Credit Notes (Gutschrift) in Switzerland: When and How to Issue One

Mistakes happen: a wrong amount, a returned service, a discount agreed after the fact. A credit note (Gutschrift) corrects the situation without deleting the original invoice.

Why not just delete the invoice?

In Swiss bookkeeping you should never delete an issued invoice. Once a number has been used, it stays used, and deleting it leaves a hole in your sequence that looks worse than the original mistake.

A credit note keeps the audit trail intact. The original invoice stays in your records as issued, and the credit note documents the reversal in a way an auditor can follow.

Deleting an invoice also breaks your VAT trail. If VAT was already reported on the original, you need a document that reverses that VAT, and a deletion does not produce one.

Even for a simple typo, the clean approach is a corrective document, not a deletion. The record then shows what happened and why, which is exactly what a tax office wants to see.

What a credit note must contain

A credit note references the original invoice number so the two documents are linked. Without that reference, the credit note floats free and nobody can tell what it reverses.

It states the credited amount and the reason for the credit. A short line such as "goods returned" or "agreed discount" turns an unexplained negative into a documented adjustment.

The credit note carries its own number in your consecutive sequence. It is a document in its own right and must be numbered like every other document you issue.

If you are VAT-registered, the credit note must also reverse the VAT correctly. It shows the VAT rate and amount that are being reversed, so your VAT return can be corrected in the right period.

• Reference the original invoice number.
• State the credited amount and reason.
• Use your own consecutive number for the credit note.
• Reverse the VAT amount if you are VAT-registered.

Credit note vs. corrected invoice

For a simple typo, a credit note followed by a corrected invoice is the cleanest approach. The credit note cancels the wrong document and the new invoice states the correct amounts.

For a small adjustment, a single credit note for the difference is often enough. There is no need to reverse the whole invoice and reissue it when only one line changed.

The choice is about clarity. If the original invoice is largely correct, credit the difference; if it is fundamentally wrong, reverse it fully and reissue.

Whichever route you take, keep the documents linked. A note on the credit note or the corrected invoice pointing to the original number makes the whole correction self-explanatory.

Getting the bookkeeping right

Post the credit note in the same account as the original invoice, but as a negative amount. This reduces the revenue or expense account in a way that your profit and loss reflects correctly.

If the credit note is issued in a later period than the original invoice, the reversal still applies to the correction. For VAT, the correction is reported in the period the credit note is issued.

Keep the credit note and the original invoice together in your archive. An auditor who can see both documents side by side will not need to ask further questions.

facturio keeps your numbering consecutive and generates the credit note as a proper document, so the reversal stays traceable without manual tracking of which invoice was corrected.

• Never delete an issued invoice.
• Credit the difference for small errors, reverse fully for large ones.
• Link credit note, corrected invoice and original by number.
• Report the VAT correction in the period the credit note is issued.