In this article, you'll learn how and under which conditions you can create a credit note, refund shipping costs, and offset discounts.
Creating a credit note
In the order overview, at the top of the General tab, you'll find a corresponding quick button for creating credit notes.
To create a credit note for an order, the following conditions must be met:
An invoice was previously created for the order.
Changes have been made to the order (return, credit) that make a credit note necessary.
You can find everything about configuring the document template for the credit note here.
Creating a credit note for returns
During the return process, once the return has been accepted, a button for creating the credit note becomes available.
Even if the return is completed and the returned products have been booked or written off, you can still adjust the quantities within the return to create a credit note. However, this will no longer have any effect on the stock movements.
You can find the complete guide on handling returns with Pickware here: How do I process returns?
Refunding shipping costs
Shipping costs are pre-selected for refund by default. If needed, you can deselect the refund via the checkbox in the Line items area.
Offsetting discounts for full returns
Discount line items that were previously included in the order can be selected when processing the return, if they should also be taken into account for the credit note.
Offsetting discounts for partial returns
If it's only a partial return and you therefore only want to refund part of the discount, proceed as follows:
When accepting the return, select only the products in the corresponding quantity that were returned.
In this example, one of three products was returned. The original order included a 10% discount on the entire cart. Therefore, the customer should not be refunded the full unit price of €11,289.36, but only the price reduced by 10%, i.e. €1,128.94.
To do this, open the associated order, click the arrow to the right of Add product, and select Add empty line item. For better traceability, enter a corresponding name and add the portion of the discount attributable to the returned product in the Gross price field.
Save the order and create a credit note. On the credit note, you'll now see that the amount to be refunded has been reduced by 10%.
Note on e-invoices (ZUGFeRD/XRechnung)
If you use e-invoice types in Shopware (e.g. Invoice: PDF with embedded ZUGFeRD e-invoice), please note: Credit notes cannot currently be created for e-invoices. The European e-invoicing standard (EN 16931) does not provide for a separate document type for corrections. Instead, the original invoice must be fully cancelled via a cancellation invoice, and a new invoice must then be created.
What's the difference between a credit note and a cancellation invoice?
A cancellation invoice is needed, for example, to correct the address or contact person on the original invoice. This cancels the original invoice and creates a new one. If you want to cancel an order that hasn't been shipped yet, you can also use a cancellation invoice.
A credit note, on the other hand, must be created when changes occur to the invoice line items, for example as part of a return.