A credit note reduces what a customer owes you. You can create one directly with your own line items, or — for the 3PL/Logistics workflow — have OCTO Ops calculate and issue credit notes automatically against a customer's open invoices; see Auto-apply below.
Before you start
- A customer must exist before you can credit them — see Customers.
- You need the View permission for Credit Notes (own records or all records) to see the list, open, and print credit notes. You need the Create permission to create one.
- Auto-apply needs a separate Auto-apply credit notes permission alongside Create; see Auto-apply below. It isn't reached from a Credit Notes screen.
- There's no Edit or Delete control for credit notes on these screens.
Team owners and admins always have access.
The credit notes list
Open Finance > Credit Notes. Columns: Id (the credit note's own reference number — with its legal entity's prefix, such as PH-7, when it has one — or the last part of its record id if none was set), Date, Customer name, Items (a count of its line items), Amount, Status. Sorted newest-first by Id. Select a row to open the credit note.
When your organization has business units, the list has a Business unit column, and the funnel icon opens a filter with Business unit: All business units, your main business only, or a unit with its sub-units. Without a choice, the list starts with the unit chosen in the header, and the card title names it. There's no other search or filter beyond the table's own search box, and no export buttons.
Select the create icon on the toolbar to start a new credit note.
Create a credit note
- Select the create icon from the Credit Notes list.
- Leave Credit note ID on Auto (checked by default) to have OCTO Ops assign it, or uncheck it and enter your own.
- Optionally set the Date.
- Choose the Customer.
- Optionally enter a Name/memo.
- When your organization has business units, check the Business unit. It starts with the unit chosen in the header.
- Add the line items to credit: for each line, choose a Product, and set its quantity and unit price.
- Select Create credit note.
| Field | Required | What to enter |
|---|---|---|
| Credit note ID | No | Auto-generated unless you clear Auto and enter your own. |
| Date | No | Defaults to today if left blank. |
| Customer | Yes | The customer being credited. |
| Name/memo | No | A short label. |
| Business unit | No | Shown only with business units. The credit note's business unit; choose your organization (main business) for none. |
| Line items | No | One row per product, with quantity and unit price. |
What happens when you save. OCTO Ops creates the credit note with status Active. A line is only added if you chose a Product for it — a line left without a product is silently left out, with no warning. With business units, a credit note of a unit that is, or sits under, a separate legal entity is numbered in that entity's own sequence.
View a credit note
Open a credit note from the list to see its profile page: a Print button in the header, two info tables (Number/Date/Status, and Customer information — Name, plus VAT/SVAT registration numbers when the customer has them on file), and a line-items table (SKU, Item, Quantity, Unit cost, Discount, Total) listing only the product lines that make up the credit, not the balancing accounting entry behind them. A footer shows Sub total and Total. With business units, the information table also shows the Business unit, and the Number carries the legal entity's prefix.
Print a credit note
Select Print from the credit note's profile page. This opens a printable version of the same information, without the app's surrounding navigation, with its own Print button that uses your browser's print function. There's no PDF download — the Print button prints (or lets you save to PDF through) your browser's own print dialog. The print has no letterhead. With business units, it shows the Business unit, and the Number carries the legal entity's prefix.
Auto-apply
Auto-apply calculates and issues credit notes automatically for the 3PL/Logistics workflow: you supply a customer, a date range, and a rate, and OCTO Ops works out the amount and spreads it across that customer's open invoices, creating one credit note per invoice it applies to. This isn't reached from a screen in the Finance module — it's used from the 3PL/Logistics workflow elsewhere in OCTO Ops. Credit notes created by Auto-apply belong to your main business.
Auto-apply can't be undone or safely retried. Credit notes can't be deleted, and if something goes wrong partway through a run, there's no way to roll back what was already created — check what exists before running it again for the same customer and period.
Errors you may see
| Message | Why | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Choose an active business unit." | The chosen unit was deactivated, or is not one of yours. | Choose another unit, or your main business. |
| "Business units are not set up for this organization." | A business unit was sent, but your organization has no active business units. | Leave the field empty, or set up business units first. |
Current limitations
- A line without a Product chosen is left out of a credit note when you save, without any warning.
- If someone else is saving a credit note at the same moment, your save can briefly be refused with the pop-up "Another document in this series is being numbered right now. Try again in a moment." Nothing is saved, and saving again a moment later works.
- There's no way to edit or delete a credit note from this screen.
- Auto-apply isn't available from a screen in the Finance module; it's part of the 3PL/Logistics workflow, and which of a customer's invoices it credits isn't something you choose directly — see Auto-apply above.
- A new credit note always starts with status Active.
- Settings > Module settings > Finance's currency and tax configuration don't affect credit notes in this version — see Module settings.
- Because Invoices, Bills & Payments, Journals, and Credit Notes share how they're stored behind the scenes, a permission for one of these submodules can sometimes let you open a record that actually belongs to a different one, if you know or guess its link — see Finance Current limitations.