Most Credit Memos are created from an existing Invoice. The workflow takes a few steps but the platform handles the math and audit trail.
- Open the originating Invoice or Order
Open the Invoice that has the charge to be credited.
- Create the Credit Memo
From the Invoice, click Create Credit Memo. Salesforce creates a Draft Credit Memo with all line items pre-populated; remove or edit the lines that should not be credited.
- Set the Reason Code
Pick from Refund, Error, Adjustment, Return, Goodwill, or your custom values. Reason Code drives downstream reporting and revenue impact analysis.
- Review and Post
Verify the line items, quantities, and amounts. Click Post. The Credit Memo flips from Draft to Posted, the customer balance updates, and the revenue ledger receives the reversing entry.
- Apply the credit to specific Invoices
From the Credit Memo, click Apply. Pick the Invoices to apply against. Salesforce creates CreditMemoApplication records and reduces the outstanding balance on those Invoices.
- Trigger the refund if needed
If the credit corresponds to an actual cash refund, create a Refund record linked to the Credit Memo. This drives the payment gateway integration to return funds to the customer.
- Posted Credit Memos cannot be edited. To correct a mistake, void and re-issue.
- Credit Memo tax follows the original Invoice tax. Manual tax overrides cause Avalara/Vertex reconciliation errors that audit teams will catch.
- Credit Memos applied across multiple Invoices require explicit CreditMemoApplication records; the application is not implicit.
- A Credit Memo without a referenced Invoice (account-level credit) is valid but harder to audit. Always reference the originating transaction when possible.
- Refund records and Credit Memos are different objects. Issuing a Credit Memo does not refund money; a separate Refund record drives the payment gateway.