Credit Notes
Suppliers do not only send you bills. When a delivery arrives short, milk turns up on the turn, or you send back a case of the wrong syrup, the supplier issues a credit note - a document that reduces what you owe them. Brikly recognises credit notes as their own document type, so you can put them through the same inbox as everything else and they end up in the right place in your accounts, without ever touching your ingredient prices or recipe costings.
How Brikly spots a credit note
When Brikly's AI reads a document, it looks for the signals that mark it as a credit note rather than an invoice:
- A "Credit Note" or "Credit Memo" heading
- A credit note number (often prefixed CN)
- A reference to the original invoice being credited ("against invoice 48213")
This works for PDFs and photos alike, so a paper credit note left with your delivery can just be snapped with Quick Capture.
A detected credit note is easy to spot in your invoice list:
- A purple Credit note badge on the row
- The amount shown as -£24.90 credit rather than a positive total
- A banner on the detail page explaining that this document reduces what you owe the supplier
Credit notes sit alongside your invoices in the same To Process queue and move through the same statuses - there is no separate tab to check. The badge does the differentiating.
You confirm the classification
The AI detects; you decide. When the AI detected the credit note, Brikly asks for one confirmation before it can be sent to accounting - Yes, this is a credit note. That single click is all it takes. If you classified the document yourself, no confirmation is needed - your ruling is final.
If the AI gets it wrong in either direction, every document has a control to fix it:
- On a document read as an invoice, choose Treat as a credit note.
- On a document read as a credit note, choose Treat as an invoice and it flows through the normal pipeline instead.
As with recategorising an expense invoice, the classification is locked once the document has been submitted to accounting.
What happens to the lines
This is the important part: credit note lines never affect your costings. A credit is a money document, not a price signal - the fact that you returned five 2-litre milks says nothing about what milk costs.
So a credit note does not:
- Record any ingredient price history
- Change any supplier offering cost
- Create any stock movements
- Teach the matching system any patterns
Instead, each line is automatically set aside as a Credit / return line - you do not need to match credit lines to ingredients at all. Each line still gets an account code, so the credit files correctly against the right nominal code in your accounts, and Brikly captures the reason for each line:
- Returned goods - you sent something back
- Short delivery - items invoiced but never delivered
- Price correction - the supplier charged the wrong price
- Goodwill - a gesture credit from the supplier
Reviewing a credit note is quick: confirm the supplier, glance at the lines, check the account codes, and it is ready to send.
Linking a credit note to the invoice it credits
A credit note usually reverses a specific invoice, and Brikly lets you record that connection. On the credit note's detail page, choose Link to an invoice and pick the original from that supplier's invoices. The link is advisory - it never blocks processing, and a goodwill credit legitimately links to nothing.
Finding the right invoice is quick:
- The picker lists the supplier's most recent invoices first, showing each invoice's number, date and amount
- Search by invoice number to find older invoices - the picker tells you when there are more invoices than it is showing
- The eye icon opens an invoice's original PDF or photo right there, so you can check a document without leaving the credit note
- When the credit note itself names the invoice it credits, Brikly resolves that reference for you and offers a one-click Link button beside it - no picker needed. The matching invoice is also tagged Referenced in the list.
Once linked, the original invoice appears on the credit note ("Against INV-4471"), and the original invoice shows the reverse view - "£24.90 credited by CN-88213" - so you can see the netting from either side. Links can be removed or changed at any time.
Brikly only offers the one-click link when the supplier is confirmed and exactly one invoice matches the printed reference - it never guesses between candidates.
How spend reporting treats credits
Credit notes are netted in your supplier spend reporting. If you spent £480 with your dairy supplier this month and they credited you £24.90 for those five returned 2-litre milks, your reported spend is £455.10. Credits are not counted as purchases, and they are not ignored - they reduce the figure, exactly as they reduce your bill.
Duplicates and VAT checks
Credit notes often reuse the number of the invoice they credit. Brikly's duplicate detection knows this - a credit note referencing (or reprinting) the original invoice number is not flagged as a duplicate of that invoice.
The VAT arithmetic checks also understand credit notes: the totals are validated on their own magnitudes, so a document that is entirely negative still gets a proper green/amber/red reconciliation check. Mixed VAT rates and even zero-total documents flow through the normal review pipeline.
Sending a credit note to Xero
Submitting a confirmed credit note to Xero creates a real supplier credit note in Xero - not a negative bill. It arrives as a draft, unallocated, with the original document PDF attached.
From there, you (or your accountant) approve it in Xero and apply it against the relevant bill. Brikly deliberately never approves or allocates documents in your ledger - what gets applied against what is an accounting decision, and it stays yours.
The credit note records which invoice number it credits, as printed on the document. Brikly keeps that reference on the document, offers it as a one-click link, and uses it so the credit note is never mistaken for a duplicate of the original invoice.
Sage and QuickBooks
Credit notes submit to Sage and QuickBooks too, with one platform difference worth knowing:
- Sage creates a real purchase credit note, but Sage has no draft step for purchase documents - the credit note is posted immediately as unpaid. You then allocate it against the relevant invoice in Sage.
- QuickBooks creates a supplier credit, unallocated, for you to apply in QuickBooks.
As with Xero, Brikly never allocates documents in your ledger - what gets applied against what stays your decision.
Returns inside an ordinary invoice are different
Some suppliers do not issue a separate credit note at all - they simply put a negative line on your next invoice ("Returned: 5 x 2L semi-skimmed, -£24.90"). That is not a credit note, and Brikly does not treat it as one.
A return or credit line inside an ordinary purchase invoice stays exactly where it is: a negative line on that bill, netting within the invoice total. The document is still an invoice, still follows the normal matching flow, and still submits as a single bill.
If a supplier document is genuinely a credit note but arrives without the usual headings, use Treat as a credit note to reclassify it - do not try to process it as an invoice with negative lines. The classification controls exist precisely so you stay in charge.