Refunds to Budget

[chasejtlds]

I haven't been able to get or find an answer on how to record a refund credit entry to Budget so that it offsets the original expense entry on a Budget subcategory report or an Income and Expenses report. We've had a couple of times when items had to be returned (with approval) to the Distribution Center or to Corporate Express for a full refund. The expense was entered as 'not a check' and shown on the Financial Statement and a couple of months later the refund credit shows up on the Financial Statement. It can't be entered as a Donation since there is nothing to deposit and it can't be entered as a negative 'not a check'. Adjustments made in the reconciliation menu won't appear to offset the expense on the above named reports. Does anyone have a good suggestion? other than voiding the original expense entry or portion thereof.

[aebrown]

I haven't been able to get or find an answer on how to record a refund credit entry to Budget so that it offsets the original expense entry on a Budget subcategory report or an Income and Expenses report. We've had a couple of times when items had to be returned (with approval) to the Distribution Center or to Corporate Express for a full refund. The expense was entered as 'not a check' and shown on the Financial Statement and a couple of months later the refund credit shows up on the Financial Statement. It can't be entered as a Donation since there is nothing to deposit and it can't be entered as a negative 'not a check'. Adjustments made in the reconciliation menu won't appear to offset the expense on the above named reports. Does anyone have a good suggestion? other than voiding the original expense entry or portion thereof.

There are two ways to handle this. You allude to both of them, but don't explain why they don't work for you. They are:

1. Void the original transaction or adjust the amount. This will definitely affect the appropriate Budget subcategory and show up on all the essential reports. The one problem with this approach is that there isn't a separate transaction that corresponds to the credit that appeared on the Church Unit Financial Statement. So it wouldn't be my first choice.
2. During the reconciliation process, enter an Other Item. Give it the reference number and date of the credit that shows up on the CUFS, and make sure that you specify the correct Budget subcategory, and that the amount is positive, to indicate a credit. That will create a transfer in the correct subcategory. It will show up on a Budget Detail report for the subcategory, or an Income and Expense Detail Report (although I don't recommend using Income and Expense Reports for the Budget category), as long as you specify the correct date range that includes the credit transaction.

I would prefer the second method. It does indeed offset the expense and will correctly increase the total Budget Allowance, as well as the remaining budget allocated to that subcategory. If you're not seeing that, perhaps you can explain what leads you to say that it "won't appear to offset the expense on the above named reports."

[crislapi]

I use the second method mentioned by Alan_Brown and emphasize that it offsets the expense by adding an entry of equal value to the "Transfers" column. Therefore, your balance column and NOT your expenses column will indicate the negated expense.

You probably have been doing it correctly but have been focusing on the wrong column. It may also be confusing because the expense will still show up in your "View/update expenses" screen although the transfer offsetting it won't. It is only if you look at a report that shows both expenses and transfers.

[chasejtlds]

Thank you. The 'Reconciliation' 'Other Items' took care of it. I was looking for the off-set in the Donations (credit) section and didn't look at the 'Transfers' section. The 'Other Items' will optionally create the 'Transfers' entry which off-sets the Expense.