Credit Notes and Refunds

When to use one

A credit note corrects an invoice that has been sent: a line charged by mistake, a price that was too high, or a whole invoice that should not have gone out. The invoice itself stays exactly as the customer received it, and the credit note sits next to it.

A draft has no number yet, so just change it. A voided invoice cannot be credited, and an invoice that has a credit note can no longer be voided.

Issuing a credit note

Open the invoice, select the menu and choose Issue a credit note. Pick the lines and how much of each to take back, or the whole invoice, and give a reason. The dialog shows the amounts as the customer will see them before anything is saved.

It gets its own number, such as CN-2026-0001, and tax is worked out the same way as on the invoice. All the credit notes of one invoice can never add up to more than the invoice.

Leave Email it to the customer on to send them the credit note with a link to the invoice page, which now shows it. You can email it again later from the credit notes card.

What happens to the money

A credit note first lowers what is still due. If the invoice was not fully paid, that may be all it does, and an invoice with nothing left to pay is marked paid, or credited when nothing was paid on it.

Whatever is left goes back to the customer. Choose a card refund to send it back to the card they paid with, or Refunded outside TimelyDo when you pay it back yourself, for example by bank transfer. Nothing is ever refunded beyond what was paid.

Refunding a card payment

You can also refund a card payment on its own from the Payments page, or in your own Stripe dashboard. The invoice shows what was given back, but it stays paid: a refund alone never reopens it. Use a credit note when the invoice itself should be corrected.

Removing a payment recorded by mistake

A payment you recorded yourself, such as cash or a bank transfer, can be removed from the invoice page when it was entered by mistake. The invoice opens again with that amount due, and the history keeps a note of the removal. Card payments cannot be removed this way: refund them instead.

Credit notes in reports and exports

Reports count invoices net of their credit notes, and money given back is taken off what was collected. The CSV export has a Credited column with the whole of each credit note.

FAQ