A GRN Credit records goods you send back to a supplier, or a credit the supplier gives you against a receipt. It is the mirror image of a goods receive note: it takes the returned stock back out of your location and reduces what you owe the supplier. The storekeeper, the purchasing clerk, or the owner usually enters one when goods go back or a supplier issues a credit.
A GRN Credit posts to your accounts the moment you save it. You normally raise it against the GRN the goods came in on, which pulls that receipt's lines onto the credit so you only return what you actually received. You can also add lines by hand for a credit that has no single receipt behind it.
A GRN Credit belongs to the goods path: it reverses a GRN, not a Bill. To credit a supplier cost that never arrived as goods, such as a service or an expense, use a Bill Credit instead.
Find GRN Credits under Purchase & Supplier → GRN Credit.
Before you start
- The supplier you are crediting must exist in Suppliers. Picking the supplier pulls in its billing and shipping addresses and its default AP account.
- An Accounts Payable account must exist in your Chart of Accounts. The GRN Credit debits this account, so it must be of type Accounts Payable. The supplier's default AP account prefills it.
- Each line credits a product. Stock-tracked products (of inventory type Inventory) take stock back out and reverse their inventory account; Service and Non-Inventory products reverse their expense account and move no stock. At least one product line is required to save.
- Every line needs a location (the warehouse the returned goods leave from). The header location, if you set one, prefills each line.
- To reverse tax on a line, a tax payable account must be configured under Tax settings, since the tax reverses there.
- You need the Create GRN Credits permission, granted per user under Permissions. List GRN Credits lets you open the screen, and Edit, Delete, View, Print GRN Credits, and Copy to GRN Credit cover the rest. See Users, seats & permissions.
Raise a GRN Credit
Open a new GRN Credit
Go to Purchase & Supplier → GRN Credit and select New GRN Credit. The GRN Credit form opens full screen.
To tie the credit to a specific receipt instead, start from the goods receive note list (see Credit against a GRN below), which pre-fills the supplier and the received lines for you.
Check the template
The Template picker sits in the toolbar at the top of the form. ZyncLedger pre-selects your default GRN Credit template, so you can usually leave it. The template decides which fields the form shows and how the printed credit looks; switch it here if you keep more than one layout. See Print templates for how these are set up.
Choose the supplier
Select the Supplier (required). ZyncLedger fills the Billing Address and the Shipping Address from the supplier's record, and sets the AP Account to the supplier's default. The supplier's current Balance shows below the field for reference.
Confirm the AP account
Check the AP Account (required). This is the Accounts Payable account the GRN Credit debits, that is, the account that carries what you owe the supplier. It prefills from the supplier, and the list only offers accounts of type Accounts Payable.
Set the GRN Credit date
Enter the GRN Credit Date (required). This is the date the credit posts to the ledger, so it decides which period the reversal falls in.
Set the transaction number
The Transaction Number identifies the GRN Credit. How you fill it depends on the number mode for GRN Credits:
- Automatic (the default): the field shows Auto-generated and ZyncLedger assigns the next number when you save. Leave it alone.
- Manual: you type the number yourself. It is required and must be unique across all transactions.
See Document numbering to change the mode or set up a multi-series numbering scheme.
Set the location (optional)
Select the header Location to say where the returned goods leave from. It prefills the location on each line, which you can still change per line. Each line must have a location before you can save. You can also edit the Billing Address and Shipping Address that prefilled from the supplier; both are optional.
Add the credit lines
If you started from a GRN, the lines are already filled in from that receipt. Otherwise fill a row in the items table for each item you are crediting:
Column What it does Product (required) The item being returned or credited. Selecting it fills the description and its last-known cost. Description The line text, prefilled from the product. Edit it for this credit if needed. Location (required) The warehouse this line's goods leave from. Defaults from the header location. Quantity (required) How many units you are returning or crediting. When the line comes from a GRN, this cannot exceed the quantity still uncredited on that received line. Cost (required) The unit cost being credited. When the line comes from a GRN, it prefills from the cost you received it at. Tax % / Tax Amount A tax to reverse on the line, entered either way. Total The line value, calculated for you. A blank row waits at the bottom of the table, so a new line appears as you start filling the last one. To remove a line, select the trash icon at the end of its row. The Summary on the right totals the Subtotal, tax, and Total as you type.
Add a credit reason (optional)
Use Credit Reason / Notes at the foot of the form to record why the goods went back or the credit was raised. If you keep standard wording, pick it from the note selector to autofill.
Save
Select Save & New to save and start another credit, or Save & Print to save and print this one. Use Print to print without saving and Reset to clear the form. The GRN Credit saves with a status of Open and posts immediately.
