Vendor credit cost impact — a supplier credit can now lower the cost of the goods you keep

A supplier sends you a credit note for goods you are keeping — they overcharged you, or they gave you a volume allowance after the fact. The credit should lower what you owe them and lower what those goods cost you. Until now a vendor credit could only do the first part: the stock stayed on your books at a price you never paid, and the only way to fix its cost was to edit the original purchase order or bill — which erased the credit note from your records. Vendor credit cost impact closes that gap. Every line on a credit now states what it does to the goods, a Reason for credit picks the right behaviour for you, and a Cost Impact panel shows the real numbers — which receipts change, how many units are still on hand versus already sold, and what moves on the books — before you click Authorize.

✨ What this means for you:

• Record an overcharge the right way. Choose Reduce the cost of the goods and the credit re-prices the stock you still hold, with the share for units already sold posted as a cost-of-goods-sold true-up. The purchase order and bill stay exactly as the supplier sent them.
• No more guessing what Authorize will do. Three tiles — Quantity, Cost basis, Accounts payable — plus a per-receipt table show the effect before anything posts.
• Tell SKU.io why the credit was issued and every line gets the right behaviour automatically; you can still change any line yourself.
• Approve it like any other cost change. A price credit goes through the Cost Change Inbox, so you choose whether to restate earlier months or book it going forward, and it can be reversed cleanly.
• Existing credits are untouched. Everything you have recorded so far keeps its meaning; Financial only remains the default for lines that are not about the goods' price.

Say what the credit is for

Each credit now has a Reason for credit — Goods returned to supplier, Damaged / unsellable, disposed here, Overcharged — price correction, Volume rebate / purchase allowance, Short-shipped, Overpayment / duplicate bill, and more. Pick one and every line's Cost Impact is set to match.

The Cost Impact column on each line spells out one of four behaviours: Return the goods, Write the goods off, Reduce the cost of the goods, or Financial only. Under the choice, a sentence states the consequence in your own numbers — for example 300 units stay in stock · unit cost $14.00 → $12.75 (−$1.25/unit). Reducing cost is only offered on lines that came from a purchase order, because a credit with no receipts has nothing to re-price. The list of vendor credits gains a Reason column and filter, so you can see at a glance what each credit was about.

See exactly what will happen before you authorize

The Cost Impact panel sits under the lines and updates as you edit them. Three tiles summarise the effect — Quantity (no change for a price credit), Cost basis (the total the goods' recorded cost drops by, and across how many receipt layers), and Accounts payable (what you will owe the supplier). Below them, a callout splits the credit between stock you still hold and units already sold: 240 of the 300 credited units are still in stock, 60 are sold — $300.00 reduces the value of stock you still hold, $75.00 posts as a COGS true-up.

Expand the product and you get every receipt layer with its cost now, cost after, and the change per unit, plus the date each change will be booked to. A Compare outcomes switch puts reduce the cost and financial only side by side, computed from this credit's real lines, and Show me an example walks through a worked case if you want to see the idea with round numbers. If your policy will hold the change for review, the panel says so up front, with a link to the policy.

Authorize with the plan in plain English

Authorize is the step that posts to your books, so the dialog now restates the plan first: one sentence per line, then the totals — how much accounts payable to the supplier drops, how much comes off stock value, and how much posts to cost of goods sold for units already sold. When a credit changes the cost of stock you already hold, you tick an acknowledgement before the button enables.

Reviewed like any other cost change

Once authorized, what you owe the supplier drops immediately. The cost change itself is routed through the Cost Change Inbox, where it names the credit as its trigger and lists the affected receipts. Choose Restate to book it back on each receipt's original date, or Going forward to book it on the day you apply it, then Apply. Back on the credit, the panel switches to Applied with a summary of what was revalued, each layer links to its cost history, and the Movements tab lists every receipt with its Adjusted Unit Cost.

A few guardrails come with it. Unauthorizing the credit puts each layer's cost back where it was and records the reversal in the inbox. Two credits against the same goods stack correctly — the second starts from the cost after the first. And if a purchase order or bill edit already lowered the same line's price, both the credit and the inbox warn you before the same discount is applied twice.

Where to find it

• Record a price credit: Orders → Vendor Credits → Create Vendor Credit → Adjust, rebate, or refund, set the Reason for credit, add the goods with Add from PO, and enter the credit per unit. The Cost Impact column and panel are on every credit's Lines tab.
• Review and apply the cost change: Inventory → Cost Changes, or the View in Cost Change Inbox button on the credit.
• Set the policy: Settings → Cost Changes — the Vendor credit price adjustment row ships as review, so a price credit is held for approval until you decide otherwise.
• Full guide: Reduce the cost of goods with a vendor credit — the step-by-step walkthrough, with a two-minute video.