Account Credits
An account credit is stored monetary value held against a student or family — from an overpayment, a refund kept on file, a goodwill adjustment, or a migrated opening balance. You can apply it to an open invoice to reduc
What an Account Credit Is
An account credit represents money you already owe a family credit for, rather than a lesson they've prepaid for. Common situations include:
- A family overpaid an invoice and you want to carry the extra forward instead of refunding it
- You issued a refund but the family wants it kept on file as studio credit
- You're making a goodwill adjustment to a family's balance
- You're migrating an opening balance from another system
An account credit is stored value. Applying it to an invoice reduces the balance due — it does not add, remove, or change any line item on the invoice itself.
Student-Owned vs Family-Owned Credits
Every account credit belongs to either a student or a family, and that ownership is fixed once the credit is created.
| Ownership | Belongs to | Can be applied to |
|---|---|---|
| Student-owned | A single student | Invoices for that same student only |
| Family-owned | A parent/family record | Invoices for that family, or for any linked child's invoice |
A family-owned credit can be applied across any of the family's linked children, which makes it useful for households with more than one enrolled student. A student-owned credit is scoped to that one student only.
Creating an Account Credit
You create a new account credit from an invoice's detail screen:
- Open the relevant invoice.
- Select the option to create a new account credit.
- Choose the amount and add a description or reason (recommended, for your own future reference).
- Save.
Applying a Credit to an Invoice
Once a credit exists and has value remaining, you can apply it to an eligible invoice:
- Open the invoice.
- Select the option to apply an available account credit.
- Choose the credit and enter how much of it to apply (up to the invoice balance or the credit's remaining value, whichever is smaller).
- Save.
The invoice detail then shows the credit applied and the updated remaining balance, alongside any payments already recorded.
On an individual student's invoice, the credits available to apply include both that student's own credits and any family-owned credits from linked parents — so you don't need to remember which pool a credit sits in when you're applying it.
You can apply account credit to invoices that are still open, including:
- draft invoices
- sent invoices
- overdue invoices
If you apply credit to a sent or overdue invoice, the invoice itself stays finalised. Octavia simply reduces the remaining balance still owed.
If the credit only covers part of the balance:
- the invoice stays open
- the remaining amount still shows as unpaid
- any existing online Stripe payment link is retired so the family does not pay against an outdated balance
If the credit clears the balance in full:
- the invoice is treated as paid
- the remaining balance becomes zero
- any existing online Stripe payment link is retired
- the receipt can reflect that the invoice was settled using account credit
Removing an Applied Credit
If you applied a credit and need to undo it, you can remove the allocation from the invoice. This restores the removed amount back onto the credit's remaining balance — it does not delete the credit record. The credit becomes available to apply again, to that invoice or a different one.
You can remove an applied credit wherever it shows on an invoice, the same way you can apply one — on a draft, sent, or overdue invoice. Removing an allocation only affects the link between that credit and that invoice, not the credit itself.
How This Affects the Invoice Balance
Octavia calculates an invoice's balance as:
`` invoice total − payments recorded − account credits applied = remaining balance ``
Applying a credit reduces the balance the same way a payment does, but it is tracked separately from your payment history. This keeps what was charged, what was paid, and what was covered by stored credit all clearly distinguishable — useful when reviewing a family's billing history later.
See Invoice Statuses Explained for how balance interacts with invoice status.
Account Credits and Combining Family Invoices
If your studio combines multiple children's draft invoices into one family invoice, be aware of this interaction: a student's draft invoice cannot be combined into a family invoice while it still has an account credit applied.
If you need to combine invoices and one of the student invoices already has a credit on it:
- Remove the applied credit from that student's draft invoice first.
- Combine the invoices into the family invoice as normal.
- Apply the desired credit (student-owned or family-owned) to the new combined family invoice.
If a student invoice is skipped during a combine because it has a credit applied, Octavia will let you know so you can take the steps above.
Who Can Manage Account Credits
Creating, applying, and removing account credits is currently an admin-level action. This is financial adjustment data, so write access is intentionally kept conservative.
Related articles:
- Recording a Payment
- Invoice Statuses Explained
- Voiding an Invoice
- Billing Families with Multiple Enrolments
- Bank Reconciliation — overpayment remainders from reconciled bank transfers are held as account credits
- How Lesson Credits Work — a different kind of credit; see that article if you're looking for prepaid lesson bundles instead of stored monetary value