Credit memos are issued by the organization that sent the original invoice to reduce amounts owed when items are damaged or incorrect quantities are received. Debit memos are issued by the organization receiving an invoice to request a reduction in amounts owed when they were undercharged or overcharged. Both debit memos and credit memos reduce outstanding vendor balances in accounts payable systems, but debit memos are issued by the company to the vendor while credit memos are issued by the vendor to the company. Reasons for debit memos include material rejections or reductions in purchase costs, while credit memos may be issued for increased charges or late payment fees.

1. Credit Memo is always issued by the organization that sent the original Invoice. So if we
send a Customer an Invoice for 100 items, but only 98 arrived in good condition and 2 were
damaged, we would send the Customer a Credit Memo for the 2 damaged items. If we
received an Invoice from a Supplier for 50 items, but found that 5 were damaged, we would
ask the Supplier for a Credit Memo for the 5 damaged items.
A Debit Memo is always issued by us. If we send an Invoice to a Customer but we made a
mistake on the price or quantity and undercharged them, we would raise a Debit Memo for
the difference (if we overcharged them, we would issue a Credit Memo). If we received an
Invoice from a Supplier where we were overcharged for some reason, but we were not sure
if we would get a Credit Memo from them, but we wanted to pay the bulk of the Invoice, we
would raise a Debit Memo for the difference; it forms part of the audit trail and explains
why we did not pay the exact amount of the Invoice.
Supplier ------Overcharge----->Buyer = Credit Memo issued by Buyer
Supplier ------Undercharge----->Buyer = Debit Memo issued by Buyer
Debit Memo and Credit Memo functionality is same in Oracle Payables i.e it
reduces the vendor balances
but
Debit memo issues by Company asking vendor to reduce outstanding balance of
the company where as credit memo issued by Vendor or Supplier.
Both Debit Memo and Credit Memo is possible in the Accounts Payables.
You can raise Debit Memo in the following reasons to a Supplier
a. Materials Rejection
b. Reduce in the Purchase Charges such as Tax, Fright, Carriage and so on
c. Quality of the material or delay in the supply of materials caused to stop
the production line
You can raise Credit Memo in the following reasons to a Supplier
a. Increase in the Purchase Charges
b. Late Payment or Cheque Bounce Charges