Create & Post a Billing Credit Memo with VAT Reporting

Overview

The process to create a Billing credit memo is almost identical to entering a Billing customer invoice. The main difference is that the Billing Lines will be entered with negative values. If the amount on the Billing is negative, the invoice type will automatically switch to a credit memo. In the Avalara VAT (value-added tax) Reporting, negative amounts will display when you post a credit memo. If a credit memo is unposted, the amounts in Avalara VAT Reporting will display as positive amounts to reverse credit memo.

Do you want to:

Create & Post a Credit Memo
View the Credit Memo in VAT Reporting
Unpost a Credit Memo

Create & Post a Credit Memo

From Accounting Home, under Cash In select Billings (Customer Invoices).
From the list view, click New to create a new credit memo. Otherwise, select an existing Billing and click Clone with Lines to create a new credit memo.
If you click New, select a Ledger, Currency, and Customer.
Complete any additional fields, if necessary.
Click Save. The Billing record displays.
Scroll down the page to the Billing Lines related list. To add Billing Lines, click Mass Add/Edit Rows.
Click Add New Line.
(Optional) Click the Lookup icon to search for and select a Product for the line.
Enter the Quantity.
Enter the Unit Price.
Note: In order for this to be a credit memo, the Unit Price must be entered as a negative amount.
Enter a Revenue GL Account. Otherwise, click the Lookup icon to search for and select a Revenue GL Account.
Click the Lookup icon to search for and select a Tax Group for the line.
Tip: To view all of the available Sales Tax Groups for your country, enter the first three letters of the Sales Tax Group in the Lookup search textbox. For example, for Great Britain, enter “GBS” in the Lookup search textbox and click Go.
(Optional) Add additional lines.
At this point, you can select one of the following: Save & Complete, Save & Post, etc.

Note: Posted records can be viewed in Avalara VAT Reporting.

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View the Credit Memo in VAT Reporting

To view the Billing in Avalara, log into your VAT Reporting Account.
From the Transactions menu, select Processed Documents.
(Optional) Select/enter any or all of the following, and then click Apply.
1. Company
2. Processed After
3. Processed Before
4. Filename Contains
5. Only Show Manual Documents (Only applicable if manual documents were created in Avalara VAT Reporting.)
Under File name, click the hyperlink for the Billing that you want to view (the credit memo).
Note: In addition to the Billing number, each filename includes a date and time stamp. This information is included so that each Billing/Invoice Number can be uniquely identified.
Click the Invoice Number hyperlink.
Click the Invoice Number hyperlink again to drill-down for viewing line item details. Then, scroll down the page to view each line, as necessary.

The credit memo displays negative amounts.
Note: Since this is a credit memo, the Document Type will display as 2 - Sales Credit. The Document Type of 2 - Sales Credit will display for a credit memo that has been posted or unposted.
Scroll down the page to display the Additional Document Data.
Note: Since this is a credit memo, the Value for the Taxable Basis and the VAT display as negative amounts.

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Unpost a Credit Memo

From Accounting Home, under Cash In select Billings (Customer Invoices).
From the Billings related list, display the credit memo that you want to unpost.
Click Unpost.
From the Billing intermediate screen, click Unpost again to unpost the record. The Billing record refreshes.
Note: Since the credit memo was unposted, the transactions will no longer display in the Transactions related list.
To view the unposted credit memo in Avalara, log into your VAT Reporting Account.
From the Transactions menu, select Processed Documents.
Under File name, click the hyperlink for the Billing that you want to view (the unposted credit memo).
Note: In addition to the Billing number, each filename includes a date and time stamp. This information is included so that each Billing/Invoice Number can be uniquely identified.
Click the Invoice Number hyperlink again to drill-down for viewing line item details. Then, scroll down the page to view each line, as necessary.

Note: Since this is a credit memo, the Document Type will display as 2 - Sales Credit. The Document Type of 2 - Sales Credit will display for a credit memo that has been posted or unposted.
Scroll down the page to display the Additional Document Data.
Note: Since this is an unposted credit memo, the Value for the Taxable Basis and the VAT display as positive amounts.