Returns, voids and bad debts

What to do when goods come back, a sale was a mistake, or a customer will never pay.

Things go wrong at the till. TradeBroken has a different fix for each, and they leave a clear trail in your books. Branch managers and the owner can return and void; only the owner can write off a debt.

Which one do I use?#

What happened	Use	Who
A customer brings goods back	Return	Owner, branch manager
The whole sale was a mistake (wrong customer, wrong everything)	Void	Owner, branch manager
A customer will never pay what they owe	Write off	Owner

A customer returns goods#

Open the sale in Sales and choose to return. Pick the lines and how many of each, give a reason, and say how the money goes back if they had paid.

The goods go back into stock at what they cost when sold, so your stock value stays right.
The sale's revenue for those goods is taken back, and the customer owes that much less.
If they had already paid more than they now owe, the difference is refunded in the same step. You choose cash, MoMo, card or bank for the refund. If you don't say, TradeBroken asks how the money goes back.
You can return part of a sale, and return more than once, up to what was sold.
There is no store credit yet. Refunds go back as money.
Returns are final. They can't be undone.

Voiding a sale#

Void a sale only when it should never have happened. Open it, choose void, and give a reason.

Stock goes back where it came from, the revenue is reversed, and the payments taken with the sale are cancelled.
If the customer paid off the debt later, those later payments must be cancelled first. TradeBroken names them.
A sale that already has returns can't be voided. Return the rest of the items instead.
The sale stays on record, marked voided, with your reason.

Writing off a bad debt#

If a customer who owes you will never pay, the owner can write off what is left. The amount moves to a "Bad debts" expense. The sale stays as it was, shows what was written off, and can't be returned or voided after that.

If the customer comes back and pays later, record an ordinary payment against the sale. It recovers the written-off amount and brings the bad-debt expense down.