--- title: "Credits and referral bonuses" description: "Add a one-off credit to a family's account, on the web or in the phone app — a referral bonus, goodwill gesture, or deposit — or credit every family at once for a closure day, and let it come off their next invoice automatically." type: guide updated: 2026-10-10 canonical_url: https://help.nestlicare.com/owners/billing/family-credits roles: ["center_admin", "super_admin"] platforms: [web, ios, android] --- A **credit** is money you owe one family: a referral bonus for bringing in another family, a goodwill gesture after a rough week, a make-good for a closure, a deposit you are applying to tuition. You issue it once, to one family, and NestliCare takes it off that family's next invoice automatically. Short version first: this narrated video gives a family a credit, then applies it to an invoice that already went out. A credit is a **one-off amount**. If what you want instead is a rate that family gets on every invoice from now on, that is a [discount set to **Specific families**](/owners/billing/subsidies-and-discounts) — an employee rate, a military rate, a financial-aid arrangement. Rule of thumb: does it repeat? Discount. Does it happen once? Credit. ## Issue a credit 1. Go to **Families & Children → Families** and find the family's card. 2. Open the card's **⋯** (More actions) menu and choose **Credits**. Or open the family from **Invoices & Finances → Accounts** and click **Add credit**. 3. Enter the **amount** and pick a **reason** — Referral bonus, Goodwill gesture, Closure make-good, Deposit applied, or type your own. The reason is what the family sees on their invoice, so write it for them. 4. Optionally add an internal note. Notes are never shown to the family. 5. Click **Issue credit**. The family's **available balance** at the top of the same panel shows everything issued and not yet used. Once a family has a balance, a green credit chip also shows on their card; click it to open the same panel. ### From the phone app You can issue a credit from the NestliCare app on iPhone or Android, without a computer: 1. Tap the **Admin** tab, then **Family Accounts** under **Invoices & Finances**. 2. Tap the family. 3. In **Unused credits**, tap **Add credit**. 4. Enter the **amount**, pick a **reason** (or type your own), and add an optional internal note. 5. Tap **Issue credit**. It works exactly like the web: the credit comes off the family's next invoice automatically, and the family's available balance shows what is left. ## When a family pays more than they owe If a family hands you more than the invoice by cash, check, Zelle or another offline method (say $250 for a $200 invoice), record what you actually received: 1. Open the invoice and choose **Mark as Paid**. 2. Enter the full amount, $250. 3. Leave **Keep the extra on the family's account as a credit** ticked, and confirm. The invoice is marked **Paid** for the $200 it needed, and the extra $50 becomes a credit called "Credit from extra payment" that comes off their next invoice automatically. Your reports count the full $250 on the day you received it. **Giving the extra back.** If the family would rather have the money back, open their credits panel and click **Refund** on that credit (owners only). This records the refund and removes the credit; you hand the money back yourself. If part of the credit has already come off an invoice, only the unused part can be refunded. A credit made this way can't be voided on its own, because the money was recorded as received: refund it instead. ## Credit every family for a closure day If you closed unexpectedly (a snow day, a burst pipe, a sick day in a home daycare) and want to give the day back, you do not have to visit each family's card. Open the closure on **Organization → Calendar**, and the event panel has a **Credit families for this closure** button. 1. Go to **Organization → Calendar** and click the closure or holiday event. If you have not added it yet, add it first with the type set to **Closure**. 2. Click **Credit families for this closure**. NestliCare lists every family with a child on a fixed billing plan who was scheduled on the closed day(s), with a suggested credit per family. 3. Untick any family you do not want to credit, or change an amount. The **reason** field is what families see on their invoice; it starts as the event title and the dates. 4. Click **Issue credits**. Each family gets an ordinary credit that comes off their next invoice automatically. **How the suggested amount is worked out.** For each child: their plan amount divided by the days they attend each week gives a daily rate, times the closed days that fall on a day they attend. A child who comes Tuesday and Thursday gets nothing for a Monday closure. Monthly plans are converted to a weekly amount first (× 12 ÷ 52), so a $1,000-a-month, five-day child is worth $46.15 a day whatever the month. Siblings are added up into one credit for the family. Amounts are before discounts; adjust by hand if a family has one. **Who is left out, and why.** The panel lists children it did not include: no billing plan (nothing to credit), an hourly or day-rate plan (those never charge for a closed day anyway), or not scheduled on the closed day. Families you already credited for the same closure are shown as done and cannot be credited twice from this panel. Calendar closures on their own never change anyone's bill. Charging through planned closures listed in your handbook is the normal arrangement in child care, and this button is for the closures you choose to make good. Adding the closure itself, and what else it changes, is in [Closures and holidays on the calendar](/owners/communication/closures-and-holidays). ## How it is applied - The next invoice created for the family — auto-generated or manual — deducts the available balance automatically, up to the invoice total. You will see a **credit line** on the invoice carrying the reason you wrote. - A credit larger than one invoice rolls over: whatever is left applies to the following invoice, until it is used up. - If a family holds several credits, the **oldest is used first**. - When you compose a manual invoice for a family with available credit, the composer shows the deduction before you save. ## Apply a credit to an invoice that is already out Credits come off automatically only when an invoice is **created**. If you add a credit after this week's invoice has already gone out (for example, a parent hands you cash for the next few weeks), that open invoice is not touched on its own. To use the credit on it right away: 1. Go to **Invoices & Finances → Invoices** and click the open invoice (or open it from the family's account page). 2. Click **Apply credit**. The button shows how much will come off: the family's available balance, up to what is still owed on the invoice. The credit appears as a line on the invoice, and the amount due drops. If the credit covers everything that is left, the invoice is marked **Paid**. Anything the invoice did not need stays on the family's balance for later invoices. The button only shows on draft, unpaid, partly paid, and past-due invoices when the family has credit available. It does not show while a bank payment is still processing. If you void the invoice later, the credit goes back to the family's balance, the same as any other credit line. **Cash for this invoice only?** If the parent is paying just this invoice, you do not need a credit. Use **Mark as Paid** on the invoice, choose **Cash**, and enter the amount. ## Undo a credit - **Not yet applied?** Open the family's credits panel and click **Void** next to the credit. The unused remainder is cancelled; anything already applied to an invoice stays applied. - **Already on an invoice?** The owner can void the invoice. The credit money returns to the family's balance and will apply to the next invoice instead. If the invoice was already sent, the family is told it was voided. ## Credits, discounts, or subsidies? | You want to… | Use | | --- | --- | | Reward one family once (referral, goodwill) | **Credit** | | Reduce tuition for everyone, a sibling tier, an enrollment type, or a program — ongoing | **Discount** | | Track money an outside agency pays toward one child's tuition | **Subsidy** | Related: [Subsidies and discounts](/owners/billing/subsidies-and-discounts), [Create and send an invoice](/owners/billing/generate-and-send-an-invoice), [Auto-generate invoices on a schedule](/owners/billing/auto-invoice-generation).