Refunding Deposits

When a customer no longer wants to buy layaway or special order items, refund all or part of the deposit. You can also charge the customer a restocking fee for the inconvenience of holding the items or placing a special order. When you refund a deposit, you can reimburse the customer with cash, credit, check, or payment card.

To refund deposits

1. Retrieve the work order that includes the deposit or deposits you need to refund.

2. Type a note stating the customer has changed his or her mind on the WO Notes tab.

Note: Adding a comment is not required. However, this type of note can be helpful for research.

3. Perform a return for each item the customer was purchasing.

a. Look up the item and enter the quantity as a negative number. The Customer Sales History screen appears.

b. Click Return.

Note: The items should be listed twice on the work order to show that the customer intended to buy them (positive quantities) and then backed out of the purchase (negative quantities).

4. If you assess a service charge (such as a restocking fee), add it to the work order.

5. Click Complete.

6. On the Invoice Completion screen, define the reimbursement amount and method.

For cash reimbursements, click the Cash field and press to fill in the amount.
For credit reimbursements, click the Charge field and press to fill in the amount.
For check reimbursements, click the Charge field and press to fill in the amount.
For payment card reimbursements, click the Credit/Debit field and press to fill in the amount.

7. Click OK. TireMaster prompts you to complete and print the invoice.

8. Click Yes.

9. Issue the refund, using one of the following methods:

For cash reimbursement, give the customer change out of the till.
For credit reimbursement, there is nothing else to do. The credit is available in the customer’s open item ledger.

Note: Deposit refund credits post to the open-item ledger regardless of whether the customer has a charge account or is classified as cash-only.

For check reimbursement, write an AR easy check to the customer. Then apply the easy check to the credit that posted to the customer’s open-item ledger when you completed the invoice. For more information, see Generating AR Easy Checks.

For payment card reimbursement, process the card. The customer’s account with the card company will be credited for the refund amount.