--- title: "Supplier Debit Notes" description: "A supplier debit note records money a supplier owes you — the mirror image of the credit notes you issue to customers, but on the purchasing side." --- > Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beelocity.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Supplier Debit Notes A **supplier debit note** records money a supplier owes *you* — the mirror image of the credit notes you issue to customers, but on the purchasing side. You raise one when goods went back to the supplier on a [supplier return](./supplier-returns.html), or when a supplier's bill charged a wrong price or quantity, and it becomes the document you lean on to get that money back: first by reducing what you still owe on their [bill](./supplier-invoices.html), then by collecting the rest as a refund in [Treasury](../treasury/receipts-and-payments.html). ## Key Concepts - **Debit note** — A document stating the supplier owes your organization a specific amount, with a reason (return, damage, pricing error, quantity error, or other). Numbered in its own SDN series (e.g., SDN-2026-000001). - **Linked bill** — Optionally, the supplier invoice the note nets when issued. A note can also exist without a bill — for example when the return shipped before the supplier ever invoiced you. - **Applied / Remaining** — *Applied* is how much of the note has already been used (netted against the bill, or refunded through Treasury); *Remaining* is what is still to collect. Both are maintained automatically — you never edit them. ## When to Raise One The most common trigger is a shipped return. Say you received 10 units at 2,000 DA each and paid — or were billed — 20,000 DA. Four units turn out defective, you [create a return and ship it](./supplier-returns.html). The goods are gone, but the 8,000 DA they were worth is still with the supplier: the debit note is how you claim it. The other trigger is a billing error with no physical return: the supplier billed 2,200 DA instead of the agreed 2,000 DA, or 12 units instead of 10. Raise a note by hand for the difference, with **Pricing error** or **Quantity error** as the reason. ## Raising a Note from a Return 1. Open the **shipped** supplier return and click **Raise Debit Note**, under **More actions** at the bottom of its page. 2. Beelocity prices the note for you: each returned quantity at its purchase-order line price, in the order's currency. Four units returned from a line bought at 2,000 DA gives a subtotal of 8,000 DA. 3. A **draft** note is created and you land on it, ready to review. Two guardrails apply: - Only a **shipped** return can be credited — before that, nothing has actually left your stock. - A return carries **at most one live note**. If you need to correct one, cancel it first and raise a new one — the same goods are never credited twice. You can also start from scratch: open **Procurement > Supplier Debit Notes** and click **New**. Pick the supplier, the reason, the currency, and enter the amounts yourself. ## Editing the Draft While the note is a **Draft** it has no financial effect and everything is editable: - **Supplier Invoice** — link the bill this note should net. The picker lists the chosen supplier's bills with their outstanding balance. Leave it empty if no bill exists yet. - **Subtotal** and **Tax** — the credit before tax and its tax portion. The **Total** is always their sum, computed for you. - **Notes** — remarks shared with the supplier — and **Internal Notes**, which stay in-house. A draft can be deleted, or cancelled, at any time. ## Issuing — What Happens to the Bill Open the note and the road along the bottom of its page shows where it has got to: **Draft → Issued**, the two steps of a debit note that does its job. **Issued** is the step waiting, so click it to put the note in force. This is where the money moves: - If a bill is linked, the note nets it **immediately** — the bill's amount due drops as if a payment had settled it, and its status rolls to *Partially paid* or *Paid* accordingly. - The netting is **capped at the bill's outstanding balance**. A 8,000 DA note against a bill that only owes 5,000 DA applies 5,000 DA and keeps 3,000 DA available on the note. - The bill must be in a payable state (approved, or partially paid) to absorb anything — otherwise the note is issued with its full amount left available. - Whatever the bill could not absorb — or the whole total, when no bill is linked — stays on the note as its **Remaining** balance. An issued note can no longer be edited. ## Collecting the Remainder — the Refund The remaining balance is real money the supplier must send back, and it is collected in [Treasury](../treasury/receipts-and-payments.html): 1. Record an inbound **receipt** from the supplier for the refunded amount. 2. On its **Allocations** tab, choose **Debit note** as the target and pick the issued note. 3. Confirm the receipt — the cash lands in your treasury account and the note's *Applied* amount rolls up. An allocation can never draw more than the note's remaining balance, and only an **issued**, active note can be drawn on. ## Cancelling Cancelling leaves the road, so it is picked off the map rather than on it: click the step the note is standing on and choose **Cancelled**. Cancelling a **draft** simply voids it — nothing had happened yet. Cancelling an **issued** note reverses what issuing did: the amount it applied to the bill is restored to the bill's amount due. This correction is only possible while no refund receipt has drawn on the note — once refund cash has moved, remove that allocation first (or leave the note in place). ## Finding a Note The **Supplier Debit Notes** list searches by number, and its filter button narrows it by **Reason**, **Status**, **Supplier**, an **Issue Date** range, a **Total** or **Applied** band, or **Active** (see [Working with lists](../getting-started/working-with-lists.html#narrowing-the-list)). The *Remaining* column is worked out from the other two and is not a filter. ## Statuses | Status | Meaning | | ------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Draft** | Being prepared — amounts, supplier, and the linked bill can still be edited. No financial effect yet. The only status a note can be deleted in. | | **Issued** | In force. The linked bill was netted immediately (capped at its balance); the remainder is refundable through Treasury. Set by taking the note's Issued step, never by hand. | | **Cancelled** | Withdrawn. An issued note's bill application was reversed. Refused while a refund receipt has drawn on the note. | ## Important Notes - Debit notes share their access rights with purchase orders and supplier invoices — the same team that manages the money leg of purchasing. - The note's currency must match the linked bill's currency to issue, and any refund receipt must be in the note's currency. - The supplier's own paperwork for the same credit is often called an *avoir fournisseur* — record its reference in the note's notes so both sides' documents can be traced. Source: https://docs.beelocity.com/en/procurement/supplier-debit-notes/index.mdx