| Financials / Concepts | |
The scope of transactions enable customer accounts to be continually updated in the present and not having to make adjustments in the past. This preserves financial history.
Sales transactions are used to add debits to a customer for services delivered, items purchased, etc. Sales may have tax consequences. Sales may be paid by Payments or Store Credit.
Payments are the primary means of adding credit to a customer and represent customer payments for services delivered, items purchased, etc. Payments are considered by definition to be made using legal tender through the use of cash, check, credit card, echeck, etc. As a method of fraud prevention, partial or full amounts from unused Payments are the only amounts that may be used to issue a Refund.
Store Credits may be used to give a customer non legal tender credit. Store Credits may have tax consequences. The recommended use of Store Credits is to credit a customer for referral, for buying a long term contract, discount code, etc. It is not recommended that they be used for service not delivered or for the return of items purchased. A Sales Return should be used for this purpose.
Deposits are a debit to a customer. Deposits may be paid by Payment only. The intent of the Deposit transaction is to collect money that will eventually be returned to the customer. Typically a Deposit is collected as a surety against a piece of equipment. Before amounts for an Account may be written off, all Deposits must have a corresponding Deposit Reversal.
Sales Returns are a credit to the customer. Sales Returns are linked to Sales. Sales Returns may be partially returned by setting a lower quantity than the original Sale, setting a shorter time span than the original Sale, or both. Sales Returns are tracked to the penny against the original Sale to ensure that multiple Sales Returns against a single Sale will not exceed the original Sale, both in Sale amount and tax amounts. Sales Returns and Store Credit Reversals are the only ways to make tax adjustments. This ensures that tax reporting of taxable versus non taxable amounts is accurate.
Payment Reversals are used to book legal tender debits to a customer that are not Refunds. Examples of these are charge-backs for credit cards and NSF (insufficient funds) for checks.
Store Credit Reversals are a debit to the customer. Store Credit Reversals are linked to Store Credits. A partial Store Credit Reversals may be created by setting a lower quantity than the original Store Credit, setting a shorter time span than the original Store Credit, or both. Store Credit Reversals are tracked to the penny against the original Store Credit to ensure that multiple Store Credit Reversals against a single Store Credit will not exceed the original Store Credit, both in Store Credit amount and tax amounts. Store Credit Reversals and Sales Returns are the only ways to make tax adjustments. This ensures that tax reporting of taxable versus non taxable amounts is accurate.
Refund Reversals are a credit to the customer. In general these are used to fix erroneous Refunds. In addition, a customer may have been given two refunds against a single Payment. An example of this may occur when a Refund by check is entered into BillMax against a credit card payment. Later that payment is returned by the credit card company in the form of a charge back. When the Payment is reversed using a Payment Reversal and the check is returned by the customer, a Refund Reversal will be appropriate.
Deposit Reversals are used when monies collected for a Deposit are to be returned to the customer. Deposit Reversals are also necessary when writing off a customer balance.
Write Offs are used to write off the balance of a customer.
Write Off Reversals are used to reverse the effect of Write Offs. Generally these are used when a customer returns after the balance has been written off.
Beginning Balance transactions are typically used when adding a customer to BillMax and they have a balance being carried over from another billing system. Beginning Balances may represent Sales along with taxes, Payments, Store Credits along with Taxes and Refunds (over refunded amounts). Beginning Balances do not show in any financial transaction reports. However, the effects of subsequent transactions against a Beginning Balance will show up in financial transaction reports.
Beginning Balances may also be used to create an account adjustment. This is not recommended as the adjustment does not show in financial transaction reports, but it is available.