Deposit Returns (Empty Bottles and Crates)

When a customer returns refundable empty bottles or crates, you can pay them cash or use the return value towards their purchase. This works in both ROBOTILL Retail and Restaurant, using Refund Item.

1. Set up your empty-bottle product

1. In ROBOTILL Back Office, go to Home > Products and Stock > Products and click New.
2. Enter a clear description, such as Empty 750 ml bottle, and a stock code, such as EMPTY750. Click Create this product. Create a separate product for each bottle or crate type with a different refund value. Leave it as an ordinary product; do not make it a compound item.
3. Under Product Prices, enter a positive price equal to the refund for one bottle or crate. For example, if you refund R2 per bottle, enter 2.00. Select a tax item with a 0% tax rate. If you need to add one, follow the Tax Setup guide.
4. Under Product Information, set Should this item be counted? to Yes if you want to track the empty bottles in stock, or No - Ignore Stock Levels if you do not. Keep full drinks and empty bottles as separate products.

Back Office saves your changes automatically. The product setup guide has screenshots of these settings.

Previously used a negative-price product for empties? Change its price to the positive refund value and check the settings above. Process empties through Refund Item instead of adding that product as a negative sale item.

2. Return empties while buying goods

1. Add the customer's purchases to the sale as usual, then open Menu > Refund Item.
2. Tick Deposit return (empty bottles / crates). Scan or enter the empty-bottle product's stock code or description. Enter the number of bottles or crates in Qty to Return and check Amount to Refund. Use whole quantities, such as 5 bottles.
3. Leave Discard Stock set to No for bottles you are accepting into stock. Click Refund, choose Apply to current sale under Refund Using, then click Process Refund.
4. If they return another bottle type, repeat the refund steps for that product before taking payment. Then complete payment for the sale. The return value covers part or all of the purchase. If the returns are worth more than the goods, ROBOTILL tells you how much cash to pay the customer.

You do not need to create a customer account to apply returns to a purchase. Any tip is paid separately.

Examples

Goods purchased	Empties returned	What to do
R100	R30	Collect R70 from the customer.
R30	R30	No further payment is needed.
R20	R30	Pay the customer a R10 cash refund.

3. Return empties without buying anything

Open Menu > Refund Item, tick Deposit return (empty bottles / crates), select the product and enter the quantity. Click Refund, select Cash, then click Process Refund. Pay the customer the amount shown and click OK.

You do not need an original sale receipt. If the customer wants to keep the value in their customer account, choose Account instead of Cash.

Stock and cancelled purchases

If stock counting is enabled and Discard Stock is No, accepted returns increase the empty-bottle product's quantity. You can count those bottles through the existing stocktake and stock-adjustment options, including when bottles are sent back to a supplier.

Returns applied to a purchase are accepted only when the sale's payment completes. Cancelling the payment window keeps them on that sale. To remove them, reopen Refund Item and click Remove applied returns. Voiding the sale removes them automatically. Complete or remove applied returns before suspending the sale, converting it to another document or doing cash-up.

The receipt shows the returns, credit used and any cash refund paid. In the Refunds report, these transactions are labelled Deposit return. If you use accounting exports, see the deposit-return account mappings.