Goods came back from the site, and the invoice was never corrected.
Sales returns record what a customer sends back and what you did about it: a credit note against the original bill, the stock taken in again, and the reason it came. Damaged, wrong size, short-supplied or simply unsold, each counted apart from the others. The customer’s ledger falls by exactly what came through the gate.
Three bundles of rods return from a site on the same lorry that took the next load out. The driver carries no paper for them. The godown counts them in, the office hears a week later, and by then the contractor’s ledger and his diary disagree by eleven thousand rupees.
The return is entered against the invoice it came from, with a reason on each line. A credit note is raised in its own series, the stock goes back to the shelf or into a damaged bin, and his account falls by that much. One entry, three effects.
What sales returns and credit notes does.
Return against the original bill
Item, quantity and rate come from the invoice, so the credit is worked out at what he was charged, not at today’s rate.
A reason on every line
Damaged in transit, wrong size, excess supplied, unsold stock. Picked from your list so the month can be counted.
Credit note with the tax working
The note prints against the original invoice with its GST details, in a series of its own.
Back to the shelf, or not
Saleable material returns to stock. Damaged material goes to a separate bin and is not sold to the next customer by accident.
Replace instead of credit
Where you agree to replace, the replacement is linked to the return and stays open until it is delivered.
Returns counted, not just recorded
By item, by customer, by salesman. One product coming back every month is a supplier problem hiding as a sales problem.
The people who open this every day.
Counter staff
Takes the return with the invoice number in hand.
Storekeeper
Counts what came back and says plainly what is fit to sell again.
Accounts assistant
Raises the credit note and sets it against the bill, so the ledger and the godown tell the same story.
Owner
Approves returns above a value, and reads the monthly reasons.
It is one part of a system, not an island.
A module earns its place by what it passes to the next one. These are the connections we set up most often.
- Invoice management
- Stock
- Credit control
- Quality control
- Tally
Products that include it.
How we would put it in.
Questions owners ask about sales returns and credit notes.
Do we raise a credit note or does the customer raise a debit note?
Usually you raise the credit note and his debit note is matched against it. The software keeps yours and records his. Which document your books should carry is your CA’s call, not ours.
Do any of your products handle this?
Yes. Building Material Trading Software takes back bags, rods and fittings from a site with a reason, adds them to yard stock and credits them against the right invoice.
Our returns are rare. Is a note in the invoice file enough?
For a handful a year, yes. It gives way when a salesman accepts a return without asking, or when the godown and the ledger are corrected by two people on two different days.
Can a return be stopped after a certain number of days?
Yes, a window can be set per item or per customer, and anything beyond it waits for approval. Owners usually want a warning rather than a refusal, since the customer is standing at the counter.
Businesses that ask for this.
Modules that work with it.
Tell us how you handle sales returns and credit notes today.
A spreadsheet, a register or another system: say which, and we will tell you plainly what is worth changing.
- No obligation
- We reply the same working day
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