refunds in sold orders reports

[Former_Member]

It looks like refunds in the Sold Orders report in Etsy are not subtracted. Anyone else see this problem?

[PinchtheMuse]

Sold Orders reports has the columns:
Adjusted Order Total
Adjusted Card Processing Fees
Adjusted Net Order Amount

That is looking at a Sold Orders CSV from 12-12. It appears those show the final totals after refund. So it does subtract. It just doesn't show you the value subtracted.



Just went and checked my orders CSV from 1-12 the above columns are there but in a different position (still at the very end). Seems they had more columns in January than now. I didn't hunt down what was there and now isn't--cause I'm not to that point with my 2012 data yet.

[Former_Member]

i see those columns but they do not have the right numbers and some of my refunds have nothing in those columns!

[PinchtheMuse]

Okay, well I don't have a lot of refunds, but I poked around a bit.

Where I did a full refund there is a 0 (zero) in the fields. Meaning the adjusted totals equals zero. Where there was no adjustment the cells are empty with no entry.

So if you did a full refund it should have zero, if there was nothing done to an order it is empty, partial refunds show totals (original amount -refund amount).

On my partial refund the original order total was $17.00. I refunded $5.00 for shipping overage so the adjusted order total showed the amount of $12.00. It doesn't show what you refunded, just the final amounts after adjustments.

I don't know how coupons factor in to any of that because I don't have any transactions that have coupons used.

I have a habit of downloading all the CSV files monthly, but for end of the year purposes downloaded the CSV files for the year. Because-- say I had an order in November and download my Nov CSV file on Dec. 1st, then refund that November order on Dec. 12 it can't show on the Nov. CSV I downloaded on Dec. 1st. So, if you are working off of "old" CSV files you may have some missing.


I checked all my shops total for the year I have a handful of partial and full refunds and the are all reflected in the order CSV I downloaded for the year.

The reasons your data could be wrong:

old file (sale in one month refund in a different month after you downloaded the file).

The file could be corrupted. Try re-downloading the file.

If you are importing the CSV file into a spreadsheet program it may not be importing the data properly. Some spreadsheet programs are better than others, although I have not seen any reports anywhere about Etsy files not importing correctly.

[Former_Member]

Where are you finding these reports?

[PinchtheMuse]

Hi Karen,
where to find the CSV data click your shop and then on the left hand side:

Under Shop Settings
Click Options
Click Download Data Tab

On that page you can get your currently for sale listings, order and/or order item information by month or by year.

For Billing CSV from the left
Click your bill
Under monthly statements click on the month you want.
Scroll down to the bottom of that page and you should see a link to click
"Download this entire monthly statement as a CSV file"

To work with the files you will need a spreadsheet program such as excel or if you would rather use a free program check out open office or libre office they are both office suites that have spreadsheet programs.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the help.

[Former_Member]

Not sure why my report has incomplete info for refunds. But one thing that has to be considered when you use this report is that any PP refunds are not reflected on this report so it is probably best to filter PP from credit cards if you have a lot of sales. That way you can use PP refunds reports.

[Former_Member]

Pinchthemuse I can see where I have zeros so I guess I just have to deduct the amounts from the totals to get the true amount of sold orders.

[PinchtheMuse]

Yeah, the zeros make it a pain though. Can't do a straight ordertotal-adjustordertotal =refundamount. Because of those zeros. I have few enough I will probably manually adjust per line and then total. Or do a formula that makes adjusted columns with null values show the amounts from the totals columns--then I can just work off the adjusted totals columns.

And the plan for 2013 is to track my orders differently--to minimize some of the stuff like this.

Good luck with it Cynthia, hope isn't too painful to sort out :o)

[Former_Member]

PinchtheMuse-what sort of plan are you devising? I am planning to open another shop so looking at this closely to streamline my work. I also need to simplify my bank recon issues! Any ideas? I don't really like sending all my banking info to a website like Outright.

[PinchtheMuse]

I've got a database built. Right now I'm debating if it makes more sense to keep the financial stuff in spreadsheets or the database. Spreadsheets are quicker to set up and easier to import the data into but I can do more stuff with the database.

I just today finished setting up my system for tracking incoming inventory. I have to finish up my tables to take parts out of inventory next. That will be when I start looking at the financial stuff too, I'm hoping one lends itself to the other. Sold item is sold inventory out of stock, etc...

I have the broad goal of a spreadsheet / database that works with the Etsy CSV files to track the financial side and inventory side. Basically am hoping to set something up that I can import the Etsy CSV information in combination with data I already have which will give me the gross totals of all the important stuff...DC, PayPal, stock out of inventory, Postage, umm stuff like that.

