Unique Situation for Returns on Invoices

[Julie15]

We are trying to transfer a program we offer over to Square. We have customers that buy uniforms from us and payments are deducted directly from their paychecks and their employer issues the payment to us. Think of it like financing a wardrobe with no interest. They pay in chunks and often will have made a partial payment on something and then end up returning it. We really want to run this program out of square but not if the return process is going to be difficult to manage. 

What happens most often would be the employee has purchased say 2 uniforms for a total of $100. We receive a $50 payment. The employee returns one uniform but keeps the other. We would want to return one outfit back to our inventory and use the $50 payment toward any outstanding balance.

Another common scenario is someone buys an outfit and shoes. Payments have been made on the shoes which are more expensive than the outfit. They return the shoes. I use the payment that has been made on the shoes to pay off the outfit instead, but since the shoes were more expensive I now also owe them a refund.

I have run some of these scenarios with invoices in Square and I run into not being able to refund one item on an invoice without canceling the whole thing. I also can't edit the invoice and take an item off it a payment has already been made on it if the invoice total is not at least a $1 more than what has already been paid.

We love the Square platform so far but I just can't wrap my head around how to make this program work in it.

[Minion]

hi @Julie15 

 I am subscribed to this thread here, so hopefully I can help you out, or more so even maybe brainstorm some ideas.  I'm sure that you have thought of these.  These are only suggestions trying to figure out the best of both worlds for you, as you clearly know how to run your business. 

I was in the restaurant business for about a decade, and my employer used to rent xx amount of uniforms per employee, so i have a slight understanding of what your business is. 

I'm just going to list off some ideas maybe that maybe worth trying, as given the complexity of your situation I don't think that Square in itself can handle this with the invoice alone solution, without a bunch of work arounds and time consumption. 

Do you charge the customer on a daily basis or weekly basis?  example-minimum one week charge for shoes - $30 per week 

[Julie15]

Hi, thanks for responding. Deductions from their check are taken every 2 weeks.

[Minion]

No problem.

  I guess the only thing/way that I personally would do it, assuming everything is on a bi-weekly basis for all companies that do business with you would be to set my pricing or terms per item based on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

In this scenario John picks up two pairs of pants for $25 each (for 2 weeks) and a pair of shoes for $30 each (for 2 weeks).  So regardless if John returns one pair of pants after 2 days or 10 days, in the end the invoice sent to the employer is still going to be $80. If the item(s) aren't returned before the next "billing" 14th day in this scenario, then they are billed for an addition 2 weeks.

This is just my opinion on what I would do personally to get rid of or cut down on the multiple charges/returns of items while still be able to utilize the invoice system.  Hope this helps or at least gives you some ideas. 

[yirtr444]

If we create the modifiers, we will see then inside the preview and it indicates the choice for exceptional sizes of shoes as mentioned on bootvibe, however how can I replace the stock with every respective length?

[_Violet]

Hi @yirtr444 - Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Square Seller Community👋

Unlike price points used for sizes, colors, or SKUs, item modifiers don’t decrease inventory counts if inventory management is turned on. Tracking inventory on Item Modifiers is a feature request. Although this feature isn’t currently available with Square, it’s a great idea and I can see how it would be beneficial to your business.

I’ve shared your feature request with our Product Team, as they are constantly improving our products based on feedback like this. To learn more about how feature requests work, please see this post from one of our Seller Community Moderators. 

In the meantime, keep an eye out for any updates in our Seller Community. We appreciate your input! 🙂