Hi all, I wonder if anyone can advise on a small problem. We have been accidentally overpaid by a customer to the tune of.... 85p. This was on top of an invoice for a few hundred pounds, now paid and safely residing in our company bank account.
85p shouldn't bother me that much but it does! Also, I'd like to know how to deal with this situation in case it comes up again with larger sums.
The first problem is that I don't actually know how or even if we can give them back the money. This customer is unlikely to use our services in the near future (not, I hasten to add, due to any dissatisfaction), so it doesn't make sense to put it as a credit note. I suspect when I ring them on Monday they'll prefer we write it off as it's all too much trouble. They don't have Paypal. Can one make a BACS payment for such a small sum, or would it cost more to administer than it's worth? I suppose we could send them stamps, as they used to do in the old days.
My other problem is how to handle this on Sage Neanderthal. I gather newer versions of Sage have wizards to deal with over or under payments but ours doesn't.
I'd like it to show up as a credit on the customer's account and a debit in the bank account, just to accurately reflect the situation now: the money is in our bank account and we owe it to the customer. The best I could do was put it in as a payment on account, but that isn't quite right as in the nature of things this customer is not going to be using our services in the forseeable future.
If you haven't already, post the correct (full) amount to the customer account & bank (otherwise you will not be able to reconcile your bank account) - and there was indeed an overpayment/payment on account of 85p, which will show as a "payment on account" on the customer account.
Then, as such it's an immaterial amount, I would just write off the 85p (the write-off would not affect your bank account, since you wouldn't actually be paying the money out again - if you post the full amount of the payment to the customer account, the 85p is already a debit in your bank ac, as part of the overall payment amount)
Even in quite old versions of Sage, there is a "write-off" function under the tools menu. (If there isn't, it's possible to do it manually)
(I have a vague memory that the minimum BACS payment is £1 - but this might have changed now)
Thanks, Figurate - I had posted it as you said, but I'm grateful for the confirmation. I'm embarrassed to say that I had forgotten the existence of the entire Tools menu, as those aren't facilities one uses every day. There is a write off function there all right. So I haven't got Sage Neanderthal after all, I've got Sage Cro-Magnon