Really want to avoid having to go in and mark 5 split rings and 7 inches of chain out of inventory manually for every sale and I don't want to count 1500 jumprings at the end of the year or weigh them or any of that. It is incredibly boring to spend even a half hour measuring chain :o|


Part of the book keeping side is just going to be the discipline to sit down and enter the stuff at least monthly :o)

The bank reconciliation is lower priority to me cause I am one of those weirdos that has the running balance in my head within about fifty cents. So, I only check the bank accounts every couple of weeks or so to verify nothing odd is going on.

I don't use 3rd party financial software because if I can't "see" how it works I am constantly worried it did something wrong. (And there have been ALOT of complaints about Outright screwing up data....soooo stuff like that doesn't help!). If I didn't already know how to work with spreadsheets and the database I would probably be doing the pencil and paper route :o)

For my three shops I keep their data separate on my side of things and then merge the totals I need to for taxes. For me I have to see how each shop is performing individually.

Really it can be a simple as setting up a spreadsheet for each thing you feel you need to track. As long as you keep up on the entries you can then compare totals to each "account" to make sure everything is set. If you want to compare weekly, enter stuff in daily. If you want to compare monthly enter stuff in weekly, etc....


I'm setting up something more complex because eventually it *should* be tracking my inventory and a couple other numbers I want to watch too.

I should say I do my own taxes...the way I'm setting things up might make an accountant or CPA cry? But I have every single receipt! lol.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the info. I have to admit but I am a CPA and my opinion is that you sound like you are on top of it. But people like you have a lot of good advice about running craft businesses! I also am skeptical of Outright just cuz of the way it must gain access to so much of your records.

I am going to find out if I can just download my banking info into excel which I know some banks will allow.
I guess I cannot escape Excel even though I am not practicing accounting anymore!
I am not a person to keep up with daily entries but in my dreams.

[PinchtheMuse]

ohh, if you are a CPA you may want to check out the software called gnucash

It is free and has all kinds of reconciling and comparing etc... It is personal and small business accounting software. An every day regular person can learn it, but you would already be familiar with the concepts so you could probably get started pretty quickly with it.

I first looked at it when I was starting out and didn't know how I would be setting up accounts, etc. I totally forgot about it until now. I should probably go have another look at it and see if I can use it.

For GnuCash still would have to import data, but it is set up to do small business accounts so if you set it up right and get your data in, it would do the reconciles and checks for you--I am pretty sure. I don't know how easy it would be to import the Etsy data, however.

I was in the Etsy CSV files again and they are umm something else. The orders file isn't static (doesn't close permanently at any date it seems), entries can change at any forward date based on refunds or cancelled orders and that is really bugging my brain. I don't like data completely disappearing (cancelled orders)---although the items sold on a cancelled order don't disappear from the sold items file.

After looking at them, if I was doing something simpler I would probably pull the data monthly and manually enter refunds to a transaction (in my books) as they occur and then not worry about months that change after they should be closed or disappearing orders.

[Former_Member]

Thanks for the gnucash site. It might be what I need.

[lipmeister]

Reading all this is overwhelming. I don't know from spreadsheets though I did get outright and luckily, I went to see my accountant to get some guidance. We have to be accountants besides being shop owners, ugh!!! There are so many details to think of and figure out. That's besides all the inventory and supplies you buy.
I am dreading this but it's my first year really doing it. Hopefully, it will get easier next year.

[PinchtheMuse]

Hi Robin,
Yes, it seems overwhelming (and is at times). For the keeping tracking of everything part, just figure out a system and stick with it.

The figure out a system part is time consuming once, the stick with it part is the really hard part.

It really can be done with pencil and paper if the computer stuff is too much.

If you save all your receipts and have all the records for your sales, you can do it all in one big swoop at the end of the year. It is what I had to do for 2012. It is why I am trying to get something "easier" set up for 2013. I really don't want to have to fall off the face of the earth for 2-3 weeks to do book keeping for the year end. And only doing entry at the end of the year leaves much more room open for errors or paperwork to get lost.

Oh and whatever your accountant told you, do that for sure!

Cynthia--You're very welcome. I had a quick look at the file types for gnucash. CSV files can be converted to a file type you can import into gnucash. There is a free online converter, I haven't tried it, but if you can't find the link to the file converter and need it feel free to convo me.

[ToGildTheLily]

pinch the muse,

thanks for that info about refunds. i had 5 shops on etsy last year and got one 1099 for all of them and trying to track refunds is horrible. I have given up on outright and am going back to manually entering a sales figure for the month but I need a way to total refunds through DC.

Etsy, I do wish you would change your csv download to show those refunds. have a *0* in a column for a fully refunded order makes no sense whatsoever.

as long as I can figure them out I'm ok. but I have to say that so far, I can't even get etsys 1099 to match their csv downloads and that 1099 apparently includes no refunds.

which is fine because paypals download doesn't either but even taking that into account, STILL etsy 1099 does not match their csv downloads