How does credit work in Optix?

In Optix, credit appears as an invoice line item with a negative amount. If the invoice total becomes negative, it turns into a credit note, which can then be used to help pay for future invoices for the same user or team.

Note: Creating a credit note in Optix does not automatically refund a user or a team. If a user is not intending to use their credit towards a future invoice and you would like to refund them, you will need to process your refund via your payment gateway.

Credits help you:

Offset future charges: Unused credit is automatically applied to upcoming invoices (if enabled)
Automate refunds from cancellations: Credit is generated when bookings or plans are cancelled or shortened (based on your policies)
Manage billing adjustments: Issue manual credit for special cases or service adjustments
Track and control application: Choose whether credit is applied automatically or manually during invoicing

How is credit generated, and where does it appear?

Credits can be created automatically by Optix or manually by an admin. When credit is generated in Optix, the credit line item will appear on the User’s or Team’s pending invoice.

Important: Credit is only created for paid bookings once they have been paid – not for paid bookings that are unpaid, or free bookings.

Automatic credit generation

Optix will automatically generate a credit when:

A user cancels or shortens a booking via the app
A user cancels a booking via the widget booking confirmation email link

Credit generated manually by an admin

Optix will generate a credit when:

An admin cancels or shortens a booking on behalf of a user or team and selects Create invoice credit

An admin cancels a user or team plan and opts to Create a credit invoice item for unused plan periods

How is credit applied?

Credit can be applied automatically or manually, depending on your invoice policy settings.

Automatically apply credit to new invoices

You can configure Optix to automatically apply available credit to newly finalized invoices. To do this:

Go to Settings in the left-hand menu
Under Features, select Invoicing
Click Invoice Policy
Toggle “Automatically use available credit to pay off newly finalized invoices”
Click Save Changes

Note: This setting does not affect credit applied during manual invoice finalization.

How do I manually apply credit?

If the automatic credit application is off to move a credit line item from a pending invoice to a specific upcoming/due/overdue:

Remove the credit line item from the pending invoice
Assign the credit to the desired invoice

Examples and edge cases

Timeline example

Imagine your invoicing policy adds charges to the next invoice:

Booked May 1 (invoiced June 1), cancelled May 15 → No credit generated (booking not yet billed)
Booked May 30, paid June 1, cancelled June 2 → Credit is generated (booking was finalized)

Note: If a paid booking is cancelled on the same day it is invoiced, Optix will now generate and apply the credit immediately (on the same day), instead of delaying it until the next invoice. Know more about the invoice scenario.

Want to apply allowance to a user's account rather than credit?

Learn more about how you can refund Allowance back to a User or a Team's account here.

Need more info on Invoices?

Take a look at this quick guide to dive deeper.