Credit Note in compliance with UK VAT legislation

It is the responsibility of the payment provider to do this, not a billing system, WHMCS doesn't process any payments. Plus the invoice where you have added funds, the invoice will tell you that the invoice has been refunded along with the transaction ID of the payment gateway along with the total credited.

Payment processors deal with the gross figure, they do not charge VAT separately.

We deal exclusively with businesses and they need paper invoices and paper credit notes for audit purposes.

I agree with Mike

Renaming of the invoice to credit note is indeed straightforward and could be achieved with a simple template edit. The complexity is definitely in the other things you refer to. We would like to try and understand more about exactly what changes are required for this. Could you get in touch with our support team referencing this thread and asked to be put in contact with the development team so we can ask some further questions. Thanks!

I don't see that it's my place to advise you on this matter. I know enough to know that your system is not compliant but not enough to advise you on exactly what you need to do. You must have an accountant who can give you the necessary advice.

Incidentally, you ask me to contact the support team and asked to be connected to the development team. Why can't you contact me or at least give me an email address. Why should I have to run around the houses to help you to correct your software?

Also in Italy is necessary to do a credit note when a refunded has been done.

Also in Austria, Germany and so on...

When the latest release you have put Validation in place so the way we use to deal with credit notes cant be done.

Validation Error

Amount In cannot be less than zero.

The fee being entered must be less than the amount in value.

You need to put a patch to rectify this or allow admins to turn off that validation and also work on a credit note feature.

I agree with this feature and i also suggest WHMCS team to review the billing system in order to fully meet the European legal billing law.

Seriously, this hasn't been done yet??? What's so complicated?

I guess I'll just have to faff around and get my accountant to issue the credit note I need from SAGE.

We also require this for a number of our larger customers, please add this as soon as possible.

Anyone from outside the WHMCS circle would believe that they were perhaps a company based in America but they're not, they in bloody Milton Keynes and the VAT processing should have been fixed at launch but even after 12 months they're still "investigating". What sort of mickey mouse operation is this?

Plaese :-)

Any movement on this? Last comment was 9 months ago and it's marked "Investigating" - what is being investigated? Please WHMCS, ask us questions here if you need further input and lets get this important feature on the road!

Status changed to "Planned" - HURRAY! Thank you WHMCS Gods.

WHMCS, when will it move from 'Planned' to the next progression status?

This is a non-negotiable compliance document and a billing system is incomplete without it.

WHMCS, when will it move from 'Planned' to the next progression status?

This is a non-negotiable compliance document and a billing system is incomplete without it.

Also required in a lot of other EU countries, not only UK.

Any updates on this?

Any update on a release date for this please?

WHMCS 5.3.13 in planning 2 years ago - wow - it is against the UK legislation and WHMCS is not capable to make WHMCS compliant to common and valid law in the countries it is distributing WHMCS??? strange and for buyers of WHMCS a headache and probably even serious legal issue!

This has been a while, any news?

Any update??

Things are worse in v7 than before, because previously we could at least manually enter negative amounts into the invoice and then use our own template to produce a credit note. But now if you enter a negative amount in the invoice, the subtotal comes out as zero!

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.

Hi,

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:

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

• WHMCS supports all three of these types of invoicing, which apart from Proforma ones are all based around the original invoice identification and each new status / invoice will replace the original document so when a client checks via their client area they will see in the invoice presented in whichever state it's currently in, so if in a "paid" state, that is the only invoice they will see however they will be emailed a copy each time the invoice is updated - but he relevant invoices will not be present in WHMCS.

• As mentioned above "paid" and "refunded" invoices will share the same sequential number and will be actually the same document.

• There is no way (out of the box) to add a digital signature to each type on invoices so it will prove this is the original document.

• There is no way to prevent us (in the admin side) to change such an invoice (all 3 types) after we issued it.

• There is no way (out of the box) to add an indication when sending to a customer the same invoice again - that this is not the original invoice but a certified copy of the original.

There are several feature request regarding the issues above:

• This feature request is about removing the ability to edit an invoice from the admin side after such an invoice was issued.

• This feature request is about having a different numbering for invoice and refund invoice.

• This feature request is about separating the 3 types of invoices to be actual 3 different documents (or maybe i'm wrong).

• This feature request is about adding PGP Support to sign outgoing Mails - I hope this deals with invoice digital signature

  So the only things left out (if the above feature requests really do handles the relevant issues I mentioned) are:

1. To make sure that the 3 types of invoices are 3 different documents that we (and the customer) can see at all times.

2. Making sure that the is only one "original" invoice document - and that every time we resend an invoice it will be marked with a clear indication that this is a certified copy of the original.

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

Hello,

This is not only very unfortunate but also sad when I notice this request is over two years old!

The status of this seems to be in "Planned" state but may I kindly request WHMCS to inform of what is planned and WHEN.

To be compliant with billing is a core feature and would not be something you should purchase a module for.

Thanks!

Kind regards,

Bhavesh

Wondering the same here, 2 years is a long time for something which is not optional but should be in any billing system.

Any udpate on this from WHCMS????

Note this isn't only UK VAT legislation, this is a European rule. For a UK company (as far as I know WHMCS is still a UK Limited) I would expect to at least follow local laws...

WHMCS, any chance of an update on this?

currently there is no reversed invoice in whmcs.

however a reversed invoice would be fine IF theres a reference to the original invoice and a reason.

however there needs also to be an transaction which is impossible in whmcs currently because negative transactions are not allowed (for no reason at all)

the correct way would be in case of a payment already odne to an invoice:

original invoice #100 - 500€ total.

transaction - payed by paypal 500. 1.1.2018

creditnote/reverse invoice #101 as described negative amoutns are totally fine amount: -500

transactions:

2.1.2018 payed to refundaccount / credits (in some legislations this has to be paypal)

notice that refund does not take place on the first invoice. the first invoice is with issuing and the transaction complete.

it cant be undone. refunding would be a new agreement covered with the creditnote. the payment for this is also only related to the new agreement.

also be aware it touches then credits which are a problem in itself.

as of 1.1.2019 every EU country has to handle credits without VAT and is not to be taxed until its used.

they have to be hold kinda like a bank or trust. (keeping those funds on behalf of the customer)

so best would be if credits are used just as any other payment method as a transaction. then we could use creditnote payments directly to credits - credit to paypal and vice versa and so on.

i really need credit note or negative bills like it was before. In France too we cannot just mess with existing invoices and change them. Invoice cannot be change when done. If you refund one you have to issue credit note. We used negative invoices but now it is Forbidden...

I think it's save to say that WHMCS isn't really bothered by this... since they haven't added it in the 3 years we are requesting it.

And them being a UK company as well!