How to: Refund Customer Order Prepayments

The Refund process starts automatically when a Customer Order is finished with Shortage or Cancellation from the POS. At that time the system calculates delivered goods and prepaid goods. If there is a difference, the system creates a Refund line in the Posted Customer Order to balance out the amounts and change the Refund Status field in the Posted Customer Order to Pending Approval or Pending Payment.

To balance out the payments for the Customer Order during posting, if there is a difference to refund, a payment line of type Refund is added to the Posted Customer Order. Note: This only applies if you are dealing with a shipment order where the customer is not present to receive the refund straight away at the POS.

To select the Tender Type to handle the refund payment entry

Click the icon, enter Store List, and select the relevant link.
Click the Manage action, then Edit, and go to the Customer Order FastTab.
In the Cust. Ord. Refund Tender Type field, select a tender type.

When payments are initially received for Customer Orders, they are stored on the income expense account identified in the Cust. Order Inc/Expense Acc field. When the Customer Order is posted, amounts are deducted from this account to post as payments against the actual sales of items being delivered. If there is a discrepancy in the payment amount and the actual sales amount when the Customer Order is posted, for example if not all items are available to deliver but have already been paid for, the remaining amount is deducted from the Cust. Order Inc/Expense Acc balancing it at zero, and the amount is stored in the account assigned to field Customer Order Refund Acc on the Store Card. From here the refunded amount must be manually balanced when refunding the customer.

Note: The different statuses depend on whether Customer Order Refund workflow is enabled on the Workflows page.

To set up a Customer Order Refund workflow

Note: This example uses setup from the Workflow Templates.

Click the icon, enter Workflow Templates, and select the relevant link.
Select the Customer Order Refund Workflow line, and click the New action. Then click New Workflow from Template.
Edit the newly added workflow, and in the first line drill into the Then Response field.
Select line 2 in the Response lines, and add Workflow User Group Code.
Click OK, and select the Enabled check box to enable the workflow.

Workflow not enabled

If Workflow for Customer Order Refund is not enabled, the system will mark the Posted Customer Order with Refund Status Pending Payment. The user can then do the financial refund and manually change the status to Refunded or Rejected by pressing the Finish Payment or Reject actions.

Workflow enabled

If the Workflow is enabled, and depending on the setup, the system will send an email to the approver asking him or her to approve or reject the refund. If the refund is approved, a second email is sent to the cashier with instructions to finish the refund. The cashier then changes the Refund Status to Refunded by pressing the Finish Payment action.

Tip: You can add comments related to the approval or refund process with the Comments action.

Note: The system does NOT automatically do the actual refund financial process. That is an internal process in each company.

You can make the Refund Status field visible in the Posted Customer Order List and filter it.

Tip: You can disable a workflow at any time on the Workflows page.

Various scenarios

Customer Order is Open

Stock is missing or the customer wants to cancel an item for a Customer Order that is Ship through Sales Orders. The quantity can be changed, or lines can be deleted in the Sales Order to adjust to stock availability. This will update the Customer Order Lines when the Sales Order is posted. The Sales Order can be deleted at any time, and the Customer Order will be updated accordingly. The Customer Order will be posted when all lines have been taken care of or the Sales Order is deleted.

Refunds are made through standard BC procedures, if necessary

If the Customer Order is shipped or collected from a POS, then lines can be canceled or shortage through the Pick process. A refund, if any, can then be paid to the customers if they are at the POS or it can be refunded through standard BC processes.

Customer Order is posted

An item can be returned on POS or warehouse. Refund processes vary depending on company procedures. It could be a POS refund or through standard BC processes.

Shipping charges

A setup has been added to the Customer Order Setup that specifies if Service Items, and Non-Inventory Items are canceled and refunded when a cancellation is made on a Customer Order.