Working With Financial Credits

Working With Financial Credits 

1. A credit is when a contact has issued payment for an item and the item is cancelled or voided, but your organization keeps the money/payment. This creates a credit on the contact’s account that they can use later for another/different transaction.
2. A credit is created on a contact’s record when you do any of the following:
   1. Cancel a paid event registration, donation, or membership and issue a credit
   2. Delete a payment from an invoice
   3. Delete a paid invoice
   4. Record payment in excess of the transaction (e.g. accidentally record a $45 payment for a $40 transaction)
3. You can see if a contact has a credit balance by looking at the Ledger Balance widget while viewing the contact’s record. The ledger balance amount will be in black if the contact has a zero or positive/credit balance; the amount will be in red with a -ve(-) sign if the person has a deficit/owes money.

   

   

4. You can see individual financial transactions, separated into a two column ledger (debits/charges on one side, payments/credits on the other) by clicking inside the Ledger Balance widget.

   

5. To find credits on a contact’s account, scroll through the list of credits and find any transactions a) without an invoice number - these are credits that were created by deleting a paid invoice, or b) that have an an amount in the unapplied amount column - these are credits that were created by cancelling a paid transaction and issuing a credit for the payment.

   

   

6. You can identify transactions that were cancelled and credited in the Purchase Details (debits/transactions) column - the word "credited" will appear in red next to the transaction.

   

7. If you wish to delete a credit (because it is erroneous/was created by deleting a payment or paid invoice), click the drop down to the right of the entry and select Delete.

   

8. If a contact has a credit on their account and you wish to use that credit to pay for an unpaid transaction, you can either:
   • Record the transaction and when you Receive Payment, use the credit by selecting the slider at the top of the screen (in which case, do NOT also type an amount into the amount paid field as this will indicate additional money paid on top of the credit amount being used; leave the mode of payment, payment date, reference #, and amount fields BLANK when using credits), or...

     

   • While viewing the ledger details, click the drop down to the right of the transaction and select Edit. In the resulting pop up window, click the check box next to the financial transaction that you wish to apply the credit to.

     

     

     

9. You cannot manually force/create a credit on an account (that is, you cannot receive payment without there being an associated expense/financial transaction). You could do this by creating a dummy invoice/transaction, recording payment, and then deleting the invoice to create a credit, but we do not recommend taking and holding money from a contact without them paying for a specific item/transaction (check with your CFO and/or auditor on allowability of creating what amounts to bank/deposit accounts for contacts and holding money for future use as this may have ramifications for your organization).