Major Item Credit Card Refund - entry to negate a non-expense (for reports accuracy)?

Spreadsheets Google Sheets
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Fellow Tillerites:

Normally, small cc returns and refunds don’t matter much to me. But I had a very large categorized expense that was refunded and I would like any reports to ignore that item’s charge and the item’s refund, as it really is a non-event.

Example:
I was charged for simplicity $1,000 for a photo class on 3/24/2020 on my principal card. This was categorized as a major Hobby expense, lol. I was refunded $1,000 (the instructor comped the class) on 3/28/2020.

My Transaction Log shows a net payment to my principal card for that month paid on 4/15 of $1,450 (Presumably $2,450 total purchases including the photo class, minus the $1,000 refund leaving the $1,450 balance).

How do I record that $1,000 refund so reports don’t show the expense?

auto downloaded in Transactions sheet:

3/24/2020 Hobbies Photography -$1,000 (notes: Fall Colors photo class)
4/15/2020 CC Payment -$1,450

Do I just manually add?
3/28/2020 Hobbies Photography $1,000 (notes: refund by Instructor)

I THINK this reflects there would have been $2,450 of charges, but with the refund, my payment transfer from checking was only the net.

Is this how to do this? If I don’t do this, won’t my reports show I spent a $1,000 for my Hobbies that I never spent?

Thanks!!!

Larry

2

If the money was refunded to your credit card, you should already have a $1000 credit on 3/28/2020 on your billing statement. You should categorize the refund exactly the same as the original expense. The two transactions will net out to $0. This is accurate as you effectively spent nothing on the class due to it being comped, but the initial payment and the subsequent refund are both preserved on the record.

Your credit card payment should have two transactions and be categorized as a transfer of dollars -$1450 out of your bank account, and the second transaction of $1450 into your credit card account, reducing the balanced owed.

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