Record Refunds, Rebates, and Reversed Bank Fees
Reduce the original Expense or Income Category when money is returned, waived, or charged back.
Record returned purchase money against the original Expense Category so reports show the net cost. Do not use an Income Category for an ordinary purchase refund, rebate, fee waiver, or reversed bank charge.
Refunds in Bank Transactions
For a bank account, Money In offers Deposit and Transfer. For a credit-card account, Money In offers Credit Card Credit and Transfer. Money Out offers Expense and Transfer for either account. These names describe the bank document; the selected Category determines its accounting effect.
Choose Deposit or Credit Card Credit for a vendor refund, then select the original Expense Category and review the credit document's tax components. The entry appears in Received with positive Received, reduces the original cost and applicable purchase tax, and does not become business revenue. Use Transfer for a payment between your own bank and credit-card accounts.
A bank's $20 fee and its $20 waiver can both use Bank Charges: Money Out shows the $20 payment and Money In shows the $20 receipt. Reports net the Bank Charges cost to zero. A credit-card purchase return similarly reduces its original cost. Do not infer a refund solely from Money In; review its Category and source evidence.
Cash refunds and manual reductions
The supported routine for a cash refund is to deposit it into the bank and classify the imported .qbo Money In row. xBoox does not provide a dedicated cash-refund entry action. This workflow guidance does not prohibit valid negative amounts or erase existing reductions. Manual reductions remain viewable and editable through the same transaction workflow, including multiple lines with the same sign. A manual transaction cannot mix positive and negative lines; imported bank Splits retain their separate signed-line support.
Amounts, tax and reconciliation
Money is stored as positive integer cents with a direction. The payment list's Spent amount and drawer's Spent CAD both show $20 for a fee. The receipt list's Received amount and drawer's Received CAD both show $20 for its refund. The refund's Expense Impact remains -$20. Saving supporting details preserves the original direction.
The existing summary row describes the actual movement as Received $20 and the cost reduction as Expense Impact -$20. Before Tax and applicable GST/HST, PST and QST components describe the returned amount as positive values; their accounting and tax effects still reverse the original purchase. For a $78.39 purchase credit with Before Tax $69.99, GST $3.50 and PST $4.90, the summary shows Received $78.39 and Expense Impact -$74.89 under the existing treatment that includes PST in cost. Purchase PST remains part of cost where the existing tax treatment requires it; Expense Impact can therefore differ from Before Tax. Review the refund document's tax components rather than assuming a percentage calculation matches it.
Classification and supporting-detail changes do not undo a reconciliation. Financial or protected matched/Split changes may require reopening the affected reconciliation or undoing the bank posting; xBoox reports that requirement. Existing tax snapshots are retained when only supporting details change.
New and existing entries use the same classification and editing rules. Opening a row from Banking, Money Out, Money In, Expense, Income or a report retrieves the same complete transaction, attachments and tax details.
Income reductions
A reduction of genuine revenue uses the original Income Category. It reduces revenue rather than an unrelated expense. Use the source document to confirm its direction and tax treatment.