When making a credit memo, why does the Total Credit amount say $0, when trying to give credit for line items listed?

Hi there, Chickpea. Allow me to clarify things about the credit memo.

When you create a memo for your customer, the total credit amount will be visible. However, if you send this memo via email, it will show as zero. This happens because the credit is automatically deducted from the balance of any open invoice, due to the automatic credit application feature in your company settings. Here's what to expect when the automatic apply credit option is enabled:

• If there are older open invoices, QuickBooks will apply the credit to the oldest one first, but if there are no open invoices, the credit will be applied to your next invoice.
• If the credit amount matches the invoice amount, the credit memo and the invoice will be marked as Closed. If the credit is less than the invoice amount, the credit memo will be marked as 'Closed' and the invoice as Partial.
• If the credit exceeds the amount of the oldest open invoice, QuickBooks will apply the remaining credit to the next oldest open invoice. If there are no more open invoices, the credit memo will be marked as Unapplied.
• If you issue a credit and your customer has no outstanding balance, they will have a negative account balance.

If you wish to turn it off, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Gear icon and select Account and Settings.
2. Choose Advanced.
3. Click Edit pencil in the Automation section.
4. Turn off Automatically apply credits, and you can decide which open invoices you want this to apply.
5. Hit Save and click Done.

You can check out this article for your reference about credit memos: Create and apply credit memos or delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, I'm sharing this article if your customer wants a refund instead of credit: Record a customer refund in QuickBooks Online.

If you have other question or concerns about credit memo, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Have a great day, and take care.