How do I record a sales return or a purchase return?

A return is not a deletion of the invoice; it is a separate document that reverses its effect in part or in full. That is the accounting-correct approach: the original transaction and the return both stay on record.

Sales return

1. Open Sales → Returns — Figure 1 — then Add return.
2. Choose the original invoice — Figure 2 — and the system pulls in its lines and prices.
3. Remove what was not returned and adjust the remaining quantities; a partial return is far more common than a full one.
4. Set the return date and the warehouse the goods come back into, then Save and Approve.
5. If you refunded cash, set the refund date and its method; the sales reports date the return by that date, not by the moment you pressed the button.

Purchase return

The same logic from Purchasing → Returns — Figure 3 and Figure 4: choose the supplier bill and set what is going back (damaged or off-specification), and the goods leave stock while what you owe the supplier drops.

Notes

• Do not cancel the invoice instead of issuing a return when the customer has taken delivery and paid; cancelling erases a transaction that actually happened.
• A POS invoice with a return against it must not be cancelled; delete the return first or the stock is doubled.
• Put the reason for the return in the notes; repeated returns on one item point to a fault in the item, not in the customer.