FAQ 333: How do I issue a credit note?

A Credit Note is essentially the opposite of an Invoice. An Invoice = ‘the patient owes you money’, while a Credit Note = ‘you owe the patient money’.

Here are some examples when you might raise a Credit Note for a customer :-

[1] As a gift voucher which can be used at a later date against an invoice
[2] A patient complains about a £30 invoice, so you only take a £20 payment from him/her and raise a Credit Note for remaining £10 on the invoice
[3] A patient disputes an invoice and refuses to pay it. After a period of time, you decide to write it off as a ‘bad debt’ so you raise a Credit Note to the same value as the invoice.
[4] You need to refund a patient for some goods or a service. You first need to raise a Credit Note and then issue a Refund against the Credit Note (click here for more information).

The basic purpose of a Credit Note is to affect the patient’s account balance positively (i.e. to ‘credit’ their account with an amount).