--- title: "Understand credit notes and allocations" canonical: https://www.billabex.com/en/help/customer-accounts-documents/credit-notes-allocations/ lang: en alternate: https://www.billabex.com/fr/aide/comptes-clients-documents/avoirs-imputations.md updated: 2026-09-27 index: https://www.billabex.com/llms.txt --- # Understand credit notes and allocations

In short

A credit note reduces a receivable when an allocation links it to an invoice on the same customer account. Its available amount accounts for refunds and allocations already used. The credit note moves from Issued to Partially settled, then Settled when nothing remains. The invoice balance decreases in parallel and can become paid without another bank payment.

## Expected result Each allocation links the correct credit note and invoice, reducing both remaining amounts equally. ## Before you start - Confirm invoice and credit note belong to the same account. - Locate available credit and remaining invoice amount. ## Procedure 1. Open the credit note and check issued, refunded, allocated, and remaining amounts. 2. Choose the invoice on the same account that should receive the credit. 3. Enter a positive amount within both available limits. 4. Submit and verify the allocation on both credit note and invoice. 5. Review resulting statuses and the collection account balance. 6. To record where the credit note comes from, set its **Original invoice** when creating it or in its detail, searching the account’s invoices, paid ones included. ## What Billabex does Allocation is coordinated across both aggregates so invoice and credit note contain the same link. Removing it restores remaining amounts and can reactivate a receivable previously covered. The **Original invoice** is a documentary link, separate from the allocation: it records the credit note’s origin without changing any balance, amount or status. Several credit notes can point to the same invoice, and the link stays editable on a synced credit note. ## If the result is not what you expected - Allocation across different accounts is rejected. - A refunded or consumed credit note cannot be fully reused. - Setting an original invoice does not reduce its balance: also create the allocation if the credit should apply to it. - “Original invoice unavailable”: the linked invoice has since been deleted; the link is kept. - When a synchronized document changes, wait for orphan-allocation cleanup before retrying.