Credit notes

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A credit note, also called a credit memo, is the document a supplier sends when it gives money back. It reduces what you owe, so it is the opposite of an invoice. Inbox Ledger treats it as its own document kind, next to invoices and receipts.

How the amounts are stored

The totals on a credit note stay positive, exactly as the supplier printed them. The document kind carries the sign instead. A second value, the Signed Total, is the negative figure that every spend calculation reads.

That split keeps the record faithful to the paper while the arithmetic still comes out right.

What you see in the app

When credit-note detection is enabled for your workspace:

• A Credit note badge marks the document in the list and on the detail view.
• A Credit notes tab joins All, Invoices, and Receipts in Documents.
• The list shows the amount as a negative figure, so a credit reads as money coming back.
• The detail view shows Credit note # for the document's own number and Related invoice # for the supplier invoice it corrects, when the document prints one.
• There is no due date, because a credit note is not a request for payment.

How totals treat a credit note

Spend figures are net of credits. Insights, the vendor list, the dashboard, and the monthly summary email all subtract credit notes from the spend they report.

Two areas leave credit notes out on purpose.

• Detected subscriptions count invoices and receipts only. A credit is not a recurring charge, so including it would distort the predicted renewal amount.
• Bank reconciliation never sees credit notes. A credit is money coming in, and the matcher works on outgoing payments.

Exports and webhooks

Every export gains a Signed Total column beside Total. Total stays the positive printed figure and Signed Total is negative for a credit note. See Export to Google Sheets for how existing spreadsheets pick up the new column.

Webhooks add credit_note.created, credit_note.updated, and credit_note.excluded, and the payload carries signed_total and related_invoice_number. The full list is on Events and payloads.

Push to accounting

A credit note is pushed as the provider's own credit record: a Vendor credit in QuickBooks Online, a draft Credit note in Xero, and a Purchase credit memo in Dynamics 365 Business Central. The amounts stay positive and the record type carries the sign, so your ledger shows a credit rather than a bill. See Push to QuickBooks, Xero, and Dynamics to connect a provider.

An automatic push sends a credit note only when the AI is confident about the document type. When it is not, the detail view shows this note, and you push the document by hand after a check:

Not auto-pushed to accounting: low confidence in the document type. Review it and push manually.

Fix a wrong document type

If a supplier credit was captured as an invoice, or an invoice as a credit note, change the type from the detail view. Open the more-actions menu, click Change type to Credit note or Change type to Invoice, and confirm. The amounts stay as printed, the sign follows the new type, and fields the new type does not have, such as the due date, are cleared.

Changing the type never pushes the document. Push it yourself once the type is right. A reprocess that gives the document a different type does not push it automatically either.

The change is refused in two cases:

• The document is already in your accounting system. Void the record there first, then change the type.
• A push to accounting is still queued or running for the document. Wait for it to finish, then change the type.

Changing a document to a credit note is available once credit-note detection is enabled for your workspace.

Not supported yet

• Inbox Ledger creates the credit record but does not apply it to the bill it corrects. Apply the credit in your accounting system.
• Only invoices and credit notes can switch type. A receipt cannot become a credit note.

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