Understanding Receipts and Credit Notes

When funds are added to a customer or sub-reseller account through payments or adjustments. This article explains receipts, credit notes, and how account balances are updated.

Receipts and Credit Notes depict the money credited to your customers/sub-resellers' accounts. There is not much difference between a Receipt and a Credit Note, except in a technical sense. From an accounting perspective, a Receipt signifies actual Receipt of money, while a Credit Note would be used to credit your Customer/Sub-Reseller with funds without actual Receipt of money. Let's take an example to understand this better:

If your customer sends you a cheque of USD 200 and you credit it to his account, you will do this as a receipt.
If you decide to offer your Customer a discount on their previous Registrations, you may choose to pass a Credit Note for that discount by adding funds to the Customer's account using a Credit Note. There is no actual receipt of money, but you still wish to Add Funds to that Customer's Account.

In that sense, both receipts and credit notes are used to add funds to your customer's/reseller's account. Any receipt added immediately adds to your customer or sub-reseller's available balance.

Let's look at the fields that make up Receipts and Credit Notes:

Transaction ID: This is a numerical integer value which uniquely identifies every transaction. The system automatically generates serial numbers for you, separately for your Customers and your Sub-Resellers, starting from 1, incrementing upwards for each additional Receipt and Credit Note created.
Transaction Date: This is the date on which the Receipt/Credit Note was created.
Description: This is the description of the Receipt/Credit Note.
Receipt/Credit Note Amount: This is the amount of the Receipt/Credit Note. On adding the Receipt/Credit Note, this amount gets added to the total available balance of that Customer/Sub-Reseller. In case your Selling Currency is different from your Accounting Currency, you will see the Receipt/Credit Note Amount in both currencies.
Pending Amount: This is the amount of unutilised funds of a particular Receipt/Credit Note. To begin with, this will be the same as the Receipt/Credit Note Amount. For example, if the Receipt amount is USD 200, the pending amount will also be USD 200. If the Customer now chooses to pay an Invoice of USD 100 using this Receipt, the Pending Amount in the receipt will now be USD 100. In case your Selling Currency is different from your Accounting Currency, you will see the Pending amount in both currencies.
Other Details: A Receipt contains several other details such as Contact Information, Tax information, etc..

It is important to note that none of the above fields can be modified once a Receipt/Credit Note is created. The amounts, address information, and everything remain as they are. Another important aspect to note is that a Receipt/Credit Note contains even your OWN contact details. If you click the Print button in the Receipt/Credit Note Details view, it will show your contact details too. These contact details are separately stored with each Receipt/Credit Note. These too cannot be modified. Even if you change your company name after 1 month, it will not affect the Receipts/Credit Notes already raised under the previous company name. This change will only affect newer transactions.

Let's understand the different types of actions that can be performed on a Receipt/Credit Note. These actions are accessible from the toolbar in the Receipt/Credit Note Details view:

Print: You can use this button to obtain a Printable Copy of the Receipt/Credit Note for your reference.
Download: You can use this button to download a copy of the Receipt/Credit Note as a PDF file.
Chargeback/Refund: In the event that you receive a Chargeback (payment dispute) or wish to Refund a Receipt/Credit Note, you may do so from within the particular Receipt/Credit Note's Details view itself, by selecting the appropriate option in the drop-down and clicking the Go button.

Additional Information
Subtracting Funds from your Customers/Sub-Resellers Account

An additional concept which is important to note with respect to Receipts and Credit Notes is the maintenance of the Total Receipts figure. A Total Receipts figure is maintained for every Customer/Sub-Reseller of yours, and appropriately modified for every Receipt or Credit Note added for that Customer/Sub-Reseller. This Total Receipts figure is then used to offer discounts to Sub-Resellers and Customers doing higher volumes of business.

Additional Information
Adding Funds to your Customers/Sub-Resellers Account