A Credit Note is a document that specifies the money owed by a business to its customer. The seller usually issues a Credit Note for the same or lower amount than the invoice, and then repays the money to the customer or set it off against other 'due' invoices.
Credit Note Types
Credit notes in Chargebee are categorized into three types:
1. adjustment: Adjustment credit notes are used to adjust the amount of an existing invoice in the payment_due or not_paid status. Use this type of credit note to reduce the invoice amount, typically as a discount to the customer.
Adjustment credit notes are automatically created in the following cases:
- When an invoice is written off.
- When a subscription is modified with proration enabled, and the invoice for the current term is in the
payment_dueornot_paidstatus. 2.refundable: Refundable credit notes allow you to return a certain amount to the customer. These credits can be: - Retained for automatic application on future invoices.
- Applied to existing unpaid invoices.
- Refunded to the customer. Refundable credit notes are automatically created in the following cases:
- When an invoice is refunded.
- When a subscription is changed or canceled with proration enabled, the invoice for the current term is in the
paidstatus. Refundable credits are applied to future invoices or can be refunded to the original payment method. 3.store: Store credit notes are created forpaidorpartially_paidinvoice status during subscription changes, such as upgrades, downgrades, or cancellations. Key characteristics of store credits: - No tax component is included at the time of creation.
- A credit note document is generated, similar to refundable credits.
- Store credits are applied before tax calculations on future invoices.
Note: If you have enabled consolidated invoicing , to know the subscriptions attached with a credit note you have to refer line_item's subscription_id . The credit note's subscription_id should not be used (which will be null if the credit note has lines from multiple subscriptions).
Sample Credit noteJSON
Credit notes attributes
The identifier of the customer this credit note belongs to.
The identifier of the subscription this Credit Note belongs to. Note: If consolidated invoicing is enabled, to know the subscriptions attached with this Credit Note you have to refer line_item's subscription_id. This attribute should not be used (which will be null if this credit note has lines from multiple subscriptions).
The identifier of the invoice against which this Credit Note is issued
The credit note type. Learn more about credit note types.
Adjustment Credit Note
Refundable Credit Note
Store Credit Note
The reason for issuing this credit note. The following reason codes are supported now[Deprecated; use the create_reason_code parameter instead]
This reason will be set automatically for the Credit Notes created during invoice Write Off operation.
This reason will be set automatically for Credit Notes created during Change Subscription operation when proration is enabled
This reason will be set automatically for Credit Notes created during cancel subscription operation
This reason will be automatically set to credit notes created during pause/resume subscription operation.
Can be set when you are recording your customer Chargebacks
The credit note status.
When the Credit Note has been adjusted against an invoice.
When the entire credits (Credit Note amount) have been used (i.e either allocated to invoices or refunded).
When the credits are yet to be used, or have been partially used.
When the Credit Note has been cancelled.
VAT number of the customer for whom this credit note is raised.
The price type of the credit note.
All amounts in the document are exclusive of tax.
All amounts in the document are inclusive of tax.
The amount allocated to invoices from the credit note.
The time this credit note gets fully used. Please note that this field is not present when partial refunds are issued.
Timestamp indicating the date and time this credit note gets voided.
The date/time when the credit note was raised. This date/time can be backdated, which means that the date/time can be earlier than the date/time the credit note was created.
Version number of this resource. The resource_version
is updated with a new timestamp in milliseconds for every change made to the resource. This attribute will be present only if the resource has been updated after 2016-09-28.
Timestamp indicating when this credit note was last updated. This attribute will be present only if the resource has been updated after 2016-09-28.
The subscription channel this object originated from and is maintained in.
The object was created (and is maintained) for the web channel directly in Chargebee via API or UI.
The object data is synchronized with data from in-app subscription(s) created in Apple App Store. Direct manipulation of this object via UI or API is disallowed.
The object data is synchronized with data from in-app subscription(s) created in Google Play Store. Direct manipulation of this object via UI or API is disallowed.
In-App Subscriptions is currently in early access. Contact eap@chargebee.com for more information.
This attribute is returned only if additional resources are available. Use this value as the input parameter for line_items_offset to retrieve the next set of resources.
Note:
- Applicable only when Enterprise-scale Invoicing is enabled.
- Enterprise-scale Invoicing is currently in Private Beta. Please reach out to Chargebee Support to enable this feature.
Invoice subtotal in the currency of the place of supply.
Total invoice amount in the currency of the place of supply.
The currency code (ISO 4217 format) of the place of supply in which VAT needs to be converted and displayed.
Indicates the rounded-off amount. For example, if your invoice amount is $99.99, and the amount is rounded off to $100.00, in this case, $100.00 is your invoice amount, $0.01 is the round_off_amount.
If there is no round-off amount
, it will display 0
.
Indicates the fractional correction amount.
Specifies the customer's category for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). This field is returned only if you've configured GST for the India region.
This parameter represents the exchange rate as a relative price of the base currency that appears as local currency in invoices and credit notes. The local currency exchange rate specifically refers to the exchange rate of a country's currency when converting it to another currency.
For example, if you want to convert US dollars to euros, the local currency exchange rate would be the rate at which you can convert US dollars to euros.
Reason code for creating the credit note. Must be one from a list of reason codes set in the Chargebee app in Settings > Configure Chargebee > Reason Codes > Credit Notes > Create Credit Note. Must be passed if set as mandatory in the app. The codes are case-sensitive
An overridden value for the first two characters of the full VAT number.
Only applicable specifically for customers with billing_address
country
as XI
(which is United Kingdom - Northern Ireland
).
When you have enabled EU VAT
in 2021 or have manually enabled
the Brexit configuration, you have the option of setting billing_address
country
as XI.
That's the code for United Kingdom - Northern Ireland.
The first two characters of the VAT number in such a case is
XI
by default. However, if the VAT number was registered in UK, the value should be GB.
Set
vat_number_prefix
to GB
for such cases.
The unique ID of the business entity
of this credit_note. This is always the same as the business entity of the invoice referred to by reference_invoice_id.
contains information about the tax details which is applied on the invoice.
The details of refunds recorded against the invoice.linked_taxes_withheld
component of the invoice
associated
with this credit_note.
An e-invoice or electronic invoice is a structured representation of an invoice that is interoperable between computerized invoicing systems. Depending on the country, e-invoicing can be necessary to meet financial/taxation authority regulations.