Ask Experts Questions for FREE Help!
 

Free Answers in 3 Easy Steps

Register Now
3 Steps
 


Ask QuestionsprogressAnswer QuestionsprogressBuild ReputationprogressBecome an Expert
 
At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you will be able to:
  • Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+ topics.
  • Accept money for answers that you provide.
  • Communicate privately with other members (PM).
  • See fewer ads.
  Answer this Question    Ask about Accounting    Ask about another Subject  
 

102361
Feb 11, 2008, 08:49 AM
Can you explain to me how I would journalize returned merchandise with 3/10 credit terms. Item purchased on credit and has not been paid for yet.

morgaine300
Feb 11, 2008, 12:38 PM
First, if it hasn't been paid yet, ignore the credit terms. That means 3% can be taken if the invoice is paid within 10 days, but since it hasn't been paid yet, it's irrelevant.

When there's a return, you sort of are reversing your original entry. The original entry should have been to debit Accounts Receivable and credit Sales. It's no longer owed since it was returned, so you credit Accounts Receivable to reverse that out. But instead of debiting Sales directly to reverse that part out, you probably will be using an account called Sales Returns & Allowances or something similar. While the return does reduce your sales number, most companies are going to want to keep track of their returns and therefore separate it into another account. Sales Returns is a contra revenue account, that is, a negative revenue. Since revenues are credits, this negative account will be a debit account. So you debit the Sales Returns.

That debit will offset the credit balance in the Sales account, which reduces the net sales. This will be done on the income statement later: you'll show gross sales, less any returns and less any cash discounts, to get net sales.

Depending on method, you may have a second entry to do. If you are doing periodic method, ignore this as the second entry isn't made. If you're doing perpetual (likely), then your original entry also included a debit to Cost of Goods Sold and a credit to Merchandise Inventory. For the cost. When it's returned, literally flip that entry over: debit the inventory and credit the COGS. You're trying to "undo" that original entry.