One credit note a month instead of ten
Robert Reiz | 29. Oktober 2026 | 12:20 UTC Lena is a freelance developer working for your agency on the "Shop Relaunch" project. She submits a timesheet every week, plus two expense reports a month – one for her train journeys to the client and one for the hotel. Because you've agreed on the credit memo process with Lena, ZEIT.IO automatically creates a credit note for every approved document.
At the end of the month that's six credit notes for a single month and a single project. Jonas in your accounts team books six documents and releases six payments. Lena receives six bank transfers she has to match to her work, and sends six PDFs to her tax adviser. With five freelancers on the project, it's thirty.
On top of that, a week that spans the end of the month ends up in one month or the other depending on the timesheet. And an expense report Lena hands in six weeks late throws any monthly planning out of the window.
From now on you can set, per supplier contract or as the default for your whole organisation, that the contractor receives just one credit note per project and month – covering all of that month's time and expenses together.
A quick reminder: what is the credit memo process?
In the credit memo process your supplier doesn't send you an invoice – you create it for them. A credit note here means a self-billed invoice under EN 16931 invoice type 389, not an invoice correction. It replaces the supplier's invoice, so they no longer have to write one.
Until now, ZEIT.IO created one credit note per approved timesheet and one per approved expense report. That stays the default. The monthly credit note is an additional option.
What changes now
A dedicated "Credit memo process" tab
Every supplier contract now has a "Credit memo process" tab, right before the settings. Everything is in one place there:
- the credit memo process itself – the switch has moved here from the settings,
- the option "One credit note per month",
- the closing day (1-28), set to the 3rd by default.
The option takes effect on the first day of the current month. Anything already credited this month is not credited again – so switching in the middle of a month is no problem.
As the default for all new supplier contracts
If monthly credit notes are going to be the rule for you, you don't have to switch them on contract by contract. Under Settings → Contracts → Supplier contract you'll find the same "One credit note per month" option, including the closing day, in the supplier contract template, right below the credit memo process.
Every new supplier contract takes over these settings – whether you create it in the browser, from a project or via the REST API. Existing contracts stay as they are; for those you still decide on the "Credit memo process" tab. Contracts for fixed-price packages are the exception, because fixed-price packages don't support monthly credit notes.
During the month: business as usual
Lena records her time and expenses and submits her timesheets, and you approve them. The only difference: approving no longer creates a credit note straight away. Instead, Lena sees this note:
"This timesheet is credited with the monthly credit note of its contract, project and month. It is generated once the month is closed and all its timesheets and expenses are approved."
To keep things unambiguous, a timesheet or expense report has to stay within one calendar month. A week that spans the end of the month is simply split into two timesheets.
A reminder before the closing day
Three days and one day before the closing day, Lena gets an email: "Reminder: October 2026 closes on 2026-11-03". It lists the time records she hasn't submitted yet and the expenses still in draft.
After the closing day the month is closed
From the day after the closing day, Lena can no longer record, change, delete or submit time and expenses for the closed month – whether in the browser, with the timer, in the app or via the REST API.
Anything she forgot to submit by then is submitted for approval automatically by ZEIT.IO on that same day. Nothing gets lost, and nobody has to chase anyone.
You and your approvers are not affected by the lock. And if you reject a timesheet, it reopens for Lena: she can correct it, add to it and submit it again.
One credit note, as soon as everything is approved
Once every timesheet and expense report of the month is approved, ZEIT.IO automatically creates one credit note for the contract, project and month. Time is grouped by project and hourly rate, with the expenses listed below.
On the "Credit memo process" tab you can see where each closed month stands: "Waiting for 2 documents", "Credit note" followed by its number, or "Complete, no credit note" if there was nothing to credit that month.
Cancellations apply to the whole month
If you cancel a timesheet or expense report, the monthly credit note is cancelled with it. Once it's approved again, ZEIT.IO creates a new credit note for the whole month. That way there's always exactly one valid credit note per month.
What stays the same – and what doesn't work
- Contracts without the option keep working as before, with one credit note per document.
- Uploaded timesheets and fixed-price packages aren't possible on a contract with monthly credit notes.
- No mixed timesheets: time from a contract with monthly credit notes and from one without has to go into separate timesheets.
- Expenses in different currencies within one month and project can't be combined into one credit note. In that case no credit note is created, and an entry in the contract's audit log gives the reason.
- Switch it off at any time: approved documents of the current and the previous month then get their own credit note again right away. Months that are already closed are still settled monthly.
Why this matters
For your accounts team, it means one document per supplier, project and month instead of a pile. Fewer bookings, fewer payments, fewer questions. And because the month closes on the closing day, early in the following month you know for certain what that month cost you – no late receipts reopening a month you settled long ago.
For Lena, it means one bank transfer, one PDF for her tax adviser, and a clear deadline she's reminded of in good time.
One month, one project, one credit note.