How or where do we see a customer's credit on their account?

If a customer has account credit, for example if they overpay an invoice… Where do we see this credit and how to do we apply the credit either automatically or manually to their next invoice?

How/where does the customer see their credit balance in the customer portal?

You can create a payment for the invoice which uses the credit.

Clients can view their credits in the client portal using the credits option in the left navigation.

There’s a “Use available credits” option on Settings > Online Payments which determines if clients can use the credits to enter payments.

Doesn’t work for the client I just viewed. This is why I’m asking. I know this customer has a credit because I created a payment manually, then applied only a portion of that payment to an invoice. There is zero evidence of this customer having a credit, either in the customer portal or in the main Invoice Ninja interface.

Also, how can I view credits for the customer without going to their customer portal? I mean I can’t see them in the customer portal either at the moment but even if I can, this is not the most convenient way to view customer credits. Thanks.

Can you check that credits are enabled on Settings > Account Management > Enabled Modules.

Yes, credits are enabled.

@ben do you have any ideas?

@fonewiz

In the admin portal, can you turn off all the filters? Does it appear then? One thing to check, if the credit has “expired” ie it is past its valid until date, then it won’t appear in the client portal.

Only filter that was on was “Active” I turned that off and even clicked the refresh icon but this didn’t change anything. No credit shown under the customer or under ALL credits for all customers in the admin portal.

How can I check if the credit is expired if it doesn’t show up anywhere? Confused.

Have you created any credits?

Yes, of course. :slight_smile:

I have a customer for example where I created a manually entered payment, then I applied only a portion of the payment to an invoice which left a small credit. The credit doesn’t show. I’m certain there are a few other credits floating around for different customers but, I can’t find them. This is what prompted me to start asking questions.

It would be great if the customer’s balance would reflect any credit balance or show the available credit on the same screen as the screen which shows the customer’s balance. But, at this point, I just want to be able to see the credits somewhere in the admin portal and the customer needs to be able to see them.

Thanks for the details!

In that case you would have an unapplied payment rather than a credit.

Huh? How is that? If there is a payment or over payment or in any way the customer has paid more than what is due, there should be a credit on the account… I’m not following how you consider a portion of a payment which is not yet applied to an invoice as NOT a credit.

I think this would be a feature request.

@david any thoughts?

I fail to see how showing an account credit is a feature. Just sayin’… Why do you not consider money left on a customer’s account, an account credit? Still confused by some of your responses. Not trying to be difficult but, this seems pretty basic.

If an account credit isn’t created as I described, can you explain how account credits are created in Invoice Ninja v5?

Also, what happened to the money left over on the manual payment I added? I mean, where can I see it, deal with it or even remember that it exist on the account if it’s not as an account credit?

You can create credits in the admin portal in similar way to how invoices are created.

The payment status would be unapplied or partial.

I get that but, you don’t consider money left over on an account from an over-payment or unapplied payments a credit as well?

What happens to this money in Invoice Ninja v5? How do I track it, find it, remember to apply to a future invoice?

If I’m not mistaken, v4 did consider money left over from an overpayment for example, a credit on the account.

I don’t know of any billing software that I have ever used that just lets this left over money evaporate into nowhere and I have never seen any billing software not apply money left from an overpayment or really from any source, NOT applied to the account as a credit on file.

I’m not bashing the product, I’m simply discussing and trying to understand the thinking on this based on your responses.

All funds have to go somewhere and be accounted for, all debits/credits. If you can’t view money left on a customer’s account as a “credit” then how do you find it or remember it even exist.

Additional question is, what happens with this left over money now does it get automatically applied to a future invoice or do I have to remember it’s left over as an “UnApplied Payment” and apply it manually?

Thanks for your responses.

These are good questions, @david may have some info to add.

In v5 you can choose how to track it, you can either create payments which can be applied later or you can create credits.

This is a change from v4, I’m sure we can improve how this is tracked in the app. We’re open to discussing any specific changes you’d like to see implemented.

You can configure on Settings > Online Payments how available credits should be handled.

Unapplied payments (when an invoice is overpaid for example) are available for future use by applying the remainder on an invoice at a later date.

This was a feature implemented specifically for the case where a user could overpay an invoice which could be stored for future use.

Credits work in the more traditional sense. These can be created manually, and can also be used to apply towards an invoice in the future.

I can see how have lots of unapplied payments could be tricky to manage if there were a lot of them across different clients. We can certainly look to make it easier to understand how much unapplied payments could exist for a client.