To create a new credit memo:
- Go to ‘Customers’
- Select the correct customer by clicking on the customer name
- Select ‘New Action’
- Select ‘New Credit Memo’
- Populate the details of the credit memo
- Select ‘Done’
If you use a separate invoicing system, when the customer payment appears in your account, Business Finance Assistant automatically creates a sales receipt for the transaction as a record of sale.
If the credit memo is for part-payment of the invoice
Both the expense and credit memo are presented as an option to manually match to the bank transaction.
- Go to ‘Bank Transactions’ in the left-hand menu
- Identify the transaction from the ‘To Categorise’ tab
- Click in the ‘Category’ box
- Scroll down to ‘Choose a match’
- Select the sales receipt and click ‘Save’
You then need to match the remaining amount to the credit note:
- Click in the ‘Category’ box
- Scroll down to ‘Choose a match’
- Select the credit note and click ‘Save’
- Click the ‘tick’ on the left-hand side of the transaction to mark the transaction as ‘Reviewed’
- The transaction will have moved from ‘To Categorise’ to the ‘Reviewed’ tab
If the credit memo amount exactly matches the transaction amount
Once the refund is paid, you will need to link the transaction to the credit memo so it appears correctly on your VAT return. To do this:
- Go to ‘Bank Transactions’
- Select the account where the refund was paid from
- Find the refund payment in the ‘To Review’ or ‘To Categorise’ sections
- Select the arrow to the right of the refund payment, this will open the ‘transaction details’ box
- If the credit memo was created before the refund the system will try to automatically link the refund to the credit memo where the amounts and dates match, but if the system does not do this then you will need to match by following these steps:
- Select the drop-down called ‘manual match’
- Select ‘credit memo’
- You will now be shown open credit memos that are a possible match
- Select the correct credit memo, and select ‘save’
- The credit memo is now linked to the refund transaction
- Click the ‘tick’ on the left-hand side of the transaction to mark the transaction as ‘Reviewed’
- The transaction will have moved from ‘To Categorise’ to the ‘Reviewed’ tab
Please note that it is the user's responsibility to ensure that all invoices and credit notes issued to customers are compliant with HMRC’s rules on the issuance of invoices and credit notes. For more information, and to familiarise yourself with the latest advice, please refer to the government’s website.