Vendor Credits

When a vendor owes you money — returned goods, billing error, negotiated allowance — record it as a credit and apply it against future bills instead of waiting on a refund check.

Recording a Credit

A vendor credit captures dollars the vendor owes you. Typical triggers:

• You returned goods
• The vendor overcharged on a bill
• An allowance or pricing adjustment was negotiated
• Goods arrived damaged and a credit was issued
• A service didn't deliver as promised

To create one:

1. Open Vendors from the sidebar
2. Select the vendor
3. Click New Credit Note (or go to Vendor Credits and click Create Credit)
4. Set the credit date — typically the date the vendor issued the credit
5. Add a reference number if the vendor gave one (their credit memo number)
6. Add line items describing what's being credited:
   • Description — what was returned or adjusted
   • Account — the expense or asset account to credit (this reverses the original charge)
   • Amount — the credit amount for this line
7. Add any notes for your own records
8. Click Save Credit

The Journal Entry

When you apply the credit to a bill, Kantivo posts the matching journal entry for the amount applied:

Net effect: as the credit is applied, your AP balance for that vendor drops and the original expense or asset hit reverses by the same amount. Pick the offsetting account when you create the credit — it's the account this entry credits.

Applying to Bills

Once a credit exists, apply it against outstanding bills from the same vendor to reduce what you pay them.

1. Open the credit
2. Click Apply to Bill
3. Pick the outstanding bill(s) from the list
4. Enter how much to apply per bill:
   • Full credit to one bill
   • Split across multiple bills
   • Partial — keep the rest as an open credit
5. Click Apply

When applied:

• The bill's balance due drops by the applied amount
• If the credit fully covers the bill → status flips to Paid
• Partial coverage → remaining balance stays outstanding
• The credit's available balance decreases by the applied amount

Example

$500 credit, two outstanding bills:

Open Credits List

To find all credits that haven't been fully applied:

1. Open Vendor Credits from the sidebar (also accessible from the Vendors section)
2. The list shows every credit note and its current status
3. Filter by status to see only open credits
4. Filter by vendor to focus on one supplier

Each row shows:

• Credit number and date
• Vendor
• Original amount — total when the credit was created
• Applied — how much has been used against bills
• Available — unapplied balance remaining
• Status — Open or Applied

Status

Credits live in one of two states:

Credits start Open and flip to Applied once the entire amount has been used against bills.

Deleting Credits

To remove a credit that was entered incorrectly:

1. Open the credit from the Vendor Credits list
2. Click Delete
3. Confirm

If the credit has been applied to bills, Kantivo first reverses those applications (so the affected bills return to their previous outstanding balance), then removes the credit itself. The original journal entry is voided and the audit log records the deletion with your user name and timestamp.