I posted about the issue of being unable to write off an invoice that had been partially credited but wasn’t able to return to the issue before the thread automatically locked.
The response was that a partially PAID invoice could still be flagged as a bad debt.
What I have found is that this is not the case if the invoice value is reduced with a credit note. We could cancel the credit notes but, in the unlikely event of the customer having a fit of honesty, we would have lost any record of the true level of debt.
For background the customer was a retailer supplied with goods on sale or return. Returns were duely credited but sales have never been paid for.
You could try to create a new invoice for this transaction where you record the total invoice amount in the first line, then reduce it with the amount of goods returned in the second line. This way you would not have a credit note but still would be able to see the outstanding amount. If the original transactions are in a previous accounting period / VAT return than you need to beware though as the new transaction will be picked up again so will require manual adjustment.