Credit Notes: Help Us Spec This Out! Looking For Your Feedback

[Paul]

Credit notes have been requested for Blesta, as a means of VAT compliance. Credit notes are issued when an adjustment has to be made to an invoice. Credit notes do not have to be issued for pro forma invoices.
 
The rules for credit notes can be found at http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/vat/guide/credit-notes.html#section8 and are copied below:
 
The credit note must show:

• the date of issue of the note,
• a number, which uniquely identifies the note,
• the full name, address and VAT registration number of the person issuing the note,
• the full name, address and VAT registration number of the person to whom the note is being issued,
• in the case of a supply to a person who is registered for value-added tax in another EU Member State, the person’s VAT identification number in that Member State,
• the reason why the note is being issued and a cross-reference to the invoice which was issued for the supply in respect of which the consideration was reduced,
• the amount of the consideration, exclusive of tax, in respect of which the note is being issued, and
• the rate or rates of tax in force when the related invoice was issued and the amount of tax at each rate as appropriate to the consideration shown on the note (other than where the reverse charge applied on the transaction).

 

If you are in an EU country where credit notes are required, we would love your feedback.

1. Is the above list accurate?
2. How should credit notes be accessed? Should they be appended to the invoice as additional pages in the PDF with the required information listed?
3. Should Credit Notes be visible to staff only, or staff and clients?
4. How should you, as a staff member, create a credit note in Blesta? (Please outline your desired process for this)

Thanks!

 

EDIT: The task for this is described in CORE-1277

[Blesta Addons]

If a note is issued , The client info related to the note will be fetched from Database or from a saved data ?

The invoice can have multiple credit note , credit note should be only associated to a unique invoice .

From admin staff , i preffer see a new link "credit note" near to edit , view , pay ... or a new staff action button in client profile , it lead to page listing all the invoices in table with invoice number , invoice date , invoice total due , invoice paid, invoice credit .

Credit notes should be visible to all staff with billing permissions and clients .

Credit notes amount should be considerated for calculation in revenue and credit/debit of clients .

The credit notes should not be in edited once sent to client .

A separate pdf for credit note is also accepted . Or group all credit notes for unique invoice in one pdf file .

[Paul]

If a note is issued , The client info related to the note will be fetched from Database or from a saved data ?

 

I think it would have to be saved unique to the credit note. Cody originally planned that invoice attachments would be stored statically, but it may make sense to do this in the database in conjunction with storing client details for each specific invoice. This way the information is static and is not changed.

 

The invoice can have multiple credit note , credit note should be only associated to a unique invoice .

 

Yes, a credit note can only apply to 1 invoice, but an invoice can have more than one credit note.

 

From admin staff , i preffer see a new link "credit note" near to edit , view , pay ... or a new staff action button in client profile , it lead to page listing all the invoices in table with invoice number , invoice date , invoice total due , invoice paid, invoice credit .

 

So, the credit note will be a deduction on the invoice, correct? As in, the invoice should show the correct amount after adjustments from credit notes?

 

Credit notes should be visible to all staff with billing permissions and clients .

 

Great

 

Credit notes amount should be considerated for calculation in revenue and credit/debit of clients .

 

Great

 

The credit notes should not be in edited once sent to client .

 

Do credit notes need to be sent to the client, similar to invoices once they are created?

 

A separate pdf for credit note is also accepted . Or group all credit notes for unique invoice in one pdf file .

I think it would be preferable to add credit notes as additional pages onto the invoice PDF. So, each credit note would be on its own page or something. Would this be acceptable?

 

Does anyone have an example of a credit note that meets the legal requirements?

[Max]

A credit note aka credit invoice is just an invoice with negative amounts.

Could display them in the list of invoices, and let them use the same numbering (although separate range is also allowed)

 

 

 
So, the credit note will be a deduction on the invoice, correct? As in, the invoice should show the correct amount after adjustments from credit notes?

 

Do not edit any invoice pdf after it has been issued. For any reason. Ever.

 

 

 

 

I think it would be preferable to add credit notes as additional pages onto the invoice PDF.

 

 

 

Separate document.

 

It should be easy to locate and print out all invoices, credit invoices, and other tax relevant documents issued within an accounting period en masse.

They should not be hiding behind an invoice that may be from last year.

[Ekim]

I agree with Max. A credit note is simply an invoice with these differences:

 

- Negative amount

- Normally a separate numbering scheme (e.g. CR-1000 CR-1001 CR-1002)

- Labelled as a "Credit Note" rather than "Invoice"

 

It should be possible to raise a Credit Note as required without it being linked to any particular invoice.

 

The requirements all look fine and should apply to EU invoices in general too.

[Max]

It should be possible to raise a Credit Note as required without it being linked to any particular invoice.

 

Yes, in some jurisdictions credit notes can also be used in other situations in which a customer gets a general discount or money back, rather than correcting an indvidual invoice.

I know some use them to administer affiliate earnings.

 

 

And negative lines should be allowed in manually created normal invoices as well. (currently they are prohibited by your validation rules)

E.g. if the user ordered and paid for a $ 10 standard hosting package, but decided the $ 20 super-deluxe package would be a better match for his needs, you could of-course just send him an invoice for another $ 10.

However a more proper way that signifies that the package normally costs $ 20 would be:

 

 

1     super-deluxe package  20

-1    standard package    10

[Michael]

You can use -10.00 on the current invoices not sure about QTY as -1 though, we do that for refunds to close the invoice?

[activa]

You can use -10.00 on the current invoices not sure about QTY as -1 though, we do that for refunds to close the invoice?

 

Normally is not logical to use negative value in quantities in invoices ...

 

a case for credit note , user has a credit of 50$ , a invoice with 20$has been generated , the user pay it , now the credit is 30$ , we generate a credit note with 15$ . after the cronjob , the credit should be 45$ .

 

i want a option to allow edit a credit note in a period of time , let say 7  days or 1 day .