead.
If a card refund fails later
The provider accepts a card refund straight away but settles it over the next few days, and very occasionally it fails (for example, the card was cancelled). Business Sensor hears about this automatically. When a card refund fails:
- The return is switched to no refund: its Ref Document(s) gains "CARD REFUND FAILED", and the refund entries are removed from your books.
- The customer is left with a credit for the amount — you still owe it to them. Pay them another way (cash or transfer) and record that payment against their account.
- The card payment shows that amount as refundable again.
Tips
- One return, one invoice when refunding to a card: if you need to return items from two card sales, make two returns.
- A return that refunds more than is left on the card cannot use the card option; return fewer items, or refund from an account.
Common problems
- No "Refund To" choice → the lines are not all from one invoice, that invoice was not paid by card, or Refund Customer is not ticked.
- The card option is greyed out → the return comes to more than is left to refund on that card payment.
- "Refunding account is required" → you ticked Refund Customer but chose no account (for a refund from an account).
- A return shows "CARD REFUND FAILED" → see If a card refund fails later.
- The total dropped after saving → the lines came from a discounted sale; the refund is what the customer paid. See Lines from a discounted sale.
- An older return's total changes when you re-save it → returns saved before this rule refunded the full price. Saving one again applies the discount and changes its refund amount, which may no longer match the cash already paid out. Leave those returns as they are, and ask your accountant how to deal with any over-refund.