The refund functionality in WHMCS 5.3.13 is not on accordance with UK legislation.
When a refund is issued, the system must generate a Credit Note with the following details:
- be headed ‘credit note’ or ‘debit note’ as appropriate and show clearly all the following details:
- the identifying number and date of issue
- the name, address and registration number of the supplier
- the name and address of the customer
- the reason for its issue - for example, ‘returned goods’
- a description which identifies the goods or services for which credit is being claimed or allowed
- the quantity and amount for each description
- the total amount credited, excluding VAT
- the rate and amount of VAT credited
- the number and date of the original VAT invoice - if you cannot do this (for example, because returned goods cannot be identified with a particular invoice), you must be able to satisfy us by other means that you accounted for VAT on the original supply
Reference:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-700-the-vat-guide/vat-notice-700-the-vat-guide#credits-and-debtsThe current system of issuing a revised invoice contravenes UK VAT legislation and makes WHMCS unusable for UK VAT purposes when it comes to refunds.
The main issue I can see is that currently the date of the refund is not recorded as separate entry, neither is the reason for the refund nor is a unique number applied. The renaming of the document to "Credit Note" should be straight forward.
Merged Ideas
Issue a credit note for unpaid invoice.
I have an unpaid invoice that i want to cancel, my accountant is telling me that i can't canceled an electronic invoice and that i need to issue a credit note with the exact amount in order to cancel an invoice.This functionality is not something that is currently offered by WHMCS.I'm sure that this is something that every one need and it's defiantly need to be offered by WHMCS.If any one know a temporary salution it will be great, thanks.
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We want to use WHMCS to issue invoices - but there are several problems with the way WHMCS is working now that are not inline with the law in our case.
In general there are several types of invoices and guidelines that we should implement in order to work legally:
- pro forma invoice: that is actually a way to "ask" customers to pay us. This invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original invoice. also there should be no way to change such a invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same invoice to a customer again - this invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original invoice.
- Invoice + receipt: you issue such an invoice if the customer already paid the invoice automatically so you send him the Invoice + receipt in one document. The serial number of this invoice should be different from the pro forma invoice number.This invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original invoice. also there should be no way to change such a invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same invoice to a customer again - this invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original invoice.
- Refund invoice: you issue such an invoice if there is a mistake in the Invoice + receipt document or if the deal was cancelled and you have to refund the amount the customer paid you already. since there shouldn't be a way to change the original Invoice + receipt document - the only way to set things right is to issue a refund invoice. The serial number of this refund invoice should be different from the pro forma invoice number and from the Invoice + receipt document.This refund invoice should have a clear indication that this is the original refund invoice document and a digital signature to prove this is the original refund invoice. also there should be no way to change such a refund invoice after it was issued. when trying to send the same refund invoice to a customer again - this refund invoice should have a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original refund invoice.
As you can see there are things in the list above that works differently now in WHMCS.There are several feature request regarding the issues above:
So the only things left out (if the above feature requests really do handles the relevant issues I mentioned) are:
So to sum it all up:
We need a way to make sure that each type on invoice is a standalone document with different sequential number and have a digital signature to make sure that this is the only original document and prevent us from changing it after issuing it and with the relevant labeling as original document or a certified copy of the original.
Thanks!
Ram
As a B2B supplier, VAT compliance is important to us and WHMCS has never been good at it. Now it's woefully lacking in this area. Please would you look at getting this implemented. As has been pointed out above, it's not a very tricky change that's required. I would be happy to discuss with the development team if it helps.
This is a non-negotiable compliance document and a billing system is incomplete without it.
This is a non-negotiable compliance document and a billing system is incomplete without it.