This guide outlines the process of generating a report in Xero to display all unallocated (open) credit notes, prepayments, and overpayments. This report is a powerful tool for maintaining accurate financial records, effectively managing your cash flow, and ensuring all unallocated credits are accounted for and applied correctly. The report can be exported to Excel, PDF, or Google Sheets, making it easily available to staff who are maintaining the client credit tracking sheet.
Overview
Unallocated credits (credit notes, prepayments, and overpayments) represent funds received from clients that have not yet been applied to a specific invoice. Proactively managing these balances is crucial for accurate financial reporting and client satisfaction. This report allows Franchise Partners to gain clear visibility into these unapplied amounts, which is especially important for retail staff who interact directly with clients regarding payments and balances.
This guide focuses on leveraging Xero's Receivable Invoice Detail report to give you a clear picture of unallocated credit balances.
You can use the Payable Invoice Detail report to generate unallocated credit balances for suppliers. Please note that since supplier bills are primarily managed in Xero, this supplier-report may not be required by retail staff. For reviewing open bills together with unallocated credits we recommend you follow steps in this guide: Aged Payable Detail Report.
Integration Limitations & Key Considerations
Understanding the Evolution Platform's limitations regarding unallocated credits, prepayments, and overpayments is critical for accurate financial management.
- Xero vs LightSpeed Alignment: Account balances in Xero and Lightspeed will not align. This is primarily because Xero credit notes, overpayments, and prepayment balances are not fully reflected in Lightspeed, and Lightspeed store credit is currently not visible in Xero on the client's account.
- Tracking Credits: These integration limitations can cause confusion for retail staff and clients in-store when processing payments, particularly if retail staff do not have direct access to Xero to view these unallocated balances. For this reason, we highly recommend implementing and regularly utilising the Client Credit Tracking Sheet to provide retail staff with the most up-to-date client credit information.
- Proactive Credit Management: We highly recommend running this report and updating the Client Credit Tracking Sheet before the start of business. This ensures that retail staff have the most up-to-date balances when dealing with clients. For more detail on applying Xero credit balances, see the guide: Managing Xero Credit Balances.
By following the steps in this guide, you can easily identify and update the client credit tracking sheet, providing your retail staff with the most up-to-date balance details and avoiding potential confusion with clients in-store.
Prerequisites
You must have access to Xero with appropriate permissions (e.g., Adviser or Standard + Reports) to view and create reports.
Quick Step-by-Step Instructions
- In the Accounting menu, select Reports.
- For customer credits, click Receivable Invoice Detail. For supplier credits, click Payable Invoice Detail.
- Choose a date range (consider a longer range to include any older open credits from NetSuite).
- Click More, then under Include, select Prepayments.
- In Grouping/Summarising, select Group By and choose a grouping method (e.g., Source to group by credit notes, prepayments and overpayments. Customer to group by customer).
- Under Columns, select Balance and any additional columns you'd like to include.
- Click Filter
- For status, select Approved. then select Status > select checkbox for Approved, then apply the filter.
- For Source, select Receivable Credit Note, Receivable Overpayment, and Receivable Prepayment
- Click Apply Filter.
- Click Update to view the report.
TIP
Save as a custom report so you can re-use it in the future
Detailed Step-by-Step Instructions
- Go to the Accounting menu and select Reports.
- Choose the Appropriate Report
- For customer credits, select Receivable Invoice Detail.
- For supplier credits, click Payable Invoice Detail.
- Choose a date range(consider a longer range to include any older open credits from NetSuite).
- Click More and check Prepayments under Include.
- Under Grouping/Summarising, select Group By and choose a grouping method (e.g., Source to group by credit notes, prepayments, and overpayments).
- Under Columns, select Balance and any additional columns you’d like to include.
- Click Filter
- For status, select Approved. then select Status > select checkbox for Approved, then apply the filter.
- For Source, select Receivable Credit Note, Receivable Overpayment, and Receivable Prepayment
- Click Apply Filter.
- Click Update to view the report.
To save this report configuration for future use:
- At the bottom of your report, click Save As > Custom.
- Name your report and click Save.
Navigate to Accounting > Reports > Custom tab to find saved custom reports.
Additionally, you can click on the star icon next to your report to save as a favourite. The report will then show on your dropdown list when you click on Accounting, providing quick access.
- Navigate to bottom of the report.
- Click on the Export dropdown (located next to Save as). You will have options to export to Excel, PDF, or Google Sheets.
Why don't account balances in Xero and Lightspeed align?
Account balances in Xero and Lightspeed are not aligned due to Xero balances (credit notes, overpayments, prepayments) not being refelected in Lightspeed.
Why isn't store credit visible in Xero?
Store credit is currently not visible in Xero on client accounts due to integration limitations.
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