Credits are used when you need to adjust what a customer owes rather than process what they've paid. You can create credits to reduce a customer's current or future account balance outside of standard payment collection as a good will gesture or for other business reasons. For example, if you issue a refund and choose not to void the corresponding invoice or if you missed the refund deadline, you may choose to issue a credit to a customer in the amount of the invoice to settle the customer's outstanding balance on the invoice.
Credits
Overview
Service and Cash Credits covers the multiple types of credits that you may issue. The following credit types are created for reducing the balance directly on an account without the credit being tied to a specific invoice correction.
- Cash Credits: is applied immediately and reduces a customer's current outstanding balance. Cash Credits can be voided if needed.
- Service Credits: is applied against future invoices only and does not affect a customer's current outstanding balance. Service Credits are typically used as a retention tool (dispute resolution, outage compensation, loyalty rewards) without a cash refund.
- Reason Codes: configurable categorization tags required/attached when issuing credits, for audit and reporting.
- Chargebacks: the return of funds to a customer initiated by the issuing bank of the payment method used to make a payment. Essentially, it is a bank-initiated reversal of payment (distinct from a credit and initiated externally by the card issuer, not by the merchant).
Use Case: choose a service or cash credit to create a balance adjustment without necessarily correcting a specific invoice or when reversing a previously issued cash credit.
2. Invoice Adjustments — covers correcting or reprocessing a specific invoice, generally where money already changed hands or a specific bill needs revision.
- Refunds: the return of money that was previously paid by a customer, including refund-based invoice adjustments, invoice-based refunds, refund reversal actions, and voiding a refund.
- Rebilling: an invoice regeneration with corrected line items. This includes rebill sequencing (append options, sequence number source), using the original invoice date and automatic collection on rebill.
- Dispute Holds: a formal hold state for invoices under customer dispute, with configurable expiration/override settings — distinct from a credit or refund. This is meant to pause collection while a dispute is investigated.
- Credit Card Authorization Reversal: the releasing or reversing of a card authorization hold.
- Write-Offs: closing out an uncollectible balance without a refund or credit.
Use Case: choose an invoice adjustment when you need to make a balance adjustment that references a specific invoice, a payment already made, a rebill, a dispute, or an uncollectible balance — as opposed to a discretionary standalone credit.
Distinguishing the balance-reduction mechanisms:
A credit is merchant-initiated and either service (future-only) or cash (immediate)
A refund returns money that was already paid on a specific invoice
A chargeback is bank-initiated, and outside of Aria's direct control
When you have a request like "give this customer $50 back" you should determine whether an invoice/payment already exists (→ Invoice_Adjustments/Refunds or Rebill) versus a discretionary balance credit with no prior payment to reverse (→ Service_and_Cash_Credits).