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Credit Note in compliance with UK VAT legislation

  • Edith Karnitsch shared this idea 9 years ago
  • Payments/Billing
  • 54 Comments


350 Votes
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The refund functionality in WHMCS 5.3.13 is not on accordance with UK legislation.

When a refund is issued, the system must generate a Credit Note with the following details:
  • be headed ‘credit note’ or ‘debit note’ as appropriate and show clearly all the following details:
  • the identifying number and date of issue
  • the name, address and registration number of the supplier
  • the name and address of the customer
  • the reason for its issue - for example, ‘returned goods’
  • a description which identifies the goods or services for which credit is being claimed or allowed
  • the quantity and amount for each description
  • the total amount credited, excluding VAT
  • the rate and amount of VAT credited
  • the number and date of the original VAT invoice - if you cannot do this (for example, because returned goods cannot be identified with a particular invoice), you must be able to satisfy us by other means that you accounted for VAT on the original supply

Reference: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-700-the-vat-guide/vat-notice-700-the-vat-guide#credits-and-debts

The current system of issuing a revised invoice contravenes UK VAT legislation and makes WHMCS unusable for UK VAT purposes when it comes to refunds.

The main issue I can see is that currently the date of the refund is not recorded as separate entry, neither is the reason for the refund nor is a unique number applied. The renaming of the document to "Credit Note" should be straight forward.
Merged Ideas
    Issue a credit note for unpaid invoice.
    I have an unpaid invoice that i want to cancel, my accountant is telling me that i can't canceled an electronic invoice and that i need to issue a credit note with the exact amount in order to cancel an invoice.This functionality is not something that is currently offered by WHMCS.I'm sure that this is something that every one need and it's defiantly need to be offered by WHMCS.If any one know a temporary salution it will be great, thanks.

60 Comments

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Antonio Pavón commented 20th August 20
This procedure is similar in Spain. It is necessary!
Peter Kuipers commented 29th July 20
You are thinking?
Bhavesh Raja commented 29th July 20
This been planned for 5 years :) WHMCS v8 is on its way maybe we can expect something new?
Zaid Bester commented 8th May 20
I am not sure if this will help as it's been 4 years since this was logged but is an urgent request from our billing department
Bence Bokor commented 6th May 20
In planned for years, still no news? Guys, we need this!
Karl Prust commented 23rd April 19
And them being a UK company as well!
Arthur Jansen commented 23rd April 19
I think it's save to say that WHMCS isn't really bothered by this... since they haven't added it in the 3 years we are requesting it.
ghislain commented 10th April 19
i really need credit note or negative bills like it was before. In France too we cannot just mess with existing invoices and change them. Invoice cannot be change when done. If you refund one you have to issue credit note. We used negative invoices but now it is Forbidden...
whatever commented 22nd September 18
currently there is no reversed invoice in whmcs.
however a reversed invoice would be fine IF theres a reference to the original invoice and a reason.
however there needs also to be an transaction which is impossible in whmcs currently because negative transactions are not allowed (for no reason at all)
the correct way would be in case of a payment already odne to an invoice:
original invoice #100 - 500€ total.
transaction - payed by paypal 500. 1.1.2018
creditnote/reverse invoice #101 as described negative amoutns are totally fine amount: -500
transactions:
2.1.2018 payed to refundaccount / credits (in some legislations this has to be paypal)
notice that refund does not take place on the first invoice. the first invoice is with issuing and the transaction complete.
it cant be undone. refunding would be a new agreement covered with the creditnote. the payment for this is also only related to the new agreement.
also be aware it touches then credits which are a problem in itself.
as of 1.1.2019 every EU country has to handle credits without VAT and is not to be taxed until its used.
they have to be hold kinda like a bank or trust. (keeping those funds on behalf of the customer)
so best would be if credits are used just as any other payment method as a transaction. then we could use creditnote payments directly to credits - credit to paypal and vice versa and so on.
Jonathon Lucas commented 20th September 18
WHMCS, any chance of an update on this?
mscholten commented 15th September 18
Note this isn't only UK VAT legislation, this is a European rule. For a UK company (as far as I know WHMCS is still a UK Limited) I would expect to at least follow local laws...
WHMCS-addons.eu commented 11th September 18
Any udpate on this from WHCMS????
Pat Sanders commented 26th August 18
Wondering the same here, 2 years is a long time for something which is not optional but should be in any billing system.
Bhavesh Raja commented 2nd May 18
Hello,

This is not only very unfortunate but also sad when I notice this request is over two years old!
The status of this seems to be in "Planned" state but may I kindly request WHMCS to inform of what is planned and WHEN.
To be compliant with billing is a core feature and would not be something you should purchase a module for.

Thanks!

Kind regards,
Bhavesh
ramf commented 12th October 17
Hi,
We want to use WHMCS to issue invoices - but there are several problems with the way WHMCS is working now that are not inline with the law in our case.
In general there are several types of invoices and guidelines that we should implement in order to work legally:

  1. pro forma invoice: that is actually a way to "ask" customers to pay us. This invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original invoice. also there should be no way to change such a invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same invoice to a customer again - this invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original invoice.

  2. Invoice + receipt: you issue such an invoice if the customer already paid the invoice automatically so you send him the Invoice + receipt in one document. The serial number of this invoice should be different from the pro forma invoice number.This invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original invoice. also there should be no way to change such a invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same invoice to a customer again - this invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original invoice.

  3. Refund invoice: you issue such an invoice if there is a mistake in the Invoice + receipt document or if the deal was cancelled and you have to refund the amount the customer paid you already. since there shouldn't be a way to change the original Invoice + receipt document - the only way to set things right is to issue a refund invoice. The serial number of this refund invoice should be different from the pro forma invoice number and from the Invoice + receipt document.This refund invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original refund invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original refund invoice. also there should be no way to change such a refund invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same refund invoice to a customer again - this refund invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original refund invoice.
As you can see there are things in the list above that works differently now in WHMCS.

  • WHMCS supports all three of these types of invoicing, which apart from Proforma ones are all based around the original invoice identification and each new status / invoice will replace the original document so when a client checks via their client area they will see in the invoice presented in whichever state it's currently in, so if in a "paid" state, that is the only invoice they will see however they will be emailed a copy each time the invoice is updated - but he relevant invoices will not be present in WHMCS.

  • As mentioned above "paid" and "refunded" invoices will share the same sequential number and will be actually the same document.

  • There is no way (out of the box) to add a digital signature to each type on invoices so it will prove this is the original document.

  • There is no way to prevent us (in the admin side) to change such an invoice (all 3 types) after we issued it.

  • There is no way (out of the box) to add an indication when sending to a customer the same invoice again - that this is not the original invoice but a certified copy of the original.

There are several feature request regarding the issues above:

  • This feature request is about removing the ability to edit an invoice from the admin side after such an invoice was issued.

  • This feature request is about having a different numbering for invoice and refund invoice.

  • This feature request is about separating the 3 types of invoices to be actual 3 different documents (or maybe i'm wrong).

  • This feature request is about adding PGP Support to sign outgoing Mails - I hope this deals with invoice digital signature
    So the only things left out (if the above feature requests really do handles the relevant issues I mentioned) are:


  1. To make sure that the 3 types of invoices are 3 different documents that we (and the customer) can see at all times.

  2. Making sure that the is only one "original" invoice document - and that every time we resend an invoice it will be marked with a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original.

So to sum it all up:
We need a way to make sure that each type on invoice is a standalone document with different sequential number and have a digital signature to make sure that this is the only original document and prevent us from changing it after issuing it and with the relevant labeling as original document or a certified copy of the original.
Thanks!
Ram