Credit Notes

A credit note is a document issued to a client that reduces the amount they owe. It is the reverse of an invoice — while an invoice creates a financial obligation, a credit note reduces or cancels it. Credit notes are used to handle returns, pricing corrections, damaged goods, or any situation where a client is owed a refund or adjustment.

Each credit note is linked to the original invoice it adjusts. You can issue a full credit (reversing the entire invoice) or a partial credit (adjusting specific lines or amounts).

Key Concepts

• Credit Note — A formal document reducing a client’s outstanding balance, linked to a specific invoice.
• Credit Note Line — An individual item on the credit note, referencing the original invoice line being adjusted.
• Partial Credit — A credit note that covers only some of the items or amounts from the original invoice.
• Full Credit — A credit note that reverses the entire invoice amount.

Creating a Credit Note

When the goods have come back on a sales return, let the return build the note instead: see A credit note built from a return. To write a credit note by hand:

1. Navigate to Sales > Credit Notes in the sidebar.
2. Click New. This opens a new credit note page.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Credit Note Number — A unique identifier (e.g., CN-2026-0012).
   • Invoice — Select the original invoice being adjusted.
   • Client — The client receiving the credit. It is the invoice’s client and cannot be changed.
   • Reason — Why the credit is being issued (e.g., “Return”, “Pricing error”, “Damage”).
   • Issue Date — The date the credit note is issued.
   • Currency — The invoice’s currency, which cannot be changed: the credit comes straight off the invoice’s balance.
   • Notes — Any comments visible to the client.
   • Internal Notes — Private notes for your team.
4. Picking the invoice fills in the client and the currency for you. Then press Add above the Lines, beside the form. The credit note is saved in Draft status with its number, and its first line opens, ready to fill in (Adding lines before you save). To add the lines later, click Save instead: the credit note is stored in Draft status and you land on its page.

Managing Credit Note Lines

Add the items being credited:

1. The note’s details are on the left of the page and its Lines are beside them on the right, 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 edit it:
   • Product — The product being credited.
   • Description — What the credit is for, in the words the client will read.
   • Quantity — The quantity being credited (e.g., 50 units returned out of 200 invoiced).
   • Unit — One of the product’s units, as its Units tab lists them. A product with none listed takes any unit (Units of Measure).
   • Unit price — The credit per unit (typically matches the original invoice price).
   • Tax % — The applicable tax rate (should match the original line).
   • Discount % — The discount the original invoice line carried. The credit comes down by it before tax, as the invoice did.
3. Total is calculated for you, along with the note’s subtotal, tax and grand total. Each line’s tax and total are rounded to the centime and the note’s total is the sum of its lines, and the note that credits the last of an invoice line gives back what is left of it — so crediting a line a piece at a time returns exactly what it billed.

Lines can only be added or modified while the credit note is in Draft status.

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 received return and click Create credit note: 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 — nothing to price by hand.
• It never credits more than the invoice billed. If part of what came back was never invoiced, or is already credited by another note, only the rest goes on the note, and a message says so.
• It is dated on the return’s date, or the invoice’s if that is later.
• It shows the return it came from, in its Sales return field.
• A return has one credit note. Clicking Create credit note again says the return is already credited and offers to open that note. Cancel the note if it has to be built again.
• Issuing it asks for no restock warehouse: the goods are already back in stock through the return. Issuing also counts the credited quantity as no longer invoiced on the sales order, so an order reopened for a replacement can be invoiced again; cancelling the note counts it back.

If the returned goods were billed on more than one invoice, the return cannot build a single note: create a credit note from each invoice, and issue each one without a restock warehouse, since the return already put the goods back in stock.

Credit Note Workflow

A credit note has a short, deliberate lifecycle with three statuses:

1. Draft

The credit note has been created but not finalized. You can add, edit, or remove lines. Draft is the only status where changes are possible.

2. Issued

Open the note and the road along the top of its page shows where it has got to: Draft → Issued, the two steps of a credit note that does its job. Issued is the step waiting, so click it to book the credit against the original invoice. Issuing reduces the invoice’s amount due by the credit total and locks the credit note’s content — lines can no longer be edited. Rest on a step already passed to see when it was reached and by whom.

Issuing is refused when the note’s lines give back more of an invoice line than that line billed, counting the other credit notes raised against it; the message says how much can still be credited there. A note built from a return is also refused once its lines no longer match the return — a quantity raised past what came back, a line added, or a price changed. Delete the draft and click Create credit note on the return again.

For Return and Damage credit notes written by hand, the issue dialog also offers an optional restock warehouse. Pick one and the goods on the note’s product lines re-enter stock at that warehouse in the same step:

• Goods on a Return note come back as sellable stock, immediately available again.
• Goods on a Damage note are booked into stock as Damaged — recorded and traceable, but held out of the sellable quantity.

Leave the warehouse empty to issue the credit without touching inventory (for example when the goods were never returned). Credit notes for pricing errors, quantity errors, or goodwill never move stock — they adjust the client’s balance only.

3. Cancelled

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. A draft that is no longer needed simply closes with no effect.

An issued note can also be cancelled, as the correction path for a credit issued in error. Cancelling reverses everything issuing did: the credit applied to the invoice is restored to its amount due (its status rolls back accordingly, including straight to Past due when the due date has passed), and any goods restocked at issue leave stock again. Three conditions protect the books — the cancellation is refused if any of them fails:

• No refund has drawn on the credit. If a refund payment was allocated against the note’s remaining balance, that money already moved; remove the allocation first, or correct the balance with a new invoice.
• The restocked goods are still there. Cancelling takes back exactly what issuing put into stock, from where it put it — other stock of the same product is never touched. If some of those goods were since sold, moved, or adjusted, the cancellation is refused with a message saying how many are still there against how many were restocked; correct with a new invoice instead.
• A note built from a return: the order has not been invoiced again for those goods. Once a replacement has been shipped and invoiced, counting the credited goods back as invoiced would invoice the sales order for more than was ordered, so the cancellation is refused with a message giving both quantities.

Two people can have the same credit note open. If it has moved on since your page showed it — a colleague issued it, or cancelled it — the step you pick is refused with a message asking you to refresh the page. So a credit is never applied twice, and restocked goods never go back in or come out a second time.

Issued a credit note by mistake? Cancel it (see above) while nothing has consumed the credit or the restocked goods. Once something has — a refund drew on it, or the goods moved on — correct the client’s balance with a new invoice instead, referencing the erroneous credit note in its notes.

Credit Note Totals

Finding a Credit Note

The Credit Notes list searches by number, and its filter button narrows it by Reason, Status, Client, Invoice, Currency, an Issue Date range or a Total band (see Working with lists).

Important Notes

• Each credit note must be linked to an existing invoice and client.
• Credit note lines can only be edited while in Draft status.
• Issued credit notes affect the client’s outstanding balance immediately — review carefully before issuing. Cancellation remains possible only while nothing has consumed the credit or the restocked goods.
• The credit is applied to its linked invoice up to that invoice’s outstanding balance — it will never reduce an invoice below zero (its Amount Due stops at 0.00 DA). If the credit is larger than what the invoice still owes, the leftover stays available on the credit note as remaining credit, which can be refunded to the client later. A credit note applied to an invoice that is already paid (or not yet sent) keeps its full value available.
• Use credit notes instead of deleting or modifying invoices — this maintains a clear audit trail.
• If goods are being physically returned, record them on a sales return and let the return build the credit note, so the goods come back into stock once and the credit matches what was billed.