If you have invoiced a customer for a retainer via Operate, you can refund it by following these steps:
Create a credit note and credit back the retainer product that was initially invoiced for the customer. This will create the credit note to provide to the member along with the check that you refund to them, it will also reduce the deposit on the member's AR to zero, and produce the credit to the deposit GL code for your financial export. Read more on creating credit notes and managing retainer products.
The member balance will also now have a credit for the amount you created the credit note for. In order to return the balance to zero you will need to do a journal debit for this amount, ensuring the payment GL you select is the same GL that the payment of the deposit was initially made to. (In most cases this is likely to be your main payment GL, unless you create individual retainer/deposit invoices and allocate member payments for these invoices to a separate payment account). The journal debit will also reduce the amount the member paid originally for the deposit when you export to your financial software. Read more about Journals.
This way you have created a credit to the retainer GL income account that was booked upon initial invoicing for the retainer, and at the same time, you have debited the amount paid by the same amount.
If you have already refunded your customer and you just need to make adjustments to the Operate account, then please follow these steps:
Confirm that the full amount has been refunded
In Accounts Receivable, click “Refund Deposit, then enter the full deposit amount under “Amount Refunded”
Make sure the Balance for the Account is 0.
Run the Deposit Movement report to ensure that the refund has been correctly allocated.
This will effectively create a journal credit to the retainer GL revenue account and reduce the retainer on file, and at the same time create a journal credit crediting the payment GL, therefore removing the need to create the credit note for the member.