How do I issue a credit?

In this article, you'll learn how to issue credits and what to do with them after they've been invoiced.

• A credit is a "negative" charge. It reduces the student's overall balance and can be applied to invoices just like a payment.
• Credits are added just like charges—you can add them manually or they can be automatically generated by, for example, a refund policy.
• Also like charges, credits must be invoiced.
• Once invoiced, they can be refunded to students or applied to unpaid invoices.

Financial > Settings

In the main Financial > Settings view, you can decide whether credits (once invoiced) will automatically be applied to the student's unpaid invoices (if any) or if you'd like to manually apply all credits as you see fit.

Generating a credit

As mentioned, some credits are automatically generated by refund policies (or other events). When that happens, you can find them in a couple places:

• The Pending Charges report in Billing. You can filter this report to show amounts under $0 to see all the pending credits.
• On Profile > Financial. Depending on the nature of the credit, it might be visible on Dashboard or By Term.

Manually-adding credits

Here's how to manually-add a credit to a single student on Profile > Financial (Dashboard or By Term):

1. Go to the student's Profile > Financial view and, depending on the kind of credit you're issuing, click either the Dashboard view or By Term.
2. If on Dashboard, click add a fee. If on By Term, click add next to Charges.
3. Select the charge and fill in the details (description, etc.).
4. In the Amount field, enter a negative number, e.g. - 159.
5. When you're done, click Save.

When you save, the credit will appear in the list of charges on the student's profile (as well as the Pending Charges report).

Here's how to add a credit to a group of students using the Data Slicer:

1. Run a report.
2. When your results come up, click Actions and choose Apply Charge/Credit.
3. Pick an academic term from the drop-down.
4. Select the type—is this a fee, tuition charge, or for rooming or meals?
5. Select the charge and fill in the details (description, etc.).
6. Enter the amount (for a credit, simply enter a negative amount).
7. When you're done, click Save.

When you save, the credit will be applied to every student returned in your report.

Invoicing the credit

When you invoice the credit, it will actually affect the student's balance.

• Follow the instructions for invoicing charges. You can choose to invoice the credit individually or include it in an invoice with other charges.
• If invoiced with other charges, the credit will simply reduce the amount of the invoice.
• If the credit amount is larger than the charge amounts, or if the credit is invoiced individually, the credit will be applied to the student's account according to your selection in Financial > Settings.
• After invoicing, the credit will be included in the Billing > Charges/Credits report.

Unapplied Credits

When a credit has not been applied to other invoices, it becomes an unapplied credit. These are listed on Profile > Financial > Dashboard and in Billing > Current > Unapplied Payments/Credits. Here's how to apply an unapplied credit (presuming your financial settings allow you to manually apply credits):

1. Go to the student's Profile > Financial > Dashboard view.
2. Under Unapplied Payments/Credits, find the credit you wish to use. Click apply next to it.
3. Select the invoices to which you wish to apply it. Change the amounts, if necessary.
4. When you're done, click Save.

If the student has a credit balance, you can also refund that balance to the student.