An authorised credit note says the customer is owed an amount. The Refunds tab on the credit note is where you settle it, and you have three choices per row:

• Refund to a bank account — cash goes back to the customer.
• Link to Invoice — the credit pays down an authorised invoice for the same customer, in the same currency, that still has a balance. It doesn't have to be on the same sale.
  ✏ Updated after full article audit (15 Oct 2026): Corrected. Link to Invoice isn't limited to the same sale.
• Refund to Credit — the amount is parked as a Customer Credit, a balance the customer can spend on any future invoice.

You can mix them: refund part, allocate part, hold the rest as credit. A credit note is Refunded once its full total has been settled one way or another.

This article covers settling a credit note, the limits on each row, and how customer credits are later redeemed.

Before you start

• The credit note must be Authorized or Refunded. The Refunds tab is hidden on a draft.
• Sale — Billing full access (SaleBillingFA) to add, edit or delete refund rows; read-only users can view them.
• For a cash refund, the bank account the money is paid from. Chart of accounts (link pending: admin article)

Settle a credit note

1. Open the Refunds tab

Open the credit note and click the Refunds tab. The tab header shows Total Refunded; the Financial Summary shows Total, Refunded and Amount Due (what's still unsettled).

If the sale had open invoices when you authorised, you may already have allocation rows here from the Apply credit note? prompt — see Issuing a credit note.

2. Add a row

Click Add refund. A row appears dated today. Click Refund Via (Select refund via...) and choose from the grouped list:

• Bank Accounts — a cash refund from the selected account.
• Link to Invoice — an Authorized invoice for the same customer and currency with an outstanding balance. The row shows Invoice: ‹number›.
• Refund to Credit — creates a customer credit for the amount. Shows as Customer Credit.

Once saved, the destination is locked — The refund destination cannot be changed — delete this refund and add a new one.

3. Enter the amount and details

• Amount — positive, and capped (see below). It defaults to what's still available on the credit note.
• Date — required; no more than 7 days in the future.
• Reference — the bank transaction or remittance reference (optional).
• Conversion Rate — foreign-currency sales only; must be 1 on a base-currency sale.

4. Save

Click Save. Total Refunded updates; when it reaches the credit note Total, the status becomes Refunded. Each refund is posted according to its type. Refunds can't be dated more than a week in the future.

Cap rules

Each refund row is limited by two ceilings, and VentryHub applies the tighter one:

1. The credit note. All rows together can't exceed the credit note total — Refunds cannot exceed the credit note total. A row's maximum is the total less every other row.
2. The invoice (Link to Invoice only). A row allocated to an invoice can't exceed that invoice's remaining due — Amount cannot exceed the invoice due amount (‹due›). Several rows can point at the same invoice; together they're limited to its due.

Bank refunds and Refund to Credit rows are bounded only by the credit note. There's no rule tying a cash refund to how much the customer actually paid on the original invoice — if you want to avoid refunding cash for an invoice that was never paid, use Link to Invoice instead.

Edit or delete a refund row

Amount, date and reference stay editable while the credit note is Authorized or Refunded; Refund Via doesn't. Delete a row with the row action and Save — the allocated invoice's balance or the customer credit is released accordingly. A Refund to Credit row can't be deleted once any of its customer credit has been used.

All refund rows must be deleted before the credit note can be undone or voided (There are refunds recorded for this credit note. Please delete them first.).

Customer credits

A Customer Credit is a balance you owe the customer. It is created by:

• a Refund to Credit row on a credit note, or
• an advance payment recorded on a sale, or
• money received under Banking → Money Received with Type Customer Credit (for example an overpayment).
  ✏ Updated after full article audit (15 Oct 2026): Added Money Received as a source of customer credits.

Viewing credits

Go to Sale → Invoicing & Payments → Customer Credits. Each row shows Customer, Created In (SO#… for an advance payment, CN#… for a credit note), Date, Initial Amount and Remaining Amount. Search by source document; filter by date or amount range; save and share filters.

Redeeming a credit

Customer credits are spent as payments on invoices. On any Authorized invoice for that customer, open the Payments tab, click Add payment, and under Paid Via → Customer Credits choose the credit. The amount is capped at the credit's Remaining Amount (Amount cannot exceed the available balance (‹max›).). Save, and the credit's Remaining Amount falls by the amount applied. See Recording a payment.

A credit can also be used directly as a credit note: on an invoice's Payments tab, Paid Via → Credit Notes lists authorised credit notes with an unapplied balance for the customer. Both lists can appear, but nothing is offered twice: a Refund to Credit row reduces the credit note's own balance by the amount moved into the customer credit.

Paying out a credit later

To pay a customer credit back — whether it came from a credit note or an advance payment — create a Customer Credit Refund under Banking → Customer Credit Refund (or use the Refund action on the credit itself), which pays the credit out to a bank account. It needs Banking full access rather than a sales permission. For a credit note credit that hasn't been used at all, you can instead reopen the credit note's Refunds tab and replace the Refund to Credit row with a Bank Accounts refund; once any of the credit has been used, the row can't be deleted.

Choosing between them

What happens next

• Bank refunds appear in Sale → Invoicing & Payments → Refunds with Credit Note #, Refund Reference, Customer, Sale #, Refund Date and Amount. The refund quick view shows Applied to — the account or invoice.
• Allocations to invoices appear as payments on those invoices, with the credit note as the Paid Via source, and reduce their Amount Due.
• Customer credits appear in the Customer Credits list and on the customer's side panel.
  ✏ Updated after backend review (15 Oct 2026): Confirmed where customer credits are shown.

See also

• Issuing a credit note
• Recording a payment
• Advance payments
• Return disposition