What is a credit note?
Credit notes are used to cancel out all or part of a sales invoice, they can be used to issue a refund to a customer or to reduce the balance that the customer owes to the Union.
You should use a credit note where you have raised a sales invoice incorrectly and need to cancel it, or where you have overcharged the customer on the original invoice and wish to give a partial refund or 'credit'.
When to raise credit notes
Below are two examples to help you understand when you may need to raise a credit note
1. Refund a full amount - If you raise a sales invoice but it was either wrong or a change in circumstances (like a global pandemic) and you need to return funds to a supplier, you can cancel the sales invoice by submitting a credit note for the full amount.
- e.g., Malaysian Society raised a sales invoice to Ernst & Young accounting firm for sponsorship of their career events. These events did not take place so a credit note will need to be raised to cancel the sales invoice.
2. Refund a partial amount - If you raise a sales invoice for but a change in circumstances means the transaction amount was less, you can do a partial refund by raising a credit note for the amount that needs to be returned.
- e.g., Drama Society raised a sales invoice to rent 10 lights to the Brompton Theatre Company, however closer to the event Brompton Theatre Company only needed 6 lights. Drama Society can raise a credit note for 40% of the original sales invoice value.
How to raise a credit note
To raise a credit note please fill in the credit note form on eActivities. Please note the following examples for the form fields,
Committee - the full name of your CSP, as it appears on eActivities
Customer - the full name of the customer, e.g. Imperial College
Address - the address of the customer, this should auto-complete with the customer's default address. If a customer has more than one address registered on the system, you can clear the text from this field to choose an alternative.
Invoice Number - the original sales invoice number that you are crediting all or part of
Customer Contact Name - the name of your contact
Customer Contact Phone Number - the phone number for your contact
Customer Contact Email - the email address of your contact
Credit Date - the date the credit was agreed/issued.
What happens after you have raised a credit note.
Once you have completed the credit note form on eActivities and presss the blue ‘Commit’ button – this will submit the document for approval. When the credit note has been fully approved, you will receive an email with a pdf of the credit note attached for you to send to the customer if required.