Credit Notes

A credit note gives value back to a client, and it reduces what they owe on an invoice. It is the reverse of an invoice. An invoice creates a debt, and a credit note reduces or cancels it. Use one for goods that came back, a pricing or quantity error, damaged goods or a commercial gesture.

A credit note comes about in one of three ways:

• By hand. You write the note yourself against an invoice, for a correction or a gesture.
• Built from a return. After goods come back on a sales return, the return builds the note from the invoice that billed them. See A credit note built from a return.
• Written by a session’s close. When a register session closes, Beelocity writes and issues a note. The note covers goods brought back at the register that the session’s sales cannot absorb. Its Register session field names the session.

Every credit note names one invoice. It can credit the whole invoice or only part of it.

You do not write or issue a note from a session’s close. It moves no stock, because the goods already came back at the register. If the invoice cannot absorb the whole credit, the close records the rest as money paid back to the client. Leave such a note alone while its session reads Closing. If you cancel it before its refunds are paid out, the close stops and names the note.

Key Concepts

• A credit note reduces what a client owes, and it always names one invoice.
• A credit note line is one item on the note. On a note built from a return, each line also names the invoice line that it credits.
• A partial credit covers only some of the items or amounts of the invoice.
• A full credit covers the whole amount of the invoice.

Creating a Credit Note

If the goods came back on a sales return, let the return build the note: see A credit note built from a return.

You can start from an invoice. On a Sent, Partially paid, Paid or Past due invoice, choose Create credit note in More actions. The form opens on that invoice.

To write a credit note by hand from the list:

1. Open Sales > Credit Notes in the sidebar.
2. Click New. A new credit note page opens.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Credit note number opens on the next number of the series, such as CN-2026-000012. You can type another number that no credit note uses.
   • Invoice is the invoice that you credit. The list offers the invoices that were sent: Sent, Partially paid, Paid or Past due. Picking it fills in the client and the currency for you.
   • Client is who gets the credit. It is the invoice’s client, and you cannot change it.
   • Reason says why you give the credit: Return, Damage, Pricing error, Quantity error, Goodwill or Other.
   • Issue date is the date on the note, and the period that the tax falls in. It opens on today.
   • Currency is the invoice’s currency. You cannot change it, because the credit comes off that invoice’s balance.
   • Notes are for the client to read.
   • Internal notes are for your team only.
4. Press Add above the Lines, beside the form. Beelocity saves the note as a Draft with its number, and its first line opens (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead. You then land on the page of the draft.

Managing Credit Note Lines

To credit lines of the invoice, copy them. On a draft note that names its invoice, open More actions and click Copy the invoice’s lines. Beelocity adds each line of the invoice that the note does not credit yet, with its product, description, unit, price, tax and discount. Each line comes at the quantity that is left to credit, after any other note. Then lower a quantity or a price, or delete a line that you do not credit. A note made from the invoice’s Create credit note is the same: save it, then copy the lines.

If the invoice is still a Draft, it has billed nothing, so there is nothing to copy. Beelocity says so and names the invoice. Move the invoice to Sent first. A Cancelled or Void invoice billed nothing either, and the note cannot be issued against it. Pick an invoice that was sent instead.

To add a line of your own instead:

1. The note’s details are on the left of the page, and its Lines are on the right. They are there from the moment you click New. A saved credit note opens the same way when you click its number in the list.
2. Click Add for each item, then double-click a cell to change it:
   • Product is the product that you credit. Leave it empty for a free-text line, such as a charge that you give back with no goods behind it.
   • Description says what the credit is for, in the words that the client will read.
   • Quantity is how much you credit, for example 50 units returned out of 200 invoiced. If you choose a restock warehouse when you issue the note, it is also how much comes back to that warehouse.
   • Unit is one of the product’s active units, as its Units tab lists them. A product with no active unit takes any unit (Units of Measure).
   • Unit price is the value that you give back for one unit. It is normally what the client was charged.
   • Tax % is the tax rate that you give back on this line. It should match the invoice line.
   • Discount % is the discount that the invoice line carried. The credit comes down by it before tax, as the invoice did.
   • Total is what this line gives back with its tax. Beelocity works it out for you.
3. Beelocity also works out the note’s subtotal, tax and grand total. It rounds each line’s tax and total to the centime. The note’s grand total is the sum of its lines.

You can add or change lines only while the credit note is a Draft.

A copied line keeps its link to the invoice line, so the note cannot credit it past what the invoice billed. A line that you add yourself has no such link, so check its quantity and its price. The credit cannot take the invoice below zero, but any rest stays on the note and can be refunded.

A Credit Note Built from a Return

When a client sends goods back on a sales return, you do not type the credit note. Open the return after it is Received or Closed, and choose Create credit note in More actions. Beelocity finds the invoice that billed the returned goods, builds the note from it and opens it, ready to issue.

