Credits and payments on account are both recorded as manual payments made by a contact. Once recorded, the payments can be applied towards future invoices.
You can also provide discounts which reduce or eliminate the invoice balance rather than apply a credit towards the full invoice. Discounts can be set up for selected event registration types and membership levels, or manually applied to specific invoices.
Recording a credit
To record a credit on account, you record the payment without first selecting an invoice. To record a payment without applying it to an invoice, hover over the Finances menu and select the Payments & refunds option. From the Payments & refunds screen, click the Record payment button.
From the Record payment screen that appears, select the contact you want to record the payment for, enter the payment amount, select the payment type, and record any internal notes.
You might want to use custom payment types such as "Credits for volunteer work" so you can track credits and payments on account.
When you are finished entering the payment details, click the Save button. The payment amount will be applied to the contact's account, possibly resulting in an overpaid balance (depending on whether the contact has unpaid invoices or unsettled refunds).

Your contacts can apply their credits to outstanding invoices from the Invoices and payments tab of their member profile.
Removing a credit balance
If a credit was recorded in error for a contact, you can remove the credit balance by deleting all payments with open balances for that contact.
To remove a credit balance for a contact, follow these steps:
- Within the contact's contact record, click the Financial transactions link in the upper right corner.
- Click the Payments & refunds tab.
- Click the Filter by dropdown and select With open balance.
- Within the filtered list, click the first payment.
- Within the payment details that appears, click the Delete button.
- When prompted to confirm the deletion, click OK.
- Delete any remaining payments with open balances.
Applying a credit balance
Members can apply a credit or outstanding balance when paying one or more invoices from their member profile.
From the Invoices and payment tab in their member profile, members can select the invoices they want to pay, and the credits they want to apply.
Outstanding invoice amounts appear in red, while credit amounts appear in black.
After choosing the appropriate invoices and credits, the member clicks the Pay online button if the credit being applied is less than the selected invoice amounts...
...or clicks the Settle button if the credit being applied equals the selected invoice amounts.
An administrator can apply the credit on behalf of a member by settling the payment used to record the credit to an outstanding invoice. For instructions on settling payments to invoices, click here.