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Create credit and debit memos

Zuora

Create credit and debit memos

Credit memos and debit memos are used to manage invoices and account balances. You can create credit memos to reduce invoices and account balances, and create debit memos to increase the amount customers owe you.

The credit memos and debit memos can be issued in the following ways:

  • Create a credit or debit memo from an invoice
  • Create a credit or debit memo from charges
  • Generate credit memos by bill run

You can create memos from invoices or charges only if you have the user permission. See Billing Roles for more information.

Create a credit or debit memo from an invoice

To create a memo from an invoice through the Zuora REST API, see POST Credit Memo from Invoice and POST Debit Memo from Invoice.

Zero-amount memo items are supported in the following scenarios:

  • If you want to correct taxation items only for an invoice, you can set the memo item amount to zero, but the taxation item amount to non-zero.
  • If you want to correct personal data in an invoice, you can set the memo item amount to zero to create a zero-amount credit memo from an invoice.

To create a memo from an invoice through the Zuora UI, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Billing > Credit and Debit Memos in the navigation section. The Credit and Debit Memos page opens.
  2. Use the appropriate action button to create a credit memo or debit memo. The Create Credit/Debit Memo page opens.
    • To create a credit memo, click Create New Credit Memo in the Credit Memos tab.
    • To create a debit memo, click Create New Debit Memo in the Debit Memos tab.
  3. Specify the following information in the Basic Information section:
    1. In the Memo Type area, select Credit or Debit.
    2. From the Customer Account list, select a customer account.
    3. From the Invoice list, select an invoice you want to adjust. The invoice items of this invoice are displayed under the Basic Information section.
    4. In the Memo Date field, specify the date when the memo takes effect. The default value is today's date. Note that the memo date must not be earlier than the invoice date or in the closed accounting periods.
    5. From the Reason Code list, select the reason for the memo.
    6. If you want Zuora to calculate taxation automatically in the memo, select the Tax Auto Calculation check box. By default, this check box is selected.
    7. (Credit memo only): For the Auto Apply section, specify the following information:
      • Apply to this invoice upon posting: Select this check box to auto-apply the memo to pay the associated invoice after the memo is posted. The associated invoice is the one you selected from the Invoice list.
      • Exclude from auto apply rules: Select this check box to unapply the payment run processing rule to this memo. The payment run processing rule is to auto-apply the unapplied credit memos on invoices and debit memos during the payment runs. For more information, see Create payment runs.
    8. (Debit memo only): Select the Auto-Pay check box to automatically pick up debit memos for processing in the corresponding payment run. By default, the check box is selected.
    9. (Optional): In the Comments field, enter the comments for this memo. 
  4. In the invoice item rows you want to credit or debit, specify the following fields: 
    1. In the Invoice Item column, specify the name of the credit item or debit item.
    2. (Optional): In the Description column, enter a description for the adjustment.
    3. In the Tax-Included column, select the check box to specify the tax mode for tax calculation in this memo.
      Note that the check box in the Tax-Included column is available and can be selected only if the Tax Auto Calculation check box is selected. By default, the check box is not selected, indicating that the credit amount does not include tax.
    4. (Credit memo only): Specify the amount you want to offset as credit in the Credit Amount column.
      The calculation for Available to credit is: Available to Credit = Invoice Amount - Posted Credit Memo Amount from this invoice.
      The value specified in the Credit Amount column cannot be greater than that displayed in the Available to Credit column. 
      Note that the Available to Credit column is displayed only if you set the "Available to credit validation for credit memos" billing rule to Header and item-only.
    5. (Debit memo only): Specify the amount you want to debit in the Debit Amount column.
    6. If you manually added taxes to the invoice earlier, click the tax amount. Specify the adjusted amount for each tax item in the Credit Amount or Debit Amount column.
    7. (Optional) To disable the text fields in an invoice item row, deselect the check box in this row. By default, all check boxes are selected. Note that you can select and deselect all invoice items by selecting and deselecting the check box next to Invoice Item.
  5. Click Save.

The memo is then saved in draft status. 

Create a credit or debit memo from charges

To create a memo from a charge through the Zuora REST API, see POST Credit Memo from Charge and POST Debit Memo from Charge.

To create a memo from charges through the Zuora UI, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Billing > Credit and Debit Memos in the left-hand navigation section.
  2. Use the appropriate action button to create a credit memo or debit memo. The Create Credit/Debit Memo page opens.
    • To create a credit memo, click Create New Credit Memo in the Credit Memos tab.
    • To create a debit memo, click Create New Debit Memo in the Debit Memos tab.
  3. Specify the following information in the Basic Information section:
    1. In the Memo Type field, select Credit or Debit.
    2. From the Customer Account list, select a customer account.
    3. From the Invoice list, select Standalone
    4. In the Memo Date field, specify the date when the memo takes effect. The default value is today's date. Note that the memo date must not be in the closed accounting periods.
    5. From the Reason Code list, select the reason for the memo.
    6. (Credit memo only): Select the Exclude from auto apply rules check box to unapply the payment run processing rule to this memo. The payment run processing rule is to auto-apply the unapplied credit memos on invoices and debit memos during the payment runs. For more information, see Create payment runs.
    7. (Debit memo only): Select the Auto-Pay check box to automatically pick up debit memos for processing in the corresponding payment run. By default, the check box is selected.
    8. (Optional): In the Comments field, enter comments related to this adjustment. 
  4. In the Charge Line Items area, click Additional Item.
  5. In the dialog that is displayed, specify credit or debit charges.
    1. From the Product list, select the product that the charge belongs to.
    2. From the Rate Plan list, select the product rate plan that the charge belongs to.
    3. In the Charge Name column, click the name of the charge that you want to create a memo from.

      Zuora supports the creation of credit and debit memos from any type of product rate plan charges, except for discount charges.

  6. (Optional) In the Charge Line Items area, edit the selected credit or debit charge items.
    1. In the Comment column, enter comments for the memo.
    2. (Credit memo only): Specify the amount you want to offset as credit in the Credit Amount column.
    3. (Debit memo only): Specify the amount you want to debit in the Debit Amount column.  
  7. If you want to add more charge items for this memo, repeat Steps 4 to 6.
  8. Click Save.

The memo is then saved in draft status.

Generate a credit memo by bill run

Follow the steps in Creating Bill Runs. Zuora automatically generates credit memos during the bill runs for negative charges based on your invoice and credit memo generation rule. The number of credit memos that are generated during the bill run is displayed on the bill run detail page.

Generate a credit memo by using the API

The following API operations could automatically generate credit memos for negative charges based on your invoice and credit memo generation rule:

Notes

When you create a credit or debit memo for usage charges, the quantity must be a positive value. If you leave it empty on the Zuora UI, it will be set to 1 as the default value.