> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pakk.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pakk.io/customers-and-sales/credits-refunds-returns-and-replacements/customer-credits/using-a-credit.md).

# Using a Credit

A Credit is ‘Outstanding’ or ‘Pending’ until it is ‘used’. There are two ways to ‘use’ a Credit:

1. Refund
2. Apply to a Sales Order

It is important to note that neither of these two things happen automatically. A Credit will sit ‘unused’ until you use it.

**Once the whole amount of the Credit is refunded, applied or a combination of both, the Credit is considered fully used.**

**Refunds**

The simplest path to take after a Credit has been raised is to refund the customer’s money. You’ll need to do the actual refund manually (e.g. in Stripe or Paypal). Once you’ve done the refund, record it on the Credit by hitting the ‘Refund’ button.

Note that you don’t have to refund the whole amount of the Credit. You can do a partial refund, which leaves an amount of the Credit outstanding. You could then go on to use that outstanding amount against an Order, or issue yet another refund. A common use for this technique would be if a customer has a large Credit and wants to use part of it as payment against an Order and have the rest refunded.

**Applications**

Another common use for a Credit is to use it to ‘pay’ for an Order. You can do this by hitting the ‘Apply’ button on the Credit and choosing the Order to which you want to apply the Credit as payment. Again, you don’t have to use the whole Credit - it’s OK to leave some of the Credit outstanding and then use that later, either as another application or refund it.

Applying a Credit has two impacts. Firstly, it will ‘use’ some or all of the Credit. Secondly, it will affect the payment status of the Order. If your Credit use covers the entire invoiced order amount, the order would go from ‘Pending Payment’ to ‘Paid’. Note that you don’t have to cover the whole Order amount. If the Credit application leaves some of the Order amount pending payment, you can either apply another Credit or just take payment from the customer.

Note that at least for now, it’s not possible for customers to apply Credits themselves when placing an order online, this currently needs to be done by an admin user.


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