Credit notes, refunds, returns and write-offs

Sometimes part of a sale has to be undone. Something came back, something was charged wrong, something was promised as a gesture — or the money is simply never going to arrive.

Credit notes are a section of Sales → Payments & credits in the sidebar, alongside the payments they offset. They are still their own numbered, printable documents with their own numbering, list, filters and export.

There are two documents for this and they say different things, which is why there are two:

• A credit note says you do not owe this. The sale was wrong, or part of it came back.
• A write-off says you do owe this, and we are not going to get it. The sale was right; what has been lost is the money.

Neither of them is voiding. Voiding says the document never existed, which stops being true the moment somebody has paid it, filed it, or reported on it.

Issuing a credit note

From an invoice, Issue credit opens the line picker: tick what is being credited, how many of each, and — where goods are involved — what state each line came back in.

The condition is asked per line on purpose. Three of four candles coming back fine and one coming back cracked is an ordinary return, and a form that made you pick one answer for all four would leave your shelf wrong.

Turn Put the goods back into stock off entirely when the buyer keeps what they have — a goodwill credit, a pricing correction, a marketplace refund.

A line already credited in full is shown struck through rather than hidden, so it is clear it was dealt with and not simply forgotten. Nothing can be credited twice.

Where the money goes — and when

Issuing a credit note settles the goods. Where the money goes is a separate decision you can make later, in pieces, or not at all:

• Apply it to an invoice. The invoice's balance goes down; an invoice cleared entirely by credit is Paid, because the client owes nothing and nobody should be chasing it.
• Leave it on the account. Unspent credit sits on the client's credit balance, ready for their next invoice. This is the default: issuing a note puts the whole amount there.
• Refund it. The money goes back. Through the payment processor when the original was paid online — the card is actually credited — or recorded as cash, bank transfer or other when you moved the money yourself.

Half applied and half refunded is normal. A credit note always adds up: total = applied + refunded + still on account.

Client credit

The client page shows what they hold and what they owe. Credit history opens the ledger behind the balance: every movement, in order, each showing the balance it produced — so "why does this client have £42 of credit?" is a list rather than an argument.

Credit goes on the account when a credit note is issued, and when somebody pays more than they owed. It comes off when it is applied or refunded.

One payment, several invoices

Money does not always arrive one invoice at a time. Somebody clears three months with a single transfer; somebody pays a round number on account before anything has been invoiced.

Record payment on the client page takes the amount that arrived and lets you put it against however many of their open invoices it settles. Leave the boxes empty and it goes against what they owe, oldest first. Anything left over becomes credit on their account rather than being refused — an over-payment is a fact, not a mistake.

A payment recorded from an invoice still behaves exactly as it always did.

Writing off a bad debt

Write off on an invoice records the balance as a bad debt. The invoice stops chasing and shows as Written off.

What it does not do is reduce what you sold. The sale happened, the revenue was real, and what you lost is the money — so the amount is reported as a bad-debt expense rather than as a correction to the sale. That is the whole difference from a credit note, and it is the difference an accountant cares about.

Owners and admins only. If the money turns up after all, Reverse write-off brings the balance back; a late payment does not quietly undo it by itself, because the write-off was reported as an expense and undoing that should be a decision.

Marketplace refunds

When a platform you also sell on refunds a buyer, the money never passes through OrderDen — the platform took it and the platform gave it back. Record it as a credit note with reason Marketplace refund so the books show it.

Leave Put the goods back into stock off: that kind of refund usually means "keep it", and putting stock back that never came back would be a lie your shelf pays for. If the buyer did post it back, issue a return for the goods.

Returns and your shelf

Quarantined stock is counted in what you own and what it is worth, and excluded from what is available to sell — the same treatment curing stock gets, and for the same reason. See Inventory & stock.

Reporting

Credits and refunds (Reports) groups the period by reason, with what was applied, what was refunded and what is still on account, plus the credit rate against what you sold. Bad debt written off sits alongside rather than inside it — a bad debt is not a return, and mixing the two would make one look like the other.