What is a credit memo?
Credit memos are documents that reduce the amount due of an invoice. The difference between issuing a credit memo and editing an existing invoice is that a credit memo doesn’t void or replace the original invoice. Some examples of when you might use a credit memo include:
You under-delivered on your invoice (e.g. low inventory, spoiled goods, or issues with delivery)
You’d like to show goodwill to your customers (e.g. loyalty reward, or discounts)
Your customer overpays an invoice (e.g. a double payment)
You overbilled a customer (e.g. duplicate invoice sent, or data entry error on an invoice)
A credit note reduces the amount due without recording any payment. However, if a credit note reduces the balance of an open invoice to 0, the invoice status changes to paid.
This article covers how to create and issue credit memos. To learn how to apply them to a future invoice, reference this article on applying credit memos. For more on handling prepaid and overpaid income, see customer overpayments and prepayments.
How to create credit memos
There are several ways to create credit memos:
Navigate to Settings and select Credit Memos.
Navigate to Invoices, and select Credit Memos.
In the Ledger, select the “New” button, and choose Credit Memos
Navigate to Customers, select a customer you’d like to issue a credit memo to, then select “Add Credit Memo”.
When creating a new credit memo:
Select the customer you’d want to issue a credit memo to
Enter the amount you’d want to credit
Enter the date for the credit memo
Optionally, add a description as the reason for the credit memo
Tag the credit memo with any tags you’d want to credit from
After creating the credit memo, you can download the credit memo by clicking the download icon, or through the more menu. Additionally, there’s an option to print the credit memo from there.
View credit memos balances
There are several ways to see your credit memos balance at any given time:
Navigate to Settings and select Credit Memos. The Open tab will list all your open credit memos, and you’ll find the total balance of your open credit memos next to the New button.
Navigate to Accounts and select Credit Memos under Accrued Assets.
You can also view the credit memo balance per customer by navigating to the specific contact, and viewing their details.
Cancel a credit memo
To cancel a credit memo, click on the more menu icon on an open credit memo, and select cancel credit memo. Note that only open credit memos can be canceled.
Any canceled credit memos can be found in the “Canceled” tab. This tab can only be seen if you have canceled credit memos.
FAQs
What if an invoice is short-paid or uncollectible, and I want to clear it without collecting the remaining balance?
The cleanest approach is to write off the difference using a credit memo categorized as Bad Debt. That will allow the invoice to show as paid in full without creating additional pending payments.
Here are the steps:
1) Create a Bad Debt category
Go to Settings → Categories → Add Category.
Add a new category called Bad Debt and set it as an operating expense.
2) Create a Credit Memo for the short-paid amount
Go to Invoices → Credit Memos → New.
Select the correct customer/entity and enter the short amount (for example, $0.50 or $60).
When prompted for a category, select Bad Debt.
3) Apply the Credit Memo to the invoice
Still under the Credit Memos tab, find the credit memo you just created.
Click the three dots on the right → Apply credit memo → apply it to the corresponding invoice.
Once applied, the invoice should show as paid in full, and the remaining balance will be properly recorded as bad debt rather than continuing to appear as a pending payment.