Issue a credit note
When a draft credit note is ready, issue it: it takes its number and reduces the invoice it corrects.
Before you start
Section titled “Before you start”You need Credit Note Edit. The draft needs a reason, a description if that reason is Other, and at least one line.
- Open the draft credit note.
- Select Issue.
- Read the confirmation, then select Issue credit note to confirm.
What happens next
Section titled “What happens next”The credit note takes its number (starting CN-) and is applied to its own invoice straight away, up
to what the invoice still owes. On an invoice that is already paid, nothing is applied there and all
of the credit remains for other uses. Once
issued, the credit note cannot be edited or deleted, only cancelled.
If the credit note’s amount is more than the invoice needed, the rest becomes Remaining — shown on the credit note alongside its Applied and Refunded totals — and it belongs to the account as spare credit. From here you can:
- Select Apply to invoices on the credit note to spread the remaining amount across the account’s other open invoices in the same currency, oldest due first by default, and adjustable per invoice.
- Tick it under Available credits the next time you record a payment on another of that account’s invoices.
- Select Refund on the credit note to pay it back to the customer.
Rules to know
Section titled “Rules to know”- A refund cannot exceed what the original invoice actually received. If that invoice was never paid, its credit note can only be applied to another invoice, not refunded.
- Applying to another invoice needs Invoice Edit on that invoice too — a role limited to its own records can still use a credit note there, as long as the invoice it applies to is its own.
- An allocation can be reversed with Unapply, which needs a reason — except the one a void creates automatically, which is locked because it exists only to cancel that invoice.
- If your connection drops while you apply credit, it is safe to try again: the credit is applied only once.