Credit notes only allocate to newly created purchase orders/bills – unable to allocate to existing orders
There appears to be a workflow limitation/bug in how supplier credit notes allocate against purchase orders and bills.
Current behaviour observed:
• If a Purchase Order (or Bill) is created first, and a supplier Credit Note is created afterwards, the credit cannot be allocated to the existing order/bill.
• The credit note only becomes allocatable against the next Purchase Order / Bill that is created afterwards.
• To make allocation work, users must create the Credit Note first and then create the Purchase Order / Bill, which is backwards compared to real business workflows.
In real operations, purchase orders and bills are almost always created before supplier credits are received. Credits often arrive later due to adjustments, shortages, or pricing corrections. The current behaviour makes it impossible or confusing to allocate credits to the correct existing order and risks misallocation to future purchases.
Suggested improvements:
• Allow supplier credit notes to be allocated to any existing open bill for the same supplier, regardless of creation order.
• Allow users to manually select which bill/order a credit should apply to.
• Display available unallocated credits on existing bills with an option to apply them.
• Prevent credits from automatically attaching only to future orders.
• Make the behaviour consistent with how invoice credits and payments work.
This change would significantly improve usability, accuracy, and real-world workflow alignment.
kelly zhen
shared this idea
Hi Kelly, thanks for sharing your feedback! You can already allocate a credit note to an existing bill in Xero. Simply open the credit note, click Credit Note Options, and select Allocate Credit to see all outstanding bills for that contact. You can also allocate directly from an outstanding bill if a credit is available.
If you need a step-by-step guide or help with a specific scenario, Xero Support can walk you through it.