• Its lines are the returned lines, at the invoice’s own unit price, tax rate and discount. You price nothing by hand.
• It never credits more than the invoice billed. If part of what came back was never invoiced, or another note already credits it, only the rest goes on the note. A message says so.
• Its date is the return’s date, or the invoice’s date if that is later.
• It shows the return it came from, in its Sales return field.
• A return has one credit note. If you click Create credit note again, Beelocity says that the return is already credited and offers to open that note. To build the note again, cancel it first.
• Issuing it asks for no restock warehouse, because the return already put the goods back in stock.
• Issuing it also gives the units back to the order. The credited quantity no longer counts as invoiced on the sales order, so an order reopened for a replacement can be invoiced again. Cancelling the note counts that quantity back.
• The last note settles the line exactly. You can credit an invoice line a piece at a time. The note that credits the last of it takes what is left, so the notes give back exactly what the line billed.

If the returned goods were billed on more than one invoice, the return cannot build one note. Create a credit note from each invoice, and issue each one without a restock warehouse, because the return already put the goods back in stock. These notes are written by hand, so they do not change the invoiced quantity on the order.

Credit Note Workflow

A credit note has three statuses:

1. Draft

You are still writing the note, and it changes nothing yet. You can add, change or remove lines. Draft is the only status in which you can change a note.

2. Issued

Open the note. The road along the top of its page shows where it stands: Draft → Issued, the two steps of a normal credit note. Click Issued, the step that is waiting, and confirm in the dialog that opens. Rest on a step already passed to see when the note reached it and who moved it there.

Issuing does these things:

• It sets the credit against the original invoice. The invoice’s Amount due comes down by the note’s total, up to what the invoice still owes. The invoice then reads Partially paid or Paid.
• It closes the note. You can no longer change anything on it: not its lines, its reason, its date or its notes. To correct an issued note, cancel it and write a new one.

Issuing does not give the note to the client, because Beelocity sends nothing. Choose Download credit note in More actions, and give the file to the client yourself.

Beelocity refuses to issue a note with no line. It also refuses to issue a note built from a return in two cases:

• A line gives back more of an invoice line than that line billed, counting the other credit notes on it. The message says how much can still be credited, so lower that line’s quantity.
• The lines no longer match the return, because a quantity went above what came back, a line was added or a price changed. Delete the draft, and choose Create credit note on the return again.

If you wrote a Return or Damage note by hand, the dialog also offers a Restock warehouse, which you can leave empty. If you pick one, the goods on the note’s product lines go back into stock at that warehouse in the same step:

• Goods on a Return note come back as sellable stock, available again at once.
• Goods on a Damage note come back as Damaged stock. Beelocity records and traces them, but keeps them out of the sellable quantity.

Leave the warehouse empty to issue the credit without touching stock, for example if the goods never came back. Notes for Pricing error, Quantity error, Goodwill and Other never move stock. They change only the client’s balance.

3. Cancelled

Cancelling leaves the road, so you pick it from the list of moves. Click the step that the note is on, choose Cancelled and confirm. A draft that you no longer need closes with no effect.

You can also cancel an issued note, if you issued it by mistake. Cancelling reverses everything that issuing did:

• The credit goes back onto the invoice’s Amount due. The invoice’s status moves back with it, to Sent, Partially paid or straight to Past due if the due date has passed.
• Any goods that issuing put into stock leave stock again.
• On a note built from a return, the credited quantity counts as invoiced on the order again.

Beelocity refuses the cancellation in these cases:

• A refund has drawn on the credit. That money has already moved. If the refund payment is still a draft, remove its allocation first. If it is not, correct the balance with a new invoice.
• The restocked goods are no longer all there. Cancelling takes back exactly what issuing put into stock, from where it put it, and it never touches other stock of the same product. If some of those goods were sold, moved, adjusted or reserved since, a message says how many are left of how many went in. Correct the balance with a new invoice instead.
• The order was invoiced again for those goods. This applies to a note built from a return. If a replacement was shipped and invoiced, counting the credited goods as invoiced again would bill more than the order holds. A message gives both quantities, and you correct the balance with a new invoice.

Two people can have the same credit note open. If a colleague issued or cancelled the note after your page showed it, Beelocity refuses the step that you pick. A message asks you to refresh the page. So a credit is never applied twice, and restocked goods never go in or come out a second time.

Did you issue a credit note by mistake? Cancel it (see above) while nothing has used the credit or the restocked goods. If a refund drew on it or the goods moved on, correct the client’s balance with a new invoice. Name the wrong credit note in the notes of that invoice.

Credit Note Totals

Finding a Credit Note

The search box of the Credit notes list finds a note by its number. The filter button narrows the list by Reason, Status, Client, Invoice or Currency. It also takes a range of Issue date and a band of Total amount (see Working with lists).

Important Notes

• Each credit note must name an existing invoice and its client.
• You can change a credit note only while it is a Draft.
• An issued credit note changes what the client owes at once, so review it before you issue it. You can cancel it only while nothing has used the credit or the restocked goods.
• The credit comes off its invoice only up to what that invoice still owes. It never takes the invoice below zero, so Amount due stops at 0.00 DA. If the credit is larger, the rest stays on the note.
• If the invoice is already paid, or is a draft, cancelled or void, the note takes nothing off it and keeps its full value.
• To give the client what is left on a note, record an outgoing payment in Receipts & Payments and allocate it to the note.
• Use a credit note to correct an invoice that you sent. Beelocity keeps both documents, so the trail stays clear.
• If goods physically come back, record them on a sales return and let the return build the credit note. The goods then come back into stock once, and the credit matches what you billed.