The statement, line by line · P&L lines 10, 11
Returns and refunds
Money handed back, on the day it was handed back.
Where it lives in nouz
The P&L, line 10, with its share of gross revenue on line 11.
Returns are the refunds a store issued: products and shipping, including VAT, booked on the day the refund happened rather than against the order it reverses. That day rule is what keeps a closed month closed, and it is the single most common place a store's own history quietly rewrites itself.
Netting a refund backwards against its original order feels tidier and is corrosive. Every time the current month bleeds, a past month improves, so no period ever settles and comparisons between them stop meaning anything. Booking the refund on the day it was issued keeps history still, at the cost of making the present month look exactly as expensive as it is.
The refund is also not the loss. Most goods come back saleable, so the refunded amount overstates the damage by their cost; and the parcel that shipped, the fee the gateway kept and the minutes at the returns bench are all real losses the refund never mentions. Netted out, the true cost of a return usually exceeds the margin the sale had earned.
A refund hands back its tax too, which is why VAT on a statement is computed on what was kept rather than on what was sold. Charging tax on gross revenue and subtracting refunds separately overstates both sides of the bridge.