Accounting glossary

What is credit note?

The document that reverses part or all of a sale: goods came back, or the invoice was wrong. Rather than deleting history, a credit note adds an equal-and-opposite record — which is why accountants and auditors insist on it.

Example

A customer returns $52.50 of a $500 invoice. Rather than editing the original sale, a credit note for $52.50 is raised against it, reversing the revenue, the tax and the stock movement for those lines.

The original invoice stays intact in your history, which is exactly why auditors prefer credit notes to edits.

In SeroBooks

Returns and cancellations are credit notes with stock, tax and money reversed together. Credit notes & refunds

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