Credit Memos - Setup

Important: Service Providers will be renamed to Vendors in an upcoming release. This article reflects that change.

This article walks you through the process of creating and managing vendor credit memos in Vantaca. Use credit memos to track vendor credits—including refunds, returned items, overpayments, or promotional credits—and apply them to reduce future invoice payments.

You'll learn how to set up credit memo accounts, create credit memos for vendors, and apply those credits when paying invoices. Proper credit memo management helps maintain accurate vendor balances and ensures your financial records reflect all credits received.

Note: All Credit Memo functionality is placed behind a Feature Flag in Vantaca, this will need to be enabled by a member of Vantaca’s Support Team. Please contact us if you’d like to incorporate Credit Memos into your Vantaca workflow

Contents

• Role Securities
• Configuring Credit Memo GL
• Creating a Credit Memo
• Applying a Credit Memo
• Troubleshooting
   

Role Securities

Configuring Credit Memo GL

1. Go to Association > Settings> Accounting.
   1. This can be done on your Model Association to save time.
2. Click Edit on the GL for Credit Memo field.
   
   
    
3. Select an available GL from the dropdown options and click Update to complete.

Note: If you do not have a Credit Memo GL, you will need to create one. For more info, see the "Global GL Accounts" or "Editing GL Accounts for Associations" articles. If you notice that invoices are defaulting to an incorrect Credit Memo General Ledger (GL) account, you have the option to update the GL to the correct account here in Association Settings.

Creating a Credit Memo

1. Go to Vendors > Credit Memos.
2. Select the vendor you want to create the Credit Memo for by clicking the Vendor name and selecting the intended vendor if it’s not already selected.
3. Click New Credit Memo. 
   The Credit Memo form displays.
4. Provide the following information:
   • Credit Date: You cannot backdate the credit memo into a closed fiscal period.
   • Memo Number
   • GL Account
   • Credit Amount
   • Description
   • Attachments: Click Select files to attach documents if needed (not required).

5. Click Update to complete.

    

   🛡️ Delete Protection 🛡️

   You cannot delete a Credit Memo that is currently applied to an invoice. This protection is in place to prevent additional errors that may occur with a deletion.

Applying a Credit Memo

Note: You need the required permissions to access the Credit Memo tab on Invoices.

After you’ve created a Credit Memo, you can apply it to any invoices that are currently in the Ready For Payment step. 

Tip: You can apply multiple Credit Memos to a single Invoice.

To apply a credit memo:

1. Navigate to Accounting > Pay Invoices.
2. Select an Invoice from any of the available tabs (Pay Now, Warning, or Future) by clicking the caret next to the Invoice.
3. Click the Credit Memo tab, and then Apply next to the Credit Memo you want to apply to the Invoice.
4. Enter an Allocation Amount of the Available Balance to be applied to the invoice.
   Note: The Allocation Amount must be less than or equal to the available balance. Attempting to click the Apply button with an Allocation Amount that exceeds the Available Credit Balance will result in an error message.
5. Click Apply to complete.
   After the Credit Memo is applied, the following information is added to the Invoice Action Item as a New Message:
   • Author
   • “Credit memo applied”
   • Credit Memo Number
   • Amount Applied

💡 Tips:

• Entering a Negative GL Amount: You can also apply a credit memo to an Invoice by entering the Credit amount as a negative GL amount. Vantaca will automatically convert this into a credit memo and apply it to the invoice just as if you were to apply it manually.

• Researching Credit Memos for an Association: To locate credit memos, run the GL Trial Balance by Groups report. Filter by the Credit Memo GL code to view all associated credit memo transactions.

Troubleshooting

Q: How do I resolve errors when applying vendor credits to invoices? For example, I received the following error - "Payment amount must be greater than zero".

A: If you receive this error when attempting to pay an invoice in full using available vendor credit, this indicates the system is rejecting a $0 bank payment after the credit is applied.

When this happens:

• The invoice will clear from the Pay Invoices screen temporarily
• The error message appears: "Payment amount must be greater than zero. Received: 0.0000"
• The invoice returns to the Pay Invoices screen as unpaid
• The credit remains unused

Solution: Instead of applying the credit during the payment process, use the Negative GL Entry Method to incorporate the credit directly into the invoice coding. This method is preferred when credit fully covers the invoice amount.

See the detailed procedure in: Negative GLs as Invoice Credits

Quick Alternative: Change the invoice pay type from ACH/VendorPay to Auto-draft before processing the payment. This allows the system to mark the invoice as paid without attempting an electronic $0 payment.

Q: How do I resolve a "Cannot delete GL Entry that is tied to a Credit Memo" error?

A: If you receive a "Cannot delete GL Entry that is tied to a Credit Memo that has been used to pay an invoice." error check the Audit tab.

Solution: Check the Audit tab of the invoice the credit memo was applied to. If the invoice was voided, delete the credit memo from that invoice's Audit tab instead.