How do I categorize credits for returned purchases so that they don't show up as income?
When I return an item that I've previously purchased, I categorize both transactions the same way, e.g., Shopping:Clothing. When I generate reports, or prepare a budget, I would expect to see actual expenses with the credits offsetting the expenses for any given category, i.e., if I spend $100 in the clothing category but return a $30 item then I would expect that the report or budget actuals would show $70 in expense. What appears to happen, though, is that I show $100 in clothing expenses and $30 in clothing INCOME. Of course I clearly don't budget based on clothing income, and the expense of $100 isn't a true reflection of my actuals. I know that I could track the returns as "returned purchase" instead of putting it in the same category, but then I lose even the ability to know how to adjust my actuals in aggregate. So my question is, how do I categorize credits for returned purchases so that they don't show up as income and instead credit my expense category?
Best Answer
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Which reports are you seeing this behavior in? I categorize returns the same way as you, and in the Category Summary reports that I use they don't show up as income.
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Answers
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Which reports are you seeing this behavior in? I categorize returns the same way as you, and in the Category Summary reports that I use they don't show up as income.
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Ah, I think I figured it out. I have a category "Home Improvement" and another category "Home:Home Improvement." The two initial purchase was made using the former, but the credit was captured using the latter. When I changed the credit to the right category, it eliminated the income line item. Thanks for verifying that this works!
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