Refunds

Overview

A refund records money coming back after a purchase or sale — without it ever pretending to be new income or a new expense. Beeswax has two kinds:

• Supplier Refund — money a supplier pays back to you. For example, you cancel a software subscription you already paid for and the supplier returns part of the fee.
• Customer Refund — money you pay back to a customer. For example, you overcharged a retainer and return the difference.

Refunds are the right way to record these situations. Recording a supplier refund as an Invoice (a common workaround) makes it look like a sale — which inflates your income, throws out your GST report, and lists the supplier as if they were a customer. A refund keeps everything pointing the right way: the money returns against the same cost or income category the original document used, so your reports simply show the cost (or sale) reduced.

You'll recognise refunds by their pale colouring — a supplier refund has a light red header (related to the red expense world it reverses), and a customer refund has a light green header (related to the green invoice world). A badge on the document reads "Refund from Supplier" or "Refund to Customer" so it can't be mistaken for anything else.

Recording a Refund from a Supplier

The easiest way is from the original expense:

1. Open the paid expense the refund relates to
2. Click the menu (⋯) in the top-right of the document header
3. Choose Record Refund
4. Confirm in the dialog — this creates a draft Supplier Refund with the supplier, date, and all line items copied from the expense

The draft starts as a full refund of the original. For a partial refund, just edit the line amounts (or remove lines) so the total matches what the supplier is actually returning.

Nothing is posted to your books until you click Finalise.

When the money arrives

Once the refund is finalised, a Record Money Received button appears in the Payments section. Click it when the money lands in your bank account — this is what actually marks the refund as settled, exactly like recording a payment on an invoice. The refund then shows as Paid, and the bank transaction can be matched during reconciliation.

Recording a Refund to a Customer

Mirror image of the above:

1. Open the paid invoice the refund relates to
2. Click the menu (⋯) and choose Refund Customer
3. Confirm — a draft Customer Refund is created, prefilled from the invoice
4. Adjust the amounts for a partial refund, then Finalise
5. When you've transferred the money back to the customer, click Record Money Paid in the Payments section

Refunds Without an Original Document

If the original purchase or sale was never recorded in Beeswax (for example, it predates your account), you can still create a refund directly from the Supplier Refunds or Customer Refunds list within a project using the New button. You'll need to fill in the contact and line items yourself.

How Refunds Affect Your Reports

• Profit & Loss — a supplier refund reduces the expense category it's posted to (the cost simply shrinks). A customer refund reduces the income category. Refunds never appear as separate income or expenses.
• Tax report / BAS — a supplier refund hands back the GST credit you originally claimed on the purchase; a customer refund reduces the GST you owe on sales. The amounts appear as negative lines in the tax report so the totals come out right.
• General Ledger — you'll see the money going out and coming back in on the same account, which makes the history easy to follow.
• Original document — once a refund is finalised, the original expense or invoice shows a "Refunded $X of $Y" note in its Payments section, with a link to the refund.

Rules Worth Knowing

• A refund linked to an original document must use the same contact as that document
• You can record multiple partial refunds against one document, but together they can't exceed the original's total
• A refund's total can't be negative
• A refund that has a payment recorded against it can't be deleted — delete the payment first
• Refunds are available on plans that include the Expenses feature

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a credit note?
No. Beeswax uses refunds instead of credit notes — they do the same bookkeeping job (reversing part or all of a purchase/sale) without the extra concept. If a supplier sends you a "credit note" along with returned money, record it as a Supplier Refund.

What if the supplier gives me a credit to use later instead of money back?
Record the refund when money actually changes hands. If a supplier is holding a credit against your future purchases, the simplest approach is to wait and record the next bill at its reduced (after-credit) amount.

The refund arrived months after the original expense — is that OK?
Yes, that's the normal case. Date the refund when it actually happened. The tax report picks it up in the period the refund falls in, which is the correct treatment.

Can I refund an expense that's only partly paid?
Yes — the Record Refund action appears on both paid and partially paid documents.