Returns and credit notes

Take part of an invoice back, credit the client for it, and either sell them the replacement or hand the money over.

A client bought two Bravecto and needs the bigger size. Another opened a bag of food, found it was the wrong one, and brought it back unopened. Neither of those is a mistake on your part and neither cancels the visit, so reversing the whole invoice is the wrong tool: it would unpick the consultation as well as the one item that came back.

A credit note credits part of a finished invoice. The original invoice stays exactly as it was, and a separate numbered document says what came back and what the client is owed for it.

What a client can still be credited for: their recent sales and consultations, newest first.

Who can do this

Anyone can open Return and see what a client could be credited for. Raising a credit note, and paying a refund, takes the vet or admin role: it is the same permission as reversing an invoice, because both give money back.

Credit note or reversal#

These are two different things and picking the wrong one is the most common mistake here.

Use a credit note	Reverse the invoice
Some of what was billed came back, and the rest stands.	The whole thing should never have been billed.
The invoice keeps its number and its figures. A new CN document records the credit.	The charge itself is marked reversed and a matching credit is added.
Only sales and consultations, including dispenses.	Sales, consultations, stays and grooms.
Records a reason, which the Credit notes report shows.	Records no reason.

Careful

Once an invoice carries a credit note it cannot be reversed, and FastVet will say so. Reversing it would credit the full amount a second time, on top of what the credit note already gave back. If the rest of the invoice also has to come back, credit the remaining items instead.

Note

Hospital stays, boarding stays and grooms cannot be credited in part. Their items hang off daily records and a stay-level discount, so there is nothing to tick line by line. Reverse those and bill again.

Where to start a return#

Two ways in, depending on what you know:

From the client. Return on Client Details, in the row of buttons under their name, beside Purchases. This lists everything they bought recently, so nobody has to go looking for the invoice first. This is the one you want with somebody at the counter holding a bag.
From one invoice. Return on the invoice's own row on the client's Statement. The screen then opens with just that invoice on it.

Client Details›Return

Either way the credit is tied to one invoice, because a credit note corrects exactly one. Ticking an item on a second invoice starts again there rather than mixing the two.

Choosing what is coming back#

The screen lists the client's finished sales and consultations from the last 120 days that still have something left to credit, newest first, with a box to search by item, invoice number or patient.

Tick the items that came back. The invoice they belong to lights up and the others dim.
Set How many if only some of a line came back. A line of two Bravecto will credit one.
Leave Put back into stock ticked for goods that are fit to sell again, and clear it for anything damaged or opened. It is only offered for items that came out of stock in the first place.
Choose a Reason in the panel at the top.
Press Raise Credit Note.

One bag of two coming back. The reason and the total sit above the list, and the item says what is left to credit.

Note

The panel with the reason and the total sits above the list, and Raise Credit Note is in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen. Neither is at the end of the invoice list, so you never have to scroll past four months of history to finish a return.

If something is missing, pressing Raise Credit Note says what and takes you to it rather than doing nothing.

What can be credited, and for how much#

Offered	Not offered
Billed lines on a finished sale, consultation or dispense	An invoice that has been reversed, which is already void
A protocol, credited whole	A protocol's parts, which are billed through the protocol
Items already part credited, for whatever is left	An item already credited in full
	Lines with no value: the consult-type line, a discount line, the rounding

A discount is honoured. Where the invoice carried a whole-invoice discount or cash rounding, the client paid less than the lines add up to, so each item credits at what they actually paid for it rather than at list price. The screen says so on any invoice where it applies.

Nothing can be credited twice. What earlier credit notes already took is subtracted, so each line offers only what is left, and an invoice can never be credited past what it charged.

Note

The figures on this screen are a preview. The credit note itself is priced again when you raise it, which is what keeps the discount and over-credit rules in one place.

Giving the client their credit note#

Raising the credit note opens a screen like the one after an invoice is finished, because it is the same moment: the client is standing there and needs their copy.

The credit note, the ways to put it in the client's hands, and what their account now says.

WhatsApp sends them a link to the document. It opens your own WhatsApp with the message ready, so you see the client and the text before it goes.
Preview opens the client's copy exactly as they will see it on their phone, before you send anything.
Email sends it to the address on their record, and says whether it went.
Print gives you the document itself, for handing over the counter.
Copy link puts the link on your clipboard, for whatever your practice actually uses.

The credit note is numbered CN- and prints on your practice's invoice letterhead, with the invoice it corrects named on it. It is a tax document: keep it with your invoices.

Tip

Editing your General Invoice Header in Manage Templates changes credit notes too, because they print on the same letterhead. The editor has an Invoice / Credit note switch in its preview so you can see both before saving. Watch for wording you typed in by hand: a header that says "Tax Invoice" will say it on every credit note.

The swap, or the money#

A credit note puts the money on the client's account. What happens next is one of two things, and both are on the credit note screen.

Sell Replacement opens a till sale on this client. Add the replacement, and the payment panel offers their credit: Use R 252.00 takes it off the sale in one tap, and anything still owing is taken in cash or on a card as usual. A bigger bag that costs more than the one returned collects only the difference.

The replacement at the till, with the credit from the return offered against it.

Record Refund hands the money back. It opens a screen of its own with the amount to refund already filled in, three buttons for how it went (cash, card or EFT), and a place for a reference.

Paying a credit back out: the amount is filled in, and the method is one tap.

Note

You do not have to do either. Credit left on the account goes towards the client's next visit by itself, which is what most clients would rather happen.

A client who comes back days later for money they were credited earlier does not need a new return. Open Return on their record and the screen offers Record a refund at the top, because it can see they are already in credit.

Returns on a counter sale#

A counter sale is charged to the account your practice keeps for walk-in trade, which belongs to nobody. Credit cannot be left sitting on it, because the next walk-in would silently spend it.

So when you credit a counter sale, FastVet asks Refunded at the till by and will not raise the credit note without an answer. The money goes straight back, the counter account stays at zero, and the credit note records how the refund was paid.

Tip

If the client is swapping rather than returning, ring the replacement up as a new counter sale and give them the difference. There is no credit to carry across.

What else a return undoes#

A credit note is not only a credit on the account. Three other things follow it, without anybody having to remember them:


Stock	Items you ticked Put back into stock go back into the store, in the stock item's own unit, against the same batch they went out on.
Loyalty points	The points the returned items earned are taken back. Returning part of an invoice takes that share of its points, so the client keeps the points on whatever they kept. See Loyalty.
Commission	A vet's commission on the returned items comes off. On a visit whose commission has not been paid yet it simply is not claimed; where it has already been paid out, the next run shows a correction for the returned share. See Commission.

Note

The invoice itself is untouched by all of this. It keeps its number, its lines and its total, which is what makes a credit note the right document for a part return.

Where returns and refunds show up#

Credit notes lists every credit raised in a period: credit notes with their reason, and whole invoices reversed. Run it monthly, and any time the credits look higher than usual.
Payments received (detail) shows a refund as a negative amount, because it is money going out of the till.
The client's Statement shows the credit note as its own row, with buttons to print or email it again.
The day's takings count a refund as money out, so the figure you reconcile against the drawer already allows for it.

A credit note is VAT-bearing: it credits the VAT on the returned items as well as the goods, so your VAT return follows it without anything further being done.