In Clio Manage, a credit note is a write-off that a firm applies to a bill when the firm believes they will not receive payment for the bill. Credit notes can be tracked and reported on and are applied to the whole bill rather than individual line items.
Important: You can only apply a credit note to a bill that is approved and unpaid.
Apply credit notes or write-offs
There are two methods of applying a credit note to a bill. You can apply a credit note without recording a payment, but you can also write-off the remainder of a bill while recording a payment.
Note: When applying a credit note, the description field has a limit of 255 characters and will not appear on the bill invoice. If you want the credit note description to appear on the bill invoice, add the description to the Invoice memo field.
- Go to Billing or select the Bills subtab in a matter or contact.
- Select the Unpaid quick filter.
- Click the bill ID to open the bill. You can also click the down arrow next to Send and select View bill.
- Select the Credit notes tab and click Add credit note.
- Complete the details and add the amount that you are writing off.
- Click Save credit note
- Go to Billing or select the Bills subtab in a matter or contact.
- Select the Unpaid quick filter.
- Click the bill ID to open the bill. You can also click the down arrow next to Send and select View bill.
- Click the More actions dropdown and select Record payment.
- Complete the fields as necessary.
- Payment source: Select the appropriate option about the payment. Enter information about the source or destination of the payment, e.g. information about the vendor's bank account.
- Payer: This optional field should be used if the person making the payment is not the client.
- Enter the Payment amount.
- Check the box under Write offs.
- Click Record payment.
- When the warning prompt appears, select Write off and record payment.
Delete credit notes
Credit notes cannot be modified or transferred from one bill to another. Once applied, a credit note can only be deleted. If you need to edit the credit note, delete it and then create a new one. To delete a credit note:
- Go to Billing or select the Bills subtab in a matter or contact.
- Select the Unpaid quick filter.
- Click the bill ID to open the bill. You can also click the down arrow next to Send and select View bill.
- Select the Credit notes tab and click Delete next to the credit note.
- When the warning prompt appears, select Delete.