Credit note or cancellation invoice after a refund
Goods come back and you refund them in Shopify. Which German document then belongs to the invoice, and how the app makes it from the refund.
The invoice itself stays as it is. You issue a second document that points to it. For a partial refund that is a credit note, a Gutschrift, for the part refunded. When the whole amount goes back, it is called a Stornorechnung, a cancellation invoice.
In the app you click Create credit note next to the refund on the order. Credit notes and cancellation invoices are on the Starter plan.
Which document when
| What happened | What the app creates |
|---|---|
| You refund part of the order, say one mug of two | a credit note for that part, titled Rechnungskorrektur (Gutschrift) |
| You refund part of it twice | two credit notes, one per refund |
| You refund items an edit added after the invoice | a credit note to those items' own invoice (only once it exists, see below) |
| One refund gives back the whole invoice amount | the same document, titled Stornorechnung |
| Cancelled before payment and before anything shipped | a Stornorechnung that cancels the invoice in full |
| Cancelled after the goods shipped | no document, because it depends on whether the goods came back |
Credit notes and cancellation invoices share one number series, the credit note series. Both name the number and the date of the invoice they correct. Once an invoice has been cancelled, the app creates no second document for it.
In the app
From a refund to its credit note:
Refund in Shopify, as you always do. The app writes nothing to the order.
Open the order in the app and reload it. Under Refunds there is now a line with the date and the amount.
Click Create credit note there. If the order has no invoice yet, create the invoice first, because the credit note names its number.
Download the PDF and send it to your customer.
If you cancel an order before it is paid and before anything ships, click Create cancellation invoice on the order instead.
If you take an item off the order by editing it in Shopify after the invoice, and refund the money afterwards, nothing changes for you. Click Create credit note next to the refund with the amount. The credit note lists the item you took off.
If an edit in Shopify adds new items after the invoice, the app shows it on the order. Click Create invoice for added items there. That invoice takes the next number and lists only the new items, with a line naming the first invoice. If you later refund one of those items, its credit note belongs to this second invoice. So create that invoice before the credit note.
Why Gutschrift is in brackets
In German VAT law a Gutschrift is something else: an invoice the buyer issues instead of the seller (§ 14 Abs. 2 UStG). In everyday German the correction after a refund is called a Gutschrift too. So the app prints Rechnungskorrektur (Gutschrift) as the title, which makes clear which of the two it is.
What the app does not do
The app makes the credit note from a refund that is in Shopify. Not part of it:
It moves no money. You refund in Shopify.
If you refund a different amount from the one Shopify suggests, less a fee for example, it creates no credit note for it.
If you edited the order more than once, or refunded more than once without picking items, before you create the credit note, it matches nothing and creates no credit note. The same goes when the edit also added items, or when the order is not fully paid or is cancelled, or an earlier refund already gave money back. Write that invoice correction outside the app. If you took an item off by editing the order, refund it in Shopify next time instead and pick the item there. Then the app creates the credit note.
For items an edit added after the invoice, it creates a separate invoice only when the edit just added new items without a discount. If an added item carries a discount, or the edit also raised the quantity of an item on the invoice or changed the shipping, adding a shipping charge for example, it creates none. In those cases there is no credit note for items on the first invoice either. Write the invoice and the invoice correction outside the app.
If more items are added after the second invoice, it creates no third invoice. Write the invoice for those items outside the app.
If a refund holds items or shipping from the first invoice together with added items, it creates no credit note. Nor when you refund such an order without picking items. Refund each invoice's items in a refund of their own, and it creates the credit note for each invoice.
It creates no cancellation invoice for an order cancelled after shipping.
If you cancel an order that has a second invoice for added items, it creates no cancellation invoice. Write the cancellation invoices for both invoices outside the app.
It never changes an invoice once issued.
The Free plan has no credit notes and no cancellation invoices.
Install the app
Once you refund in Shopify, the app makes the credit note in one click, on the Starter plan with a 14-day free trial.
Invoices and delivery notes are free, one order at a time. The app reads your orders and changes nothing.
Next
The home page shows how the invoice, the delivery note and the credit note of one order fit together. More on refunds and cancellations is on the support page.