To apply a customer credit (from the Receive Payments window)

1. An alert message that reads "You have $XX in outstanding credit memos on file with this customer" should appear. You have three choices:

• Click Apply Credits if you want to settle the customer credit against any open invoices for this customer. The outstanding credit memos will be automatically applied to the oldest invoices first. This transaction will be automatically created. You're done!

• Click Open Register if you'd like to use the Sales Register to choose how the customer credit will be settled. Proceed to step 2.

• Click Cancel if you don't want to settle the customer credit at this time. You're done!

Note: The alert message may be different

If you have only open orders in AccountEdge, the alert message will have two choices: you can use either the Open Register or Cancel options.

2. The Returns & Credits view of the Sales Register appears. You can view credits for all or just one of your customers.

To view sales for one customer, select Customer in the Search by field, then enter the customer's name in the second field.

3. A list of the customer's credits appears. Highlight the credit you wish to apply.

Note: If you assigned a category to the credit, it must match the category of the sale to which you apply the credit. If they don’t match or if either has not category, the sale does not appear in the list of sales. Use the Open Invoices view or Orders view of the Sales Register to find the invoice or order to which you will apply the credit. Assign a category to one the transactions so they do match. Return to this view and the sale will appear.

4. Click the Apply to Sale button. The Settle Returns & Credits window appears, listing all open sales assigned to the customer.
5. Depending upon your selections in the Preferences window, amounts may appear automatically in the Amount Applied column in the scrolling list. This column is the area where you designate the sales to which you want to apply the customer credit. If amounts appear here, take a moment to review them.

If you marked the Apply Receive Payments Automatically to Oldest Invoice First option in the Sales view of the Preferences window, amounts will appear next to the oldest invoices at the top of the scrolling list in the Settle Returns & Credits window. AccountEdge is suggesting that you apply the credit to the customer's oldest open sales; however, you can apply the credit amount to any one transaction -- or you can divide it among many transactions -- in the list. Keep in mind, however, that the total amount you apply in the Amount Applied column must equal the amount that appears in the Credit Amount field.

6. Enter the amount you want to apply in the appropriate field in the Amount Applied column.
7. Enter the customer credit amount in the Finance Charge field, if you want to apply a customer credit to any unpaid finance charges the customer may have accrued.
8. Enter a discount amount in the sale's Discount column, if you wish to give a discount to the customer for a particular sale.
9. Click Record. At this point, a number of situations may occur:

• If the Settle Returns & Credits window closes, you successfully applied the customer credit, and you're done!

• If the total amount entered in the Amount Applied column doesn't equal the amount displayed in the Credit Amount field at the top of the window, an alert message will appear, explaining that an unbalanced transaction can't be recorded. Click OK to close the message, then continue to step 10.

10. To balance the transaction, you can change either the total amount in the Amount Applied column or the amount that's displayed in the Credit Amount field.

If you change the Credit Amount field's amount, keep in mind that you can enter an amount less than the original customer credit amount only. If you choose to do this, the customer credit won't be fully applied; the remaining amount will continue to appear as a customer credit.

11. Click Record to apply the customer credit.