Customer credit notes

Credit notes (known as ‘notes de crédit’ in Belgium) constitute an acknowledgement of a debt owed by the company to its customer.

Customer credit notes are useful for:

• dealing with an invoice issued in error: in this case, a credit note is issued for the amount of the invoice and the original invoice is cancelled;
• correcting an error in a previous invoice: in this case, the original invoice is left as it is, and the credit note is used to rectify the error;
• dealing with an overcharge on a customer invoice (for example, following a return of goods).

There are two ways to settle a credit note:

• the direct refund : recording a disbursement from the credit note list screen settles the relevant credit note.
• payment via a credit note : where an invoice is issued to a customer who has a credit note for an amount less than or equal to the invoice amount, the credit note can be used to settle the invoice.

Customer credit note management includes the features common to invoicing, and the specific features of customer invoicing.

//Access: Sales → Credit Notes //

The screen displays a list of all credit notes issued during the calendar year or financial year specified in the settings (if the start date of the financial year declared in the application settings is not 1 January).

Deleting a credit note is not permitted (unless a special privilege is granted, in which case the deletion would be archived).

The Settle button is used to settle the credit note directly, where applicable.

When you issue an invoice for a customer with an outstanding credit note, Gestan will alert you to this with a specific message.

===== ===== Customer Credit Note Record

The credit note record displays details that may be useful for the credit note.

In the event of a goods return or an incorrectly issued invoice, it is helpful for the credit note lines to include the product code of the returned goods or the original invoice lines. The same applies in the event of an error on the invoice (such as an incorrect item price). This ensures that sales statistics remain accurate.

Let’s take the example of a customer who buys six bottles of wine and returns the following day to return one bottle containing wine that has gone off. You issue them with a credit note for the amount of the bottle.

To issue this credit note, you can:

• use the New button in the credit note list
• use the menu Generate→Credit Note menu in the invoices list.

It is preferable to use the second option, which has the advantage of recording the links between the original invoice and the credit note in the Document genealogy e history of the document.

You can:

• either refund the credit note directly
• or use the credit note to settle a subsequent invoice from the same customer

The Pay button in the credit note list allows you to record that you have refunded the customer the amount of their credit note.

All that remains is for you to make the actual refund of the credit note directly to the customer, via bank transfer or cheque, or even in cash taken from the company’s petty cash account.

When settling an invoice, if the customer has an outstanding credit note, Gestan will offer to settle the invoice using the credit note.

However, the amount of the credit note must be less than (or equal to) the invoice amount.

If you select ‘Yes’, the payment screen will open, showing the invoice amount minus the credit note amount.

The status of the relevant credit note will then change to ‘Settled’, and the invoice payment details will show two lines: one for the credit note balance and the other for the standard payment.

If the customer has not yet paid your invoice, instead of a credit note, it is simpler to issue a corrective invoice referencing the invoice to be amended: right-clicking on the incorrect invoice allows you to mark it as cancelled; you can then simply issue a new one, explicitly mentioning the cancelled invoice (in the notes, for example). It is also possible, subject to the regulatory provisions in your country and your authorisation to amend invoices, to amend the original invoice and resubmit it to the customer, with the note “Cancels and replaces invoice XXXXX dated YY/MM/A”.

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