Credit against a GRN
Returning goods you received is safest done from the receipt, so the credit only covers what actually came in. On the goods receive note list, tick the GRN or GRNs you are crediting (select more than one only if they are for the same supplier), then select Create GRN Credit.
The GRN Credit form opens pre-filled with the supplier, the location, the addresses, and each still-uncredited received line with the Quantity you can still credit. Adjust the quantities down to what is actually going back, then save.
You do not have to credit a receipt in one go. Credit part now and the rest on a later GRN Credit. ZyncLedger tracks how much of each received line has already been credited and will not let a line's credited quantity exceed the quantity you received.
What it posts
A GRN Credit reverses a GRN, so it posts the mirror image. It debits (reduces) the Accounts Payable account in the header by the credit total, lowering what you owe the supplier. Against that, it credits:
- Each line's inventory account for its value before tax, when the product is of inventory type Inventory. For a Service or Non-Inventory product, the line credits the product's expense account instead, backing out the cost.
- Any tax on a line back to your tax payable account.
The debit to Accounts Payable always equals the credited lines and their tax, so the entry balances. It flows through to the Trial Balance, the General Ledger, and the Balance Sheet (and the Profit & Loss for any expense-account lines).
For a stock-tracked product the GRN Credit also takes the stock back out: on-hand quantity falls at each line's location by the returned quantity. When you credit from a GRN, the cost prefills from the received line, so the stock leaves at what you brought it in at.
Saving a GRN Credit also reduces the supplier's balance by the total, since you now owe them less overall. On each linked GRN line it records the returned quantity as that line's credited quantity, which caps how much more you can credit against it.
How a GRN Credit settles a GRN
Raising the credit lowers your overall balance with the supplier, but on its own it does not mark any one GRN as settled. The credit sits as an open credit against the supplier. To apply it to a particular GRN's outstanding balance, allocate it on a Supplier Payment, which can settle open GRNs with the credit. That allocation is what moves the GRN toward Closed and settles the credit itself.
The GRN Credit's own status tracks how much of the credit you have used up:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Open | The credit is posted and none of it has been applied yet. This is the status of every new GRN Credit. |
| Partial | A Supplier Payment has applied part of the credit, but not all of it. |
| Closed | The credit has been fully applied. |
| Deleted | The credit has been deleted (see below). It is kept for the record but its amounts are zeroed. |
A GRN Credit's status is about how much you have used it
The status above is not about returning goods. A GRN Credit posts its stock and ledger effect in full the moment you save it, so it starts Open and moves to Partial or Closed only as you apply it on a Supplier Payment.
Tips & gotchas
GRN Credit or Bill Credit?
Use a GRN Credit to send back goods received on a GRN: it takes stock out and reverses the payable. Use a Bill Credit for a credit against a supplier cost that never arrived as goods, such as a service, a utility, or an expense. A GRN Credit is the goods path; it does not credit a Bill.
You can only credit what you received
When a line comes from a GRN, its quantity cannot exceed the quantity still uncredited on that received line. ZyncLedger caps each line at the remaining quantity, so you cannot return more than you took in.
An applied or reconciled credit is locked
Once a Supplier Payment has applied part of a GRN Credit, ZyncLedger will not let you delete it, reduce the total below what has been applied, or change the supplier or AP account. Reverse the payment first. A line that has been reconciled on a bank reconciliation, or a date in a period closed by the Ledger close date, also blocks changes.
Deleting a GRN Credit removes its postings
There is no reversing entry. Deleting a GRN Credit sets its status to Deleted, removes its lines from the ledger, puts the returned stock back on hand, raises the supplier's balance again, and rolls back the credited quantity on the linked GRN lines. ZyncLedger blocks the deletion if any payment has been applied to the credit, if any of its lines have been reconciled on a bank reconciliation, or if its date falls in a period closed by the Ledger close date.
Related
- Goods Receive Note (GRN) is the receipt a GRN Credit reverses. Credit a GRN from the goods receive note list to pull its received lines onto the credit.
- Suppliers are the parties you credit, and carry the addresses and default AP account the credit uses.
- Products & Items are the lines you credit; their inventory type decides whether a line takes stock out or reverses an expense account.
- Warehouses & Locations are where the returned goods leave from.
- Chart of Accounts holds the Accounts Payable, inventory, expense, and tax accounts a GRN Credit posts to.
- Supplier Payment applies an open GRN Credit against your open GRNs and pays the balance.
- Bill Credit is the separate path for crediting a supplier cost that did not arrive as goods.
- Purchasing reports list your GRN Credits and how much of each is still open.
- Document numbering controls the GRN Credit's transaction number.
