The credit note crisis: The hidden cost of unclaimed credits

Every sector relies on credit notes - refunds, returns or supplier adjustments. Yet most businesses fail to track them properly. The result is lost money, wasted time and eroded margins. This growing issue across UK industries is what we call the Credit Note Crisis.

What’s really happening?

Credits are promised but often never recalimed. Invoices get paid, but the offsetting credits vanish into inboxes or sit unclaimed in supplier accounts. Finance assume they’re settled; operations assume finance is chasing them. Nobody has full visibility - especially in organisations with distributed teams and multiple sites.

Root causes of the problem:

• Manual, fragmented processes – Credits tracked in spreadsheets or emails are easily lost.
• Siloed teams – Procurement, finance and operations rarely share live visibility.
• Slow supplier response – Credits can expire before being applied.
• Legacy ERPs – Most systems focus on invoices, not credit reconciliation.

The result: unclaimed credits quietly drain profitability and distort cash flow.

How distributed workforces make the problem worse

Multi-site organisations suffer most. Sites handle invoices locally, issue returns and negotiate credits - but communication breaks down. Local teams may file credit notes manually, while head office never sees them. With no shared system, credits slip through the cracks and responsibility becomes blurred.

The cost to UK businesses

In consumer markets alone, the UK has seen over £130 million in unused travel credit notes. Extrapolate that across B2B supply chains, and the losses are staggering. Even if just 0.2% of UK business spend goes unclaimed, the impact could exceed £1 billion annually - a hidden drain on working capital and profitability across hospitality, retail, manufacturing and construction.

How OmniPATH helps:

1. Automated credit detection

OmniPATH can automatically identify and track credits across suppliers, invoices and sites. They alert teams when credits are issued and show real-time redemption status.

Benefits:

• Stops manual chasing and missed claims
• Delivers visibility across sites and teams
• Reduces human error and administrative time

2. Virtual card programmes with spend controls

Digital cards issued per site, teams or project ensure that refunds and credits are automatically reconciled to the correct budget. Each transaction carries metadata, so credits and refunds link back to the original spend.

Benefits:

• Seamless refund and reconciliation
• Enforced spend limits and compliance
• Real-time transparency and audit trail

Combined, these solutions eliminate the “credit gap” between operations and finance - reclaiming lost value and improving accountability.

Why it matters

The Credit Note Crