ANTE User ManualCredit Notes
A credit note lowers what a client owes you after an invoice has gone out: goods came back, a price was wrong, or you agreed a discount afterwards. Instead of editing or cancelling the invoice, you issue a credit note against it. The books show the correction as its own document, the client's receivable goes down, and the invoice's outstanding balance falls when you apply the credit to it. No cash moves.
Overview
Every credit note belongs to a client and, usually, to the sales invoice it corrects. It has lines (item, quantity, price, VAT type) just like an invoice, a written reason, and a status:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not booked. It can be edited or deleted, and nothing in the ledger has changed yet. |
| Issued | Booked. The client's receivable is reduced. Whatever has not been applied to an invoice yet is an open credit. |
| Applied | The whole credit has been used up against invoices. |
| Cancelled | Reversed with a contra voucher. Anything it had applied to an invoice is given back, so the invoice owes that amount again. |
Getting There
Go to Treasury → Receivables → Credit Notes. You can also open a sales invoice and use Create credit note in its Credit notes section: the form opens with that invoice and its client already filled in.
The Credit Note List
The cards at the top count the notes that are Draft, Issued and Fully applied, and show the Credit not yet applied. Under them you can search by credit note number, client or invoice, and filter by status or by the Multibook chip. Click a row to open the note.
Viewing a Note
The detail page shows the number, status and Multibook chip, the client and the invoice it corrects (click the invoice number to open it), the dates, the reason, the lines with their VAT, and the three figures that matter: the note's Total, how much is Applied, and what is Remaining to apply. For an issued note, Open voucher goes to the ledger voucher it posted.
The buttons depend on the status: Issue and Edit and Delete on a draft, Apply to invoice on an issued note that still has credit left, and Cancel note on anything that is not already cancelled.
Common Tasks
Writing a Credit Note
- Start the note
Click New credit note, or use Create credit note on the invoice. Pick the client first: the invoice list below it then shows only that client's invoices that have been issued.
- Fill in the headerClient*searchWho the credit is for. Changing the client clears the invoice.Sales invoicedropdownThe invoice this note corrects, shown with its balance. Optional: leave it empty for a credit that is not tied to one invoice and apply it later. Only issued invoices of the client are offered (not drafts, invoices waiting for approval, cancelled or voided ones).Reason*textWhy the credit is given, for example Goods returned. It is kept with the note and shown near the top of its page.Note date*dateThe date of the document.Posting date*dateThe date the note is booked in the ledger. It must fall in an open accounting period.Tax modedropdownVAT Exclusive adds 12% on top of the line price; VAT Inclusive means the line price already contains it. Use the same mode as the invoice.Currency / Rate to company currencytextLeave empty for your company currency. For a foreign-currency note enter the currency code and the rate; the rate is required with a currency.
- Add the lines
Pick an item (optional) or type a description, then the quantity, unit price, discount and VAT type. The Amount column and the totals box update as you type, using the same rule as the invoice form. The server recalculates the figures when you save.
- Save
Save draft keeps it as a draft. Save and issue books it straight away. If you named an invoice, an issued note is applied to that invoice automatically, as far as its balance allows.
| LinesTax mode VAT Exclusive, VAT type VATable | 10 × 1,000.00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Subtotal (base) | = | 10,000.00 |
| Output VAT at 12% | + | 1,200.00 |
| Credit note total | = | 11,200.00 |
| Ledger entryThe mirror image of the sales invoice, with the client on the receivable line | DR Sales revenue 10,000.00 · DR Output VAT 1,200.00 · CR Accounts receivable 11,200.00 |
| Setting | Base | VAT | Note total |
|---|---|---|---|
| VAT Exclusive, VATable (default) | 10,000.00 | 1,200.00 | 11,200.00 |
| VAT Inclusive, VATable | 8,928.57 | 1,071.43 | 10,000.00 |
| Any mode, Zero-rated | 10,000.00 | 0.00 | 10,000.00 |
Applying a Credit to an Invoice
- Open the issued note
Click Apply to invoice. The invoice defaults to the one the note names.
- Choose the invoice and the amount
Only invoices of the same client that still owe something are offered. The Amount to apply starts at the smaller of the credit left and the invoice balance, and cannot be more than that. The dialog shows the balance the invoice will be left with.
- Apply
Click Apply. The invoice's outstanding balance goes down by the amount, exactly as a payment would reduce it, but no fund account is touched. When the credit is fully used the note turns Applied.
| Amount applied | Invoice balance after | Credit left | Note status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000.00 | 24,000.00 | 10,200.00 | Issued |
| 11,200.00 (all of it) | 13,800.00 | 0.00 | Applied |
One note can be applied to more than one invoice: apply part of it to one invoice, then open the note again and apply what is left to another invoice of the same client. The note lists every application under Applied to invoices (invoice, date, amount), and each invoice shows only the amount this note applied to it. Cancelling the note gives each invoice its own amount back.
Cancelling a Credit Note
Click Cancel note. A draft is simply discarded. For an issued note you choose the Reversal date and may add a reason: ANTE books a reversing voucher on that date, so the ledger returns to where it was before the note, and gives back whatever had been applied, so the invoice balances go up again. The reversal date must fall in an open period. A cancelled note cannot be reissued; write a new one.
Editing or Deleting a Draft
Only a draft can be edited or deleted. Once a note is issued, cancel it and write a new one.
Multibook
Once the Multibook segment list has been pulled, every line has an optional Segment pick (clear it to leave the line without one). The segment you choose is the one sent to Multibook for that line; without one, the branch mapping or the company default segment applies. Companies without the segment list see no Segment column. If the Multibook rate book has no rate for the posting date, ANTE's own rate is used and a notice on the document says so.
For a company connected to Multibook, an issued credit note is sent to Multibook as a customer-invoice document of the credit note document type you chose in Settings → Multibook → Invoices, carrying the number of the original invoice. Multibook posts the journal itself. The note shows a chip such as In Multibook · CM0007, and from then on it can no longer be edited in ANTE.
The Customer credit note document type list offers only the document types whose Multibook invoice type is Credit Note. An ordinary invoice type would book the credit with the wrong sign, which is why it is not offered. Until the type is chosen, an issued credit note stays in ANTE and the sync report says the credit document type is missing.
Credit memos made in Multibook come into ANTE as read-only credit notes marked From Multibook, linked to the original invoice when it is known. They cannot be edited, applied or cancelled here; change them in Multibook. Cancelling an ANTE note that is already in Multibook reverses it there as well.
Credit notes travel with the Invoices step of Multibook sync; nothing is sent until that step has run once.
Tips
Write the reason as you would explain it to the client: it is the first thing anyone reading the note or the ledger sees.
How It Connects
Set up first
- Sales Invoice — a credit note corrects an issued invoice of the same client.
- Multibook settings — the Invoices card holds the credit note document type that Multibook files credit notes under.
Gets its data from
- Sales Invoice — Create credit note on an invoice opens this form pre-filled.
- Multibook sync — credit memos made in Multibook come in as read-only credit notes.
Feeds into
- Sales Invoice — an applied credit lowers the invoice's outstanding balance.
- Aging Report (Receivables) — the lower balance is what the aging report ages.
- Journal Vouchers — issuing posts a voucher that reduces revenue, output VAT and receivables.