Match a refund to its purchase
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When a store gives money back, Pennyweight sees two transactions: the purchase and the refund. Matching them tells Pennyweight the refund belongs to that purchase, so your spending shows what you actually paid. Transfers aren't spending explains the linking rule behind this.
How to do it
- Find the two transactions. Tell your AI the merchant, both amounts and the account. If you're not sure which rows they are, ask your AI to find them first.
- Ask your AI to match the refund to the purchase. It links the two as a refund, which counts differently from a transfer. Your AI saves a short note on the pair saying why they belong together.
- Check the answer. Pennyweight tells your AI whether it treated the match as a full or a partial refund.
The $120 credit from Northwind Outdoor on my Rewards Card is a refund of the $120 I spent there. Match the refund to the purchase.
The $50 Price adjustment credit from Pixel Electronics on my Rewards Card is a partial refund of the $249.99 I spent there. Match it to that purchase.
Pennyweight doesn't match refunds on its own. Automatic pairing only looks at transactions categorized as a transfer, and it only creates transfer links. A refund stays unmatched until you ask.
What you'll see
Your AI confirms the two transactions are matched as a refund. It may mention whether the amounts match and how many days apart the two are. What happens to your totals depends on the amounts:
- Full refund (the same amount in the same currency). Both transactions are left out of your spending and cash flow, so the $120 Northwind Outdoor purchase and its refund add nothing.
- Partial refund (the amounts differ). Both transactions keep counting, so spending nets to the part that wasn't refunded: the $249.99 Pixel Electronics purchase less the $50 credit leaves $199.99.
Your account balances don't change. A match records what happened; it moves no money.
Good to know
- A refund match needs opposite signs. The purchase takes money out and the refund puts it back. The two can be on the same account or on different ones. If both move the same direction, Pennyweight refuses and suggests a pass-through link, which is for one purchase recorded twice. See a purchase shows twice.
- Different currencies always count as a partial refund. A purchase in euros and a credit in dollars are never treated as a full refund, even when the numbers are equal, so both keep counting.
- A $0 transaction can't be matched. Correct the amount first, or delete the placeholder.
- A transaction can belong to only one link. If either side is already linked, for example to a transfer, Pennyweight refuses and says to unlink it first. See undo a wrong transfer match.
- To undo a match, ask your AI to unlink it. Both sides are unlinked at once. Each then counts according to its own category, as it did before the match.
- Cash flow goes by sign. Money coming in counts as income there. An unmatched refund, or a partially matched one, shows as income in your cash flow rather than lowering an expense.
- Budgets add up money going out only. A refund doesn't lower what a budget shows as spent.
- Moving money between your own accounts uses a transfer link instead. See link the two sides of a transfer.