Need to Return a Product to a Supplier? Here’s How to Record It
As a business owner, you’ll probably find yourself purchasing products and services from suppliers. After all, you have to spend money to make money. Regardless of the industry in which your business operates, you’ll need to purchase products and services to facilitate your operations. Normally, you can record the cost of these purchases as business-related expenses. But what if you need to return a product to the supplier? When you return a product, you’ll need to record it differently so that it’s not counted as an expense. Otherwise, your business’s accounting records will be thrown off. If you use the Quickbooks accounting software, you can follow the steps listed below to handle returns such as this.
The correct way to record a returned product is to create a supplier credit. This involves logging in to your Quickbooks account, clicking the (+) icon at the top of the screen and choosing “Bank Deposit.” From here, you’ll need to complete the displayed fields. In the “Received from” field, scroll through the list of suppliers and select the one to whom you returned the product. In the “Account” field, choose “Accounts Payable.” In the “Amount” field, enter the payment amount associated with the returned product. After double checking these entries to ensure they are correct, click “Save and close.”
After creating a supplier credit, you’ll need to go back and link the original deposit to it. To do this, go back to to the main screen of your Quickbooks account, click the (+) icon again and choose “Expense” or “Check.” It’s important to note that both of these options can be used to record expenses. However, when you choose “Check,” the transaction creates a check that you can print. Next, you’ll see a drop-down menu from which you can select the supplier to whom you are returning the product. Choose the supplier’s name and leave the fields for “Reference,” “Check #,” “Date,” “Amount” and “Memo” blank. Finally, click “Add” in the “Add to Expense” section, and then choose the amount of credit that you want to issue to the supplier. When finished, click “Save and close” to complete the process.
It’s not uncommon for businesses to return products to a supplier. Maybe you accidentally ordered the wrong product, or perhaps the product was damaged when it arrived. Regardless, you should record returned products in your Quickbooks account using the steps mentioned here.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!