Reimburse a customer (refunds and credit notes)

Reimbursing a customer happens in two steps:

1. Document the reimbursement with a credit note. The credit note adjusts the customer's invoiced balance and is the audit-trail artifact.
2. Send the money back outside Reonic, by bank transfer, a refund through your payment provider, or however your accounting team handles cash refunds.

Reonic owns step 1. Step 2 is your accounting workflow.

Before you start

• The original invoice must be in Issued or Sent status. Drafts can be edited directly, with no credit note needed.
• Decide whether you're crediting the full invoice (the entire amount back) or specific line items (a partial credit).
• Pick the reason for the credit. Reonic's credit-note reason list is Invoicing error, Scope reduction, Equipment return, Discount applied, Pricing correction, and Tax adjustment.
• Know whether the customer has already paid. If yes, the credit note documents what you owe back; the actual refund is a separate action.
• Confirm country eligibility, the same rules as invoicing: DE, AT, CH, FR, UK, Jersey, plus the French overseas territories.

When to issue a credit note vs void the invoice

Two paths lead backward from an issued invoice. Pick the right one.

Issue a credit note when

• The invoice is fundamentally valid but the amount needs to come down.
• You're crediting a partial amount (specific line items, not the whole invoice).
• The customer is genuinely owed money back (scope shrank, equipment returned, a discount applied).
• You want to keep the original invoice on file with its number and audit trail intact.

Void the invoice instead when

• The invoice should never have gone out at all (wrong customer, duplicate, completely wrong project).
• The customer hasn't paid yet and the invoice is going to be re-issued from scratch.
• You want the invoice marked as never valid rather than adjusted down.

Voiding keeps the number burned in the sequence (numbers stay unique for life) but removes the invoice from payment expectations.

Note: If a customer asks for a refund on an invoice that was issued but never paid, both routes net to zero. Void it if it should never have gone out, or issue a credit note for the appropriate amount. Either way the customer owes you nothing and you owe them nothing.

Note: Both Credit Note and Void leave the document on file. Credit Note keeps the original in Issued or Sent status with an adjusted balance; Void marks it cancelled with the original number preserved. If you also want the original row out of your default list view after Void, Archive the voided document. That's a separate tidiness action: void the issued money document first, then archive it. Archive is per-document or per-Document-Group (it cascades), and it leaves accounting state untouched.

Issue a credit note to document the reimbursement

1. Open the Invoicing tab and find the original issued invoice.
2. Trigger Create credit note on the document.
3. Pick a reason from the fixed list: Invoicing error, Scope reduction, Equipment return, Discount applied, Pricing correction, or Tax adjustment.
4. The credit note opens in Draft, pre-populated from the original invoice. Edit the line items to credit (the full invoice or a partial selection with quantities), the memo or explanation text (this typically appears on the credit-note PDF), and the due date and payment terms.
5. Click Issue on the credit note. The system generates the official credit-note PDF, assigns a credit-note number using your prefix (for example CN-2026-0008), locks the document, and adjusts the outstanding balance of the original invoice by the credited amount.
6. Send the credit note to the customer via email, the same Send flow as an invoice.

The credit note is now on file. The customer's invoiced balance reflects the credit. If they already paid, the credit note documents what's owed back.

Pro tip: Pick the right reason on the first try. The reason is used downstream for accounting reporting and tax handling. Picking Pricing correction when the right answer is Tax adjustment creates reconciliation work later.

Wire the money back to the customer

The credit note documents the reimbursement. Refunding the cash happens in your accounting workflow, outside Reonic. Common paths:

• Bank transfer. Your accounting team initiates a SEPA or bank transfer to the customer for the credit amount.
• Refund through your payment provider. If the original invoice was paid online, refund the original charge from your payment provider. The refund can be partial or full.
• Offset against future invoices. If you're going to invoice the customer again (an ongoing service contract, say), apply the credit toward the next invoice instead of refunding cash. On that next invoice, add a discount equal to the credit amount and a memo line referencing the credit-note number, so the net total is the future work minus the credit. Document this agreement with the customer in writing.
• Direct-debit reversal. If the original payment was a SEPA direct debit, reverse it through your bank.

Whichever path you use, record the money movement in your accounting system (Lexoffice, Sevdesk, Bexio, DATEV, or your spreadsheet). Reonic shows that the credit note exists; your accounting shows the cash flow.

Send the credit note to the customer

The credit-note Send flow mirrors the invoice Send flow:

1. Open the credit note.
2. Click Send via email.
3. Adjust the recipient, subject, and message text.
4. Click Send.

The customer receives the credit-note PDF as an attachment with an explanatory email. They keep this PDF for their records; it's their proof of the credit.

Record the credit note in your accounting tool yourself when you reconcile.

Partial reimbursement

When the customer is due back only part of the invoice (they returned the battery but kept the solar, say), issue a partial credit note:

1. Trigger Create credit note on the original invoice.
2. Pick Equipment return (or the right reason).
3. In the credit note's line-items editor, deselect the lines that should not be credited (the solar lines, in this example) and keep only the lines being credited (the battery line).
4. Adjust the quantity if the customer returned only some of a multi-unit line.
5. Issue and send.

The credit-note amount is the sum of the credited lines, not the full invoice. The original invoice's outstanding balance is adjusted by that amount.

Things to know

• Reason is a fixed list, not free text. Pick the closest match. The reason flows onto the credit-note PDF and into accounting reporting; the wrong reason creates reconciliation work.
• Credit notes adjust balance, not invoice state. The original invoice stays in Issued or Sent status. The credit note adjusts the amount the customer is expected to pay (or owes back).
• Numbers are independent. Credit notes have their own number prefix and sequence, set in your Issuing details.
• The refund is your accounting team's action. The credit note documents what's owed back; the actual money transfer happens in your accounting workflow. Track both: the credit note in Reonic, the bank transfer in your accounting system. Invoices and credit notes carry bank-transfer payment instructions (an IBAN plus an optional EPC QR code); cash movement always happens outside Reonic.
• The country gate applies. Same rules as invoicing: DE, AT, CH, FR, UK, Jersey, plus the French overseas territories.
• You can issue multiple credit notes against the same invoice. A partial scope reduction now, an equipment return later, a discount applied in three months: each is a separate credit note, and Reonic tracks the running balance. Each credit note reverses all or part of the original; to document more than the original invoice, issue separate documentation.
• Tax adjustment is a distinct reason. Tax-only corrections (a wrong VAT rate applied, say) get their own reason. Pick Tax adjustment rather than Pricing correction when only the tax changed.
• Credit notes inherit the original invoice's currency. If you need to refund in a different currency, handle the FX adjustment with your accounting team outside Reonic.
• Customer-facing PDF. The credit note PDF reads as a Gutschrift in DE markets, credit note in EN, and avoir in FR. The locale is set at issue time and locks in the PDF.

Need help?

• Step-by-step questions about this flow → contact your Reonic account manager.
• Feature requests / something missing → drop a note to your account manager.
• Bug reports → include a screenshot and the URL where it happened in your support email.

Last updated on August 4, 2026