Credit notes

Correct or reduce an issued invoice with a credit note in Nordlet, with the books, the unpaid balance and the stock updated for you.

A credit note is a document that lowers the amount a customer owes on an invoice you already issued. You use one when goods come back, when you give a discount after the sale, or when the invoice had a mistake.

An issued invoice is never edited or deleted. It has a number, it is in your books and it may already be on a VAT return, the report of VAT you send to the tax office. The credit note makes the correction as a new document, so the history stays complete.

Nordlet makes credit notes the same way it makes invoices. This page explains what happens when you issue one.

What Nordlet does

Linked to the invoice. A credit note must name the invoice it corrects. An invoice in Nordlet must be for the same customer and in the same currency. An invoice issued outside Nordlet is named by its number and date.
Never more than the invoice. Nordlet refuses credit notes that together would be larger than the invoice total.
Part or all. You can credit one line, part of an amount, or the whole invoice.
Draft, then issue. A credit note starts as a draft. It gets its number when you issue it.
Own numbering. Document series are kept per document type, so credit notes can have their own prefix.
Booked at once. Issuing a credit note posts a journal entry and records its VAT, the same way an invoice does.
Balance reduced. The credit note is set against the unpaid balance of the invoice. If it covers the whole balance, the invoice becomes paid.

Returned goods

When you issue a credit note for an invoice that sold goods, you can choose to put the goods back into stock.
When a supplier sends you a credit note, you register it as a purchase credit note. You can take the returned goods out of your stock at the same time.

Sending a credit note

E-mail. Nordlet e-mails the issued credit note to the customer as a PDF.
Peppol. With your own access point, Nordlet sends credit notes over Peppol, a European network for e-invoices. See the Peppol guide.
Templates. You can save a credit note template with the lines you use often.

Paying money back

A credit note lowers what the customer owes. If the customer already paid, you may also need to give money back.

A refund paid from the bank can be matched to the issued credit note.
A cash disbursement can be recorded against an issued credit note.
When you import Stripe payments, every refund can become an issued credit note against its invoice. See the Stripe import guide.
Credit notes are not counted as money received in the list of payments on invoices.

Frequently asked questions

Can I delete an issued invoice instead?

No. Only a draft can be deleted. An issued invoice is corrected with a credit note.

Does a credit note change my accounts?

Yes. Issuing it posts a journal entry that reverses the credited amount, so your accounts receivable, the money customers owe you, goes down.

Can I issue several credit notes for one invoice?

Yes, as long as their total does not go above the invoice total.