Explaining overpayments from a customer

Question asked by Polly Glass 9 years ago

Hi there!

We've received six separate payments from a customer over the last 3 months that don't match up with any of their unpaid invoices with us, so I'm not sure how to 'explain' them from our imported bank statements in Clearbooks?!

Ideally I'd like to explain them in a way that I can then create a credit note for the customer, or possibly have the option of refunding the customer the money, if that's what they'd prefer.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated! Thanks :~)

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7 Replies

Hi Polly

Really sorry for the delayed response, hectic few days.

You could indeed go for the delete option but in the interest of keeping a full audit trail you're probably better:

  1. Settings > Accounting > Account codes
  2. Create new code
  3. Account name = Overpayments
  4. Account type = Other creditor
  5. Tick both the show in sales & purchases boxes

You would then analyse the money coming in to the appropriate customer and select the overpayments account then when it goes back out again it would be a refund to that customer, again being posted to the newly created overpayments account.

Make sense?

Best answer
9 years ago

Hi Polly

Overpayments are a tad fiddly to handle in CB.

Is there more chance of you issuing a refund or the payment(s) being left on account to be offset against future invoices?

9 years ago

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for your comment.

I think it's most likely that the customer will want to offset the payments against future invoices. So is it OK to just leave the payments 'un-explained' in our bank statement section for a bit, until there's a new invoice to offset against?

It just seems like it could get quite messy, as none of the invoices are likely to match any of these random payment amounts that the customer has made. S

If we were to go down the refund option instead, is that easier? What would be the best way to do that? – just to refund the exact amounts and then delete all the payment reference off our bank statements in CB's?

Thanks for your help!

9 years ago

Hi Polly

On my mobile at the mo so will reply in full later with a few screenshots etc.

9 years ago

Thanks so much Kevin – that would be great.

9 years ago

Hi Kevin,

So our customer has confirmed that they'd like us to refund them for the overpayments... so they've made 5 x incorrect payments to us, and want to be refunded in 1 lump-sum. Any advice on how to explain all of this in CB's or is it best to just delete the payments and delete the refund when it shows up, and then everything should balance out fine?

Thanks again.

9 years ago

Hi Polly

Really sorry for the delayed response, hectic few days.

You could indeed go for the delete option but in the interest of keeping a full audit trail you're probably better:

  1. Settings > Accounting > Account codes
  2. Create new code
  3. Account name = Overpayments
  4. Account type = Other creditor
  5. Tick both the show in sales & purchases boxes

You would then analyse the money coming in to the appropriate customer and select the overpayments account then when it goes back out again it would be a refund to that customer, again being posted to the newly created overpayments account.

Make sense?

Best answer
9 years ago

Hi Kevin,

Really sorry for my slow reply, but thanks so much for your help - all makes sense, and all sorted. Really appreciate it!

Best wishes,

Polly

9 years ago

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