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[qbsrox]

Hi Guys,

I need to know how to work around this problem .... I have several clients who sell clothes and such, so they have a pretty high rate of returns/exchanges.  Yahoo does not do a very good job at really documenting what happened some times ... these clients are using SuperManager Lite, QuickBooks, and Yahoo.  Now I know some of these issues would be resolved with the use of the full version, but right now they are using Lite.

We download the orders and go to import them into QuickBooks and get an the 'you cannot import a negative sales receipt' error.

Upon looking at the order information on Yahoo, it's always a case where the order was revised with a return/exchange .... and inside the details in SML it will show the credit (usually); but it chokes on import because the lines are in a different order or because the credit isn't entered as a separate entry (like a check).

So, my question is ... what's the best way to update the record in SuperManager Lite so it doesn't throw the error when exporting to QuickBooks?  Or did I totally confuse you ... lololol?

Thanks,
Rox

[David Johns]

Rox,

The SuperManager correctly exports most receipts as long as they are correctly reconciled in The SuperManager.  There are some particular cases where it has problems, but those are rare.  For the most part it is just important to have orders correctly  moved to "Charged"/"Paid" status and make sure that the order details do not show that the customer has paid more than was due.

The SuperManager automatically changes them to "Charged"/"Paid" status when the amount received from the customer equals the amount due.  On the order details page the box in the middle of the page shows the subtotal of all items, any special case charges such as giftwrap, discounts, coupons and tax followed by a final total.  This final total is the amount due.  The amount received from the customer is detailed by the sum of all the "Charge". "Manual Charge", "Paid" and "PayPal Payment", etc... events minus any "Credit", "Return", etc... events.

If an order is not set to "Charged"/"Paid" status you probably need to add an additional payment event to show that the customer paid the full amount due, change the price of one or more items to show what you really charged the customer, add a discount that you gave, reduce the shipping amount, etc... to justify why the order is actually paid in full.

All this said, this is not what causes "Receipt balance cannot be negative" errors.  These are caused by the opposite problem in the orders - the order shows that you have received more from your customer than the amount due.  To resolve this you generally need to increase the cost or quantity of one or more items, increase the shipping amount, add an additional total line item or other such action to justify why less was required of the customer.  Once the amount due is not less than the amount received you should be able to successfully export the order(s).

Thanks,
David

[qbsrox]

David,

I understand what you are saying, but the thing is ... the order that comes down from Yahoo is correct; it reflects the proper inventory and shipping charges, etc.  It even shows the credit ... say the Original order was $300, but they returned/exchanged something and only owe $250.  The order details are correct ... it shows the inventory, shipping, etc. correctly, the $250 that was collected, and a credit for the $50.

Of course what happens is QuickBooks chokes at the point of the amount that was a credit to the customer .... instead of posting as a check.  Of course the real problem is with the way Yahoo sends the information; it doesn't include all the details needed if every thing was done from the back end of Yahoo. 

Right now we are manually entering those few sales receipts; however for a few of the clients there may be several a day/week and of course they get a lot of open ones that have to be dealt with (again, that's a Yahoo thing) .... I realize the full version of the SuperManager will eliminate most of this if they upgrade from the Lite version.  However, the Lite version is still the best option for many of these clients who are just starting to become automated.

I think I'll send you a few samples so maybe we can brainstorm a way around this issue in the future.  I don't want them to just add a line item to increase the SR .... I guess we could use a Wash account, but it will get messy.

Thanks!
Rox

[David Johns]

Rox,

Sorry to be slow to pick up on what you meant.  I knew we had gone over this issue before and I had forgotten the exact details of how it gets tripped up.  In the early versions we ran into a similar issue with adding discounts and adjustments in the favor of the customer.  We fixed that by having SuperManager put all total line items that favored the customer last so that the balance never went negative by virtue of a discount for example that would drive the balance negative before the tax was added.

The one quick fix solution that I can think of is to add all the credits to the customer first, then the charges against the customer last.  I really don't like this really because it puts the transactions out of chronological order, but it would be a pragmatic approach to make the entire transaction work in one single object, without having to use a check to counter balance an apparent overcharge.  We could try to restore order to the mis-ordered transactions by adding a date the transaction was made.

I just really hate how QuickBooks creates this problem by requiring the running balance to always remain positive.  What do you think of this idea?  Any other ideas?

[Nathan - AsSeenOnTVChannel.com]

Hi Rox,

Can I ask how your customers do exchanges and refunds with SM and QB. The reason why I ask is that you shouldn't post date changes in accounting as it messes up your accounting records. Right now I post returns and exchanges in QB manually (I do the credit in SM of course). This is proper accounting according to our accountant so I am curious.

This is all part of my question a while ago where I asked if the payment date could be imported as the invoice date into QB so that when you go to do a reconciliation and deposit it is on the proper date. I will give you an example where this doesn't happen. We have a product that is out of stock for 1 month. So when it does come into stock we will charge the card then ship it but the QB invoice date will be the order date and not the payment date which the bank recognizes.

Thoughts.

Nathan...

[qbsrox]

Nathan,

This is still an on-going discussion as to how we can make this work better because of how QB's dictates things to work.  I agree, history should not be changed....so if a return is handled in September for an order that was shipped in August, the return should show up in September.  Right now manual has been the best way to deal with it; but I think they are close to a solution. 

Now for the 2nd scenario ... that would be a back-order (or should be) ...  what happens now is the Sales Receipt comes in with a balance; obviously that needs to come in as an Invoice instead so when the product is shipped and the card charged, and the payment would be applied in the correct period.  Right now you have to work around it ... but again, this is partly based on some QB's limitations and how Yahoo handles things.

Honestly they have been so busy making all the other changes and updates that we've been requesting that I haven't really gotten back to this lately.  However it's definitely something we need to work out before the holidays I think ..... especially for those who carry clothing or seasonal items.

Let's see....

Backorders should come in as an Invoice; then have the payment applied once shipped ... can that be added?

If a credit is issued, and there is inventory returned, then a CM would need to be created and the 'check' generated in QB's to reflect the charge back to the card, in the correct timeframe ... a bit trickier for them to program for sure.

If a credit is issued and no inventory is returned, then in theory a 'check' could be generated in QB's to reflect the credit card refund.

3rd ... if an exchange is done in the same month and the person is using SuperManager Lite (not sure about the full version), Yahoo and QB's gets really tripped up because QB's thinks it's a negative sales receipt; so again probably the best way is to leave the SR stand and create the CM for the exchange?

What have I missed?

Rox

[David Johns]

Rox,

You are reading my mind.  I have that on the list.  My plan is to leave sales receipts as is, but change the way orders are exported when the user has invoices selected.  In this case it will create an invoice just with the amount due.  Payments will be processed as payments against that invoice and returns will issue refunds and so forth.  Its kind of a large undertaking so it has worked its way down the list a little bit, but it will be coming.

Thanks,
David

[qbsrox]

Well I'm just trying to stay ahead of Eric and get all my stars ... lolol!

I have a question though ... let's say a typical user has Sales Receipts selected (which most will, especially SuperManager Lite users); will the program automatically bring in the Invoice and/or Credit memo without them changing any settings?  Now if they normally bring in Invoices it won't be a problem, but the sales receipt people??

I know this is a big change in the code/program, and I wish we could have figured out an easier way ... darn QuickBooks and Yahoo    Can't use journal entries either; unless they are not tracking detail in QuickBooks.  If they are only sending summary information, then a JE would work.  Sorry, I'm thinking out loud on this.

Rox