Credit Notes — User Guide

Who can use Credit Notes

Your workspace must have Invoices installed first, then the Credit Notes module (both free from Marketplace). Marketplace blocks installing Credit Notes until Invoices is entitled. Your role must include the relevant permissions (view, create, update, delete, restore, force.delete, assign, issue, apply, void, refund as needed).

Without assign, you only see credit notes assigned to you.

Not the same as Central Billing → credit notes. This module credits your own customers' invoices. The platform's own Central-side credit note ledger (in the platform admin, not here) tracks credits the platform issues to your workspace against its own module-subscription invoices.

List & table

Open Credit Notes from the sidebar (Billing, after Payments). Search by title or number, filter by status or assignee, toggle My credit notes, and switch KPI cards (Total, Mine, Draft, Issued, Applied, Applied total) to quick-filter the table.

• Users with restore can filter Active / Include deleted / Deleted only, then Restore a soft-deleted credit note from the row menu
• Delete permanently requires credit-notes.force.delete — granted to the workspace owner by default

Create a credit note

1. Click New credit note
2. Pick the invoice to credit — the invoice's total and balance due are shown for reference; currency follows the selected invoice
3. Enter a title, issue date, and notes
4. Add line items (description, quantity, unit price, tax rate) — subtotal, tax, and total are calculated automatically
5. Optionally link a contact or company (when Contacts/Companies is installed — New creates and selects inline when you have create permission) — defaults to the invoice's own contact/company if left blank
6. Optionally set an assignee (requires assign)
7. Save

You can also jump to Credit Notes from an invoice's detail view — the Credit notes link filters the table to credit notes issued against that invoice.

Edit from the row menu or the record page while the credit note is still Draft. Editing replaces the full line-item list. After Issue, content is locked; use status actions and assignment instead.

Status workflow

A credit note starts in Draft. Move it forward with:

• Issue (draft → issued) — locks the credit note's content and sets the issue date to today if it wasn't set
• Apply (issued → applied) — adds the credit note's total to the invoice's amount credited and reduces its balance due, which can also advance the invoice to Paid when the balance reaches zero. Blocked if the invoice is not currently unpaid/open for credit, or if the credit note's total exceeds the invoice's current balance due. When Accounting is installed, Apply also posts Dr Sales Revenue / Cr Accounts Receivable for the credit total
• Refund (applied → refunded) — reverses the credit on the linked invoice (subtracts from amount credited, recalculates balance / status) and voids any linked apply journal when Accounting is installed. Terminal; requires credit-notes.refund
• Void — available from Draft or Issued only; permanently cancels the credit note before it has been applied. Once Applied, use Refund instead

Invalid transitions (e.g. applying a draft credit note, voiding an applied one, or refunding an issued one) are rejected with a validation error.

Assignment

Users with assign can set or clear the assignee from the record page or the create/edit form. The assignee receives an in-app notification when someone else assigns them.

PDF & email

After you Issue a credit note, use Download PDF on the record page for a branded PDF (workspace branding, credit note number, lines, totals, and linked invoice).

Users with issue can Email customer — same dialog pattern as invoices/payments. The To field pre-fills from the linked contact or company email when available; you can add CC recipients and edit the subject/message. Issued and applied credit notes support PDF download and email. Delivery uses your workspace email configuration and appears in Settings → Email logs.

Notes & activity

• Notes — free-form notes on the credit note
• Activity — timeline of create, update, assignment, issue, apply, refund, void, note, emailed, and delete/restore events

Related invoice

Every credit note record page shows the Invoice it was issued against, with a link to jump straight to that invoice's detail view.

Ask EloSync

With the AI Assistant module installed, Ask EloSync can fetch a credit note and propose status changes, assignments, or timeline notes. Nothing is saved until you confirm the suggestion. Issuing needs issue; applying needs apply; voiding needs void; refunding needs refund (Ask EloSync cannot move a credit note back to draft). See AI Assistant.

What's not here yet

Standalone credit notes not tied to an invoice and multi-currency conversion are planned but not part of this module yet — see the Product Roadmap.