Customer Credits

Customer credits are credit documents that reduce a customer's balance. You can apply the full credit amount or allocate a partial amount to one or more open or partially-paid sales invoices—any unallocated balance remains available for future use.

Navigate via Revenue & Invoicing → Customer credits.

# Customer Credit States

A credit moves from Posted → Partially cleared → Cleared as it is applied to invoices.

# Creating a Customer Credit

1. Click + Create customer credit
2. Fill in the form (customer, entity, currency, lines, etc.)
3. Click Create — the credit opens in Draft

# Tax Calculation

Customer credits support tax calculation through your configured tax engine. If you use Avatax or Sphere, line items display the tax engine name as a badge in the Tax code column (e.g., "Avatax (P0000000)" or "Sphere"). If you use Light's built-in tax codes, you'll see a dropdown selector in that column instead.

# Posting a Credit

From the credit detail page, use the action button at the top right:

• Post & send — posts the credit and emails it (the email composer opens, with the same fields as for invoices)
• Post only — posts without sending

Once posted, the credit can be applied to invoices.

# Applying a Credit to Invoices

You can apply all or part of a customer credit to one or more sales invoices. Any unallocated balance stays on the credit for later use.

1. Open the posted credit
2. Click Apply to invoice
3. The dialog lists invoices for the same customer and entity in Open or Partially paid state
4. Select one or more invoices
5. Enter the amount to apply against each invoice (any amount up to the credit's available balance)
6. Review the running totals: total invoice amount, amount being applied, and remaining credit balance
7. Click Apply to confirm

What happens next:

• Each selected invoice's balance decreases by the applied amount
• The credit's state updates to Partially cleared if a balance remains, or Cleared if fully allocated
• Partially cleared credits can be applied to additional invoices at any time

# Editing Custom Properties After Posting

After a customer credit is posted, its amounts are locked — but custom properties are not. You can add, change, or remove a line item's custom properties (department, cost center, project code, etc.) without voiding and recreating the credit.

1. Open the posted customer credit
2. Enter edit mode on the line item you want to update
3. Add, change, or remove its custom properties
4. Confirm the changes when prompted, then save

Amounts and quantities stay locked. Line descriptions, GL accounts, and tax codes can also be modified on a posted credit. Every change is recorded in the credit's modification history, and the line item re-locks after saving. See Custom Properties for more.

# Other Actions

From the credit detail header three-dot menu (⋮):

• Send E-invoice — submit to the e-invoicing network (when supported)
• Archive — archive the credit

# Related Articles

• Invoice generation
• Tracking payments