Customer returns

A customer return records on the tax account products that have already been delivered to the customer and reported as wholesale, and that the customer returns. The entry reduces the quantities to be declared in future reports.

A customer return is intended for the situation under section 16 of the Excise Duty Act, whose code is 16H2 Completely destroyed or irretrievably lost products. The Finnish Tax Administration (Vero) requires that:

• the products have been completely destroyed or irretrievably lost due to an unforeseeable event or force majeure. The deduction cannot be made if the destruction or loss is due to the nature of the products.
• the products for which the deduction is made are destroyed under the supervision of an authority or in a manner approved by it.

If the products have not yet been handed over to the customer, do not make a customer return. Record a stock removal instead, see Stock count and Warehouses – Removals. If a shipment has been recorded entirely in error, it can also be cancelled, see Shipments.

Recording a customer return

1. Open the customer's page and choose customer return from the ⋯ menu.
2. Search for the returned product in the field Add returned product. The product is added to the list with a quantity of one. Selecting the same product again increases the quantity by one, and you can also change the Pieces field directly. If you set the quantity to zero, the row is removed from the list.
3. Fill in the dates:
   • Original purchase/delivery date of the products. The field is mandatory, and the date is saved at the end of the entry's explanation.
   • Return date. This date determines the reporting period to which the return is recorded.
4. Check the Customer's alcohol licence number. Enter the licence number of the delivery location to which the products were originally delivered.
5. Write the Grounds for the return and further details, for example what happened to the products, the number of the original shipment and how the products were destroyed. The field is mandatory.
6. Press Record. The button is enabled when the list has products and both dates and the grounds have been given.

What the entry does

• Each returned product creates a return event on the tax account in which the quantity is negative (in litres). The event is assigned to the given alcohol licence number and the return date, and it is taken into account in future reports to the authorities (see Valvira reports and excise duty).
• The event's value is calculated at the customer's current price (contract, customer group or general price), not at the price of the original shipment.
• Returned beer is declared in the same small brewery reduction tier as the original shipment. BrewOS looks for the customer's latest shipment of the same product delivered no later than the original purchase/delivery date and links the return to its batch. See Excise duty returns.
• The return does not return the products to stock, and it does not change stock balances. The products are assumed to have been destroyed.
• The return does not create a credit note. If the customer is credited for the price of the products, make a credit note separately, see Invoicing.
• The entry leaves a record in the event log.

The details of recorded return events (e.g. date, licence number, quantity) can be corrected if necessary under reports > Tax events. Still, check the details carefully before recording, because the return cannot be undone from the same form.