arggh-payments

[elfin kite]

credit notes would work there yes. Or you can just use Invoice Items without Prices

like instead of using https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoiceitems/create?lang=ruby#create_invoiceitem-price_data just use https://stripe.com/docs/api/invoiceitems/create?lang=ruby#create_invoiceitem-amount directly

but that's more for creating a new invoice. If you're refunding an existing payment that already happened then Credit Notes are the main way to issue a refund with a papertrail so make sense there.

[main spade]

This right?

1. Using invoice item's amount directly for the refund means customer gets a new invoice
2. Using Credit Notes I can adjust the current invoice, client gets only one invoice per billing cycle

[elfin kite]

sounds right enough

also using 1 won't actually refund them, it just discounts the next invoice, and if the overall amount of the total invoice is negative they get a credit balance for future invoices

[main spade]

Bonus question: can I have an invoice with only a Credit Note applied, nothing else?

[elfin kite]

that's not really how it works

you have an Invoice, and later you might have a credit note. The credit note is not part of the invoice

[main spade]

Oh ok. Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

Ideally, if the invoice ends up being negative, I'd like to not refund, but just update a balance that gets applied on the next (positive amount) invoice

A typical invoice would be:

fee 20$
fee 20$
adjustment -5$
-------
total 35$

but it could also be just

adjustment -5$
total -5$

...in which case I'd like to keep that -5$ waiting for the next invoice.

[twilit sail]

Hey, taking over here

I'd like to not refund, but just update a balance that gets applied on the next (positive amount) invoice
We wouldn't refund in that instance, but instead apply credit to the customer balance AFAIK

https://stripe.com/docs/invoicing/customer/balance

[main spade]

Ok thanks, maybe I was misreading something here.

[twilit sail]

Oh, I'm not sure then. Not familiar with credit notes. Did you try test it?

[main spade]

Not yet no, didn't want to implement until I understood what part of the API I was supposed to use :/

Found it quite confusing that I can have an invoice item with a negative amount, just not if I want to use inline price_data.

[twilit sail]

Yep, Price objects need a positive unit amount

(which is what price_data creates)

[main spade]

Ugh, I thought I could bypass the problem using amount directly in the Invoice Item, but I get:

StripeInvalidRequestError: The price price_1LHoJFKdPSE4E8AZyOWGRHCo has a negative amount which is not supported with automatic tax.

[twilit sail]

What's the req_xxx ID?

[main spade]

req_W39ZFLdPx4FEFD

[twilit sail]

Yeah, that won't work with Stripe Tax

[main spade]

Is Stripe Tax mostly for B2C use cases? In my task specs we have a clear instruction to charge 24% VAT if customer resides in same country as us, reverse charge VAT if customer resides abroad and has provided us with a VAT id?

(just hoping we could turn off Stripe Tax and be done with this)

[twilit sail]

Not specifically no, it just automates tax calculation and collection based on customer location

[main spade]

Hmmph. Using Credit Notes, I have to specify lines, I try to add a custom_line_item, but those are not allowed with Stripe Tax either 😦