# Credit notes (supplier & client)

> From the Zendrea manual for AI assistants, generated 2026-10-31 from the knowledge of Zendrea's built-in assistant. All topics: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms.txt; all of them in one file: https://www.zendrea.ch/llms-full.txt. Screen names are quoted in English, account numbers are those of the standard Swiss chart, and nothing here is tax or legal advice.

The Others panel's **New entry** menu (a single button that opens a chooser) has these options: **New manual entry** (the raw journal entry above); **New credit card settlement** (shown only when a card account is active — a preset that opens the manual-entry form seeded as a card → bank transfer, debit 2190 / credit the bank, to clear the accumulated card balance); **New supplier credit note**; and **New client credit note** (a **client/sales** credit note). A supplier credit note is a document a vendor issues that **reduces what you owe them** (a return, rebate, price/overcharge correction or volume bonus). The user picks the **supplier**, the **account to credit back** (usually the original expense account the purchase hit) and the **gross** amount; it books debit the supplier (K-…) / credit that account, lowering the payable. Do **not** route a credit note through the Others form — the manual-entry form has no supplier or VAT handling.

Both credit-note forms also have a **receipt attachment** — advise attaching the credit-note document itself (the vendor's Gutschrift, or a copy of the issued client credit note) — and a **document number** (Belegnummer: blank draws the next EG-number for a supplier credit note or GS-number for one we issue, a typed value — typically the credit note's own number — is kept verbatim).

**VAT mirrors the original purchase.** Advise "Includes VAT" with the **same input-VAT code and rate as the purchase** only when that purchase included **deductible input VAT (Vorsteuer)** — the credit then reverses the input tax proportionally (a CHF 100 credit at 8.1% → ~92.51 off the account, ~7.49 off input VAT). If the original carried no VAT (bought abroad, exempt, or the company is not VAT-registered), book it **without** VAT. A credit note follows the original invoice.

**Use it only against an expense account.** Do **not** book a supplier credit note against a **capitalized fixed asset** (a depreciating asset account): it lowers the cost but does not adjust the asset's depreciation schedule — not supported yet. A single phone, monitor or keyboard is normally expensed (below the capitalization threshold), so the credit note is the right tool there.

A supplier credit note appears in Open Items as a **negative payable position** under its supplier (netting the supplier's subtotal and the payables total) and is **ledger-correct** (balance sheet, P&L and the VAT report all net automatically). **Applying it:** when you book payment on one of that supplier's bills (an on-account expense or asset purchase), the payment dialog lists that supplier's credit notes that still have a balance and lets you **apply (draw down) an amount** from each — the cash to pay then drops to the **net** (bill minus applied credit), and a bill **fully covered by credit settles with zero cash** (no payment entry is posted). Unapplied credit stays on the supplier for the next bill, and the credit note shows its **remaining** balance in Open Items, dropping out once fully drawn. (Not supported: partial cash payments, and applying one note across several bills in a single action — settle one bill at a time.)

**Client (sales/AR) credit notes** mirror the above on the revenue side. The **New client credit note** option opens a form where the user picks the **client**, the **revenue account to credit back** (usually the original revenue account the sale hit) and the **gross** amount; it books debit that revenue account / credit the client (D-…), lowering the receivable. Advise "Includes VAT" with the **same output-VAT code as the original invoice** only when that sale carried output VAT; the credit then reverses it proportionally. It appears in Open Items as a **negative receivable position** under its client (netting that client's subtotal and the receivables total) and is ledger-correct (balance sheet, P&L and the VAT report all net). **Applying it** works the same as on the supplier side: when you book payment on one of that client's invoices, the dialog lists the client's credit notes with a balance and lets you draw them down — the cash received drops to the **net**, and an invoice fully covered by credit settles with zero cash. Same limits: no partial cash payments, one invoice at a time.

**A client credit note is NOT how to record money a customer paid you.** The account field refuses bank/cash accounts with a message for exactly this reason (pilots used the form that way and booked phantom negative receivables with no revenue). Money received against an invoice → the invoice's pay button; money received with no invoice → the Revenue tab's "New revenue" form. Route users there whenever they describe an incoming customer payment.