Credit notes and returns: how to automate them

A credit note is issued when the value of an already recorded supply changes: goods come back, a discount is granted, an error is corrected. For the accountant it is a separate job – the document looks like an ordinary invoice but has to work in the opposite direction. That is why credit notes so often fall outside automation and get keyed in by hand.

Why credit notes break the automated flow

Most invoice-capture tools are built for one scenario: a purchase invoice, positive quantities, positive amounts. A credit note breaks it. If the tool does not recognise the document type, the accountant gets an entry with the right amounts and the wrong direction, then fixes it inside the accounting system. A missed credit note, in turn, leaves overstated input or output VAT for the period.

The document type is detected automatically

Ezura classifies the document during extraction: if it is a credit note, it is flagged as its own type before it ever reaches review. If an invoice is re-read later (say a better-quality PDF arrives), the type is recomputed along with the other fields. The type can also be changed by hand in review – detection helps, it does not decide.

• •Credit notes are detected from document content, not the file name
• •Lines, quantities and VAT rates are read as on any invoice
• •The type can be corrected in review with a single toggle
• •Dimensions and cost centres are assigned by the same rules

The detail that matters: a minus sign is not enough

This is why "just add a minus" does not work. Accounting systems recognise a credit note from the operation type, not from a negative total. For Rivile GAMA, Ezura changes the document's operation type itself – a purchase credit note carries a different operation code than an ordinary purchase, and an issued credit note a different one than an ordinary sale. The amounts are sent as positive figures: direction comes from the operation type, not from the sign.

Line items are the other half of the same problem. Some accounting systems require a positive unit price and reject a negative one, so the quantity has to carry the return. Ezura validates the export before the document is handed over: if a line does not satisfy that specific system's rules, the accountant sees it as an error in Ezura rather than as a rejected import in the ERP.

Credit notes and VAT

Credit VAT invoices go into the i.SAF registers like any other, so the per-line VAT code matters as much as the direction. If the original invoice mixed rates or included reverse charge, the credit has to mirror those same rates. Ezura keeps a separate VAT rate per line and reconciles line totals against the document header, so a mismatch surfaces in review instead of at month-end close.

Credit notes you issue

Credit notes have to be issued as well as received. In Ezura, outgoing credit notes get their own numbering – the pattern is set in the sales settings, so credit documents do not consume the ordinary invoice sequence and are easier to tie back to the invoice being corrected.

What changes for the accountant

The practical result is simple: returns and discounts stop being the exception that has to be handled manually every month. The document arrives by email, is recognised as a credit note, picks up dimensions and VAT codes under the same rules as every other invoice, and leaves for the accounting system with the correct operation type.