Refunding an open balance refund gives money back to a customer who has overpaid or is due a refund. In NetSuite, you can pay a customer refund by issuing a check or by crediting a customer’s credit card account.
For example, a customer sends you a check to pay an invoice. You apply a discount to this invoice while entering the payment. The difference between the discounted total and the payment is an unapplied credit to the customer’s account.
This customer prefers to receive money back rather than having a credit applied to future invoices. You need to issue a customer refund to reimburse this customer.