Invoices, payments and credit notes

Three documents carry all the money. None of them is ever edited — which is exactly why the books hold up.

Money in Hull is recorded the way an accountant would recognise: as documents that are issued and then never quietly changed. Once you know the three, most billing questions answer themselves.

The invoice — what was charged

An invoice belongs to the parent, not to a child, and it can carry several lines: two siblings and three packages in one cart produce one invoice.

Its lines hold the money — the price, the discount, the tax. This is why the package on a child's profile does not show a price: the price is on the invoice line that bought it.

An invoice's status is worked out, not set. Issued, then part paid, then paid, purely from what has been received against it. Nobody marks an invoice paid by hand.

The payment — what was received

A payment records money arriving: when, how, how much, and with what evidence.

One payment can settle several invoices, and one invoice can be settled by several payments. That is normal — a family paying half now and half next week is two payments against one invoice, and the invoice moves to paid on the second.

The receipt is anchored to the payment. It proves money changed hands, which is why it can only exist once money has.

The credit note — what was given back

The only way to reduce an invoice. Never an edit, never a deletion.

The common case is a cancelled package: the unused portion is valued and reversed by a credit note, and that value becomes credit the family can spend on their next purchase. The original sale stays on the record, which is the point — you can still see what was sold, and separately see what was given back.

Why nothing is edited

Because a number that can be changed silently cannot be trusted later.

If an invoice could be edited, then "what did this family pay in March?" would have no fixed answer, a receipt already emailed would stop matching the record, and the figures pushed to your accounting system would drift from the ones in Hull. Corrections as new documents keep every version of the truth on the record.

Tax

SST is charged on what remains after discounts, at the rate your academy is set up with. Revenue reporting uses the figure before tax, so the numbers you manage the business on are not inflated by tax you are only collecting.

Related: Check what a family owes · Class credits and account credit · How revenue is counted.