Customer credit

Customer credit is money that belongs to a customer but is not on any of their invoices yet. You can use it to pay the customer's later invoices, partly or in full.

Worth knowing: credit is not stored as a separate amount, it is the unused part of a payment or of a credit note. Sliptree keeps it where it came from, and the customer's page adds those amounts up.

Where credit comes from

Credit appears in four situations:

• A customer pays more than the invoices. When a payment from the bank is larger than the invoices you match it to, the rest stays as that customer's credit.
• A customer pays in advance. When you record a payment from the bank with no invoice, as a prepayment for a customer, all of it is their credit.
• You take a payment off an invoice. A payment from the bank goes back to the customer's credit. For a payment you typed in by hand, Sliptree asks whether to keep it as credit or delete it, and keeping it is the default.
• A credit note is bigger than what is still open on its invoice. The rest stays on the credit note as the customer's credit until you refund it or use it on an invoice. See How do I issue a credit note against a paid invoice?

When one payment from the bank pays invoices of several customers, the rest is recorded as other income, not as credit, because Sliptree cannot tell whose credit it is.

Where you see it

The customer's page has a Balance card with two amounts for each currency. Open invoices is what the customer still has to pay, and Customer credit is the money you hold for them, with a minus in front of it. Clicking the credit amount shows where it sits: Left on credit notes and Unused payments, each linking to its list when it holds money.

At the top right, the card adds the two together: open invoices of 1 240,00 € and credit of −500,00 € give 740,00 € and Customer owes under it. When the credit is larger, the total has a minus and Customer has credit under it: open invoices of 200,00 € and credit of −500,00 € give −300,00 €. When the amounts are in several currencies, that total is in your company currency at the latest exchange rate, with ≈ in front of it.

You also see credit in these places:

• On the Transactions tab under Payments, a payment with credit shows its unused amount under the amount. The Has unused amount filter lists only those payments, and the Customer filter narrows them to one customer. Unused payments on the Balance card opens this list for you.
• On an unpaid invoice of the customer, the Add payment panel shows a box above the form that says how much credit the customer has. When a payment from the bank looks like it pays the invoice, the box names that payment first, with the credit under it, and its button is Match.
• On the customer's page, Needs attention has a Customer has credit row when the credit could pay open invoices in the same currency.
• In the customer list, the Open invoices and Customer credit columns show both amounts for each customer, and the Balance filter finds the customers who have open invoices or credit.
• On a credit note with an amount left, a box under Refunds says how much of it is left.

Using credit on an invoice

Credit can pay the customer's own invoices in the same currency, once the invoice is completed.

1. Open the invoice and click Add payment.
2. In the box above the form, click Apply credit, or Match when the box also names a payment from the bank.
3. Tick the credit you want to use. The amount next to To invoice is what the invoice still owes, or all of the credit if that is less. Change it to use less.
4. Click Apply credit.

The invoice is then paid, or partly paid, and the credit is in its payment list, named after the payment it came from. What you did not use stays as credit for later, and the message after saving offers Undo.

The list that this button opens also has the customer's open credit notes, for example "Credit note 2026/29" with the amount left. If you tick one, the invoice's payment row reads "Covered by credit note 2026/29". You can use part of it, and Undo puts the amount back on the credit note.

The same dialog also lists unmatched payments from the bank, so you can pay one invoice with credit and a new payment together. See Matching from the invoice.

If you want to use credit on several invoices at once, click Apply credit on the customer's Balance card, or on the Customer has credit row under Needs attention. The link is there when the customer has credit and open invoices in the same currency. Sliptree ticks the oldest open invoices until the credit runs out, and you can change which invoices get it and how much before you click Apply credit in the dialog. Unused payments are used first, then what is left on credit notes.

Taking credit off an invoice again

If you used credit on the wrong invoice, click that payment in the invoice's payment list and choose Remove payment. The amount goes back to the customer's credit, and the invoice owes it again.

Credit that came from a credit note goes back to the customer's credit the same way, but the amount does not go back on the credit note. It stays as an unused payment, so the Balance card counts it under Unused payments, not under Left on credit notes. To put it back on the credit note, delete that payment, as described below.

Paying credit back to the customer

When you pay credit back by bank transfer, the transfer is on your next bank statement as money out. Match it with Refund or other outgoing payment and pick the customer, and Sliptree records it as a refund to them.

Note: the refund pays back the customer's oldest unused payments first, so the unused amount on those payments and the credit in an invoice's Add payment panel go down by it. If the refund is larger than the customer's credit, the rest comes off only the Balance card and the Apply credit to open invoices dialog.

Removing credit you no longer need

Credit sits on a payment, so you remove it by removing the payment on the Transactions tab. Delete a payment you recorded by hand, and unmatch a payment that came from a bank statement, which puts its statement line back among the unmatched lines. If part of that payment is already on an invoice, it comes off that invoice too.

When an invoice uses credit from a credit note, Sliptree records a payment for that amount, dated with the credit note's date. Deleting that payment on the Transactions tab puts the amount back on the credit note, also after it was removed from the invoice and kept as credit.