Credits

A credit note is a document sent to the client, notifying that a credit has been provided to their account. Credit notes are used to issue redeemable credits for a specific Product or for a flat rate. Credits can be applied to invoices as a payment.

Note that choosing the right Payment Settings is vital to make credits intuitive and useful to your customers, see https://invoiceninja.github.io/en/basic-settings/#payment_settings.

Viewing a Credit

Simply select a credit from the list to see its details. In the mobile layout you will be taken directly to the credit view. When you select a credit from the list in a desktop layout the credit preview will appear on the left hand side.

You can Edit the credit from anywhere in the credit view via a button in the top right of the viewing panel. Ther are two buttons at the bottom of the view panel: View PDF in order to load a PDF of the credit directly from the admin portal, or Email Credit to email the client contacts a link to view the PDF for their available credit from the client portal.

The Kebab menu in the uppermost right corner of the credit view presents many functions to work with or manipulate the credit, which can vary based on the state of the credit. You can change the status of the credit's lifecycle manually, clone the credit, Enter a Payment against an invoice with the selected credit, and more.

Overview

General information about the credit can be found in the overview panel. The full amount of the credit, credit remaining, which client it is assigned to, the date of the credit, and the line items describing what the credit is for.

Contacts

Here you see the contacts from your client that are marked as included in the credit. Included contacts will get a copy of the emails sent, and will be able to view the credit from the client portal when they sign in.

Also available are links to the client portal for each respective contact included.

Documents

Upload pictures or documents to your credit, to include for your client. Uploaded files can be viewed and accessed by the client through the client portal.

History

The History panel presents a chronological overview of transactions related to the credit, and shows you any changes made to the credit total amount, and by which users.

Activity

The Activity panel presents a chronological overview of any actions performed against the credit, including when it was created, edited, deleted, etc, and which user performed the action.

Creating or Editing a Credit

There are several fields available when filling a credit, and the view when creating or editing a credit is broken down a little differently depending on whether you are viewing things with the mobile layout, or desktop layout. In the desktop layout, all of the panels described below are presented at the same time on one big screen and laid out a little differently.

You can also create a credit directly from a invoice. For instance if you need to create a credit for an entire invoice, instead of retyping the entire document you can clone the invoice to a credit an example is included in the video below:

Details

The Details panel includes the most basic information about the credit:

Contacts

Contacts has it's own panel in the mobile view, while in desktop view this is shown directly under the Client field after you have selected a client.

This section simply presents a list of contacts available from a client record, and allows you to check or uncheck any contacts, to include or exclude them from the credit. Included contacts will be able to access the credit from the client portal, and will receive emails about the credit when they are sent.

Items

Here you see a list of the line items included on the credit. You can add a Product to the credit for your client, or a simple line item for a flat rate credit. When you simply want to give a flat rate credit for whatever reason, just leave the Product field empty, and only add a line item Description and Unit Cost. Each item on the list will have these fields available:

Notes

All under one panel in the mobile layout, these options each have their own tabs at the bottom of the credit screen when in desktop layout:

Lifecycle of a credit

Draft

The Draft status is the first status in the lifecycle of a credit. In this status, changes can be made to the credit and the credit is hidden completely from the client. Draft credits are inactive until either emailed to the client or marked as sent.

Once a draft credit has been emailed/marked as sent its status cannot be changed back to draft.

Sent

A credit is marked as sent when it has been emailed to the client or marked as Sent in the admin panel.

Note - A credit cannot be applied to an invoice, and does not actually get linked to the client until after it is marked as Sent.

Partial

A credit is marked with Partial when some of the credit has been applied to an invoice, but some still remains. A credit marked Partial will show the remaining credit balance available in the overview panel.

Note - There is no way to refund a credit payment that has been applied to an invoice. The only way to "return" a credit that has been applied, is to Reverse an invoice. If a payment and a credit are applied to an invoice, and you want to refund the amount paid, you should refund the payment first, then reverse the invoice after. When you reverse an invoice, the remaining balance paid whether through a credit, or a payment, is converted into a new credit.

Applied

When a credit is marked Applied the full balance of the credit has been consumed and applied to one or more invoices on the client's account.

Deleted

What happens when a credit is deleted?

Archived

Archiving a credit simply removes the credit from the credit list view. Archiving a credit keeps your list views clean and tidy.

When a credit is archived no further modifications can be made to the credit. To modify the credit you will need to Restore the credit first.

Restored

Restoring a credit from the archived or deleted state will set the credit back to its previous state prior to archiving.

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