Customer refunds overview

Use customer refunds to resolve credit balances when a customer does not intend to make future purchases or to handle a refund request that arises from a customer dispute.

You can record refunds in the following ways:

  • Record refunds that you've already made to a customer outside of Sage Intacct, and clear the associated credits.

    When you record a refund, Intacct provides a list of available credits for the customer, based on the selected currency. You match the credits to the refund and adjust the refunded amount for each credit as needed.

    When you post the refund, Intacct automatically clears the selected credits, ensuring the customer’s account remains up to date. Because customer refunds reflect transactions that occurred outside of Intacct, the payment method is always Record transfer.

  • Issue refunds to be paid in Accounts Receivable.

    When you create a refund in Accounts Receivable, Intacct generates linked bills in Accounts Payable for payment processing.

    Follow your usual Pay bills workflow in Accounts Payable to issue the payment.

Reporting and visibility

Refunded credits appear in Accounts Receivable (AR) statements and the following reports:

  • AR Ledger report
  • Customer reconciliation report
  • Bank register
  • Sales register
  • Invoice analysis report
  • Bank reconciliation report

Before you begin

To start using customer refunds, first enable customer refunds in your Accounts Receivable configuration. During setup, select the GL account in which refunds are processed and the journal where refunds are posted, and define the summary frequency and the document sequence for refund numbers.

After enabling refunds, grant permissions to users who need to create or manage them. Users can only see refunds in the Payments menu if they have the required permissions.

Regional availability

Customer refunds is generally available in all regions.

Additional information or limitations

  • A negative invoice is eligible for refund only if it does not contain a positive line item, even if a negative balance remains.
  • Inline credits cannot be selected as refunded credits.
  • Refunds are only supported in base currency.
  • If your company uses multiple base currencies, you will not see the customer balance when you record a customer refund at the top level.
  • CSV import and REST API support customer refunds.
  • Customer refunds are not supported in transactions that use cash basis tax capture.