Credit Memos: How Credit Works with Orders, Payments and Accounting

How Credit Memos fit with your orders, payments and accounting, and why they work the way they do.

A memo is separate from the order

A Credit Memo never changes the order it came from. Creating one from an order only copies the order's details into a new record. The credit sits on the memo until someone applies it, so the original invoice always matches what your customer was charged.

How credit gets used

Credit is applied to an order like a payment. You can use part of a memo and keep the rest for later, and one order can use several memos. Unapplying credit puts it back on the memo, and both steps stay in the memo's history.

Automatic credit for prepay customers

When a prepay customer clicks Place Order in the Wholesale Portal, their available credit is applied at checkout, oldest first. They see Credit to apply and Amount to charge before paying, and can click the × to skip credit on that order.

Everywhere else, credit is applied by hand from the payment panel:

• Orders you create in RoasterTools
• Recurring and imported orders
• Net terms and Due on Receipt customers
• Bulk "Charge orders"
• Prepay orders placed before shipping is known (live-rate or custom delivery). Apply credit once shipping is added.

Shipping credits

When you create a memo from an order, shipping copies over as a line using your account's shipping credit item. During beta setup we create one for you, named "Credit - Shipping" unless you'd like something else. You'll see a Used for shipping credits badge on it.

How accounting stays in sync

RoasterTools is the source of truth. When you sync a memo, it creates a matching credit memo in your accounting software. When you sync an application, it's recorded against the matching invoice so balances agree on both sides.

Syncing is something you do on purpose, the same as orders. Applying credit doesn't send anything to accounting until you click Sync. Changes made after the first sync, like edits or canceling, don't flow through, which is why those need a manual change in accounting.

Unapplying works differently by platform. QuickBooks Online can take the unapply from RoasterTools. QuickBooks Desktop and Xero can't remove a single application through their connection, so you remove it there yourself.