Include a negative refund in the supplied total

Refunds change the sign, not the column

Card statements, marketplace payouts and expense reports usually list refunds in the same column as purchases. The document shows the difference in a dozen ways: a minus sign, parentheses, a CR suffix, a separate refund column, or only a word in the description. Once the amounts are copied out, that context is easy to lose, and a refund that arrives as a plain 2.50 is added instead of subtracted.

The decimal totals checker adds exactly what you enter. It knows a refund only by its leading minus, so the sign has to be in the value before the line reaches the checker.

10.00 and -2.50 against 7.50

The page example enters 10.00 and -2.50 in Values, one per line, with 7.50 as the Expected total. The Calculated total is 7.50, the Difference is 0.00 and Totals match shows Yes.

It is worth knowing what the mistake looks like. If the refund is entered as 2.50 without its sign, the Calculated total becomes 12.50 and the Difference 5.00, exactly twice the refund. A difference equal to twice one line's amount is a strong hint that that line has the wrong sign.

Preparing a column with refunds

• Find how the source marks refunds: a minus, parentheses, a suffix, or a separate column.
• If refunds use parentheses or a CR or DR suffix, run the amount column through the numeric normalizer first with the document's decimal and grouping separators. Parentheses and DR become a leading minus there.
• Copy the converted values into Values, keeping every sign. The checker rejects parentheses, plus signs and currency labels, so only canonical values with an optional minus get through.
• Enter the document's own total, in the same unit, as the Expected total.
• Press Calculate and read Difference before Totals match.

What a matching total does not settle

• Whether the refund belongs to the same period or set of transactions as the purchases. A refund for last month's order can make this month's figures match by accident.
• Whether a line is missing. A missing purchase and a missing refund of the same size cancel each other out.
• Whether all lines share a currency. The checker adds numbers, not money.
• Whether a refund was recorded twice, once as a negative line and once as a reduced purchase amount. Look at the source records for that.

Refunds read from a photo

If the statement came through the Tablora app, check that the refund rows kept their sign in the grid. A minus sign is small and easy to lose in a photo, and an amber cell marked as one to check deserves a look against the Source · page view before you copy the amounts.

Original synthetic example

Values

10.00 -2.50

Expected total

7.50

Calculated total

7.50

Calculated minus expected

0.00

Tools

• decimal-totals-check