How to Create a Credit Memo from Scratch and Apply it to an Invoice

IMPORTANT! In the coming months, we will be phasing out this version of the Tuition Management module. If you are looking for how to work with Contracts in the next generation of the Tuition Management module (which is where all 2023-2024 Contracts were built and sent from), go to the Tuition Management section of our Help Center.

Credit memos will be used for a wide variety of reasons including adding financial aid, tuition adjustments, refunds, and more. Anytime you need to add a credit memo without using an existing invoice these are the instructions to follow. 

Click here to skip to Applying the Credit Memo to an Invoice.

PRO TIP! Make sure to toggle the payment plan offline if you want to need to make sure this account is set offline and won't have payments drawn on it. How to Toggle a Payment Plan On or Offline

1. Go to Favorites > Families. Filter for and edit the appropriate family.
   
2. From the Edit Family page, the Invoices tab will be highlighted. Click New Inv/CM to create the new credit memo.
   
3. This will take you to the Add Invoice to Family page where you will make several selections. Some of these selections will be pre-filled, including Payment Plan, Person, Billing Address, and Invoice Date, and you will not need to change those fields. The following fields will need to be filled in:
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   • Start by selecting Is Credit Memo. 
   • Next, select the appropriate Accounting Item.  You will be able to add more than one accounting item if needed so just add one at a time.
   • Add a Rate for the amount of the accounting item. This must be a negative number. 
   • Click Additional Line Items and repeat the above steps for Accounting Item and Rate if you need to add additional items. 
     PRO TIP! You can split credit memos between multiple invoices if needed!
4. Select the Payment Schedule Options. For credit memos that are a negative dollar amount, you can select Paid all on one Date. You will select how to spread out the credit memo in the next step. It is also recommended that you add an Invoice Description to help detail this credit memo. This will appear on the invoice and will be seen by both the school and the parents. 
   PRO TIP! Do NOT stop here if you need to apply this credit memo. The remaining steps 5-8 are designed to help you apply your credit memo as it is not applied to any invoices until you apply it. 
   
   

   Applying the Credit Memo to an Invoice
   

5. Click Save and Continue and this will take you to the Edit Invoice/Credit Memo page. Click Apply Credit to apply the credit memo to another invoice. 
6. Step One will have you select the Invoice that you want to apply the refund to and click Next. 
   
7. This will take you to Step Two where you will confirm the amount you want to apply. Click Apply Credit when you are ready. 
   PRO TIP! Hover over the Schedule Choice help bubble for more info.
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   • Select Spread over Remaining Schedule if you would like to have the credit memo evenly spread over an invoices payment schedule.
     Select Apply Today if you would like to have the credit memo amount applied first to the next payment due and then subsequently taken off of each additional payment due until the amount is fully used. For example, if a family has 10 remaining payments of $500 a credit memo of $1000 that is applied today would have $500 paid towards the first and second payment due. This would leave the remaining eight payments at $500. 
   • The Amount to Apply will be for the full amount of the credit memo but you can alter this amount and spread it over more than one invoice if you need to. 
   • Click Apply Credit to apply the credit memo and you are just about done!
     
     
8. You will be taken back to the Step One page where you will see a success message to confirm the applied payment. Now, click Back to see the credit memo; click Back one more time and you will back to the Edit Family page where you can review the family account if needed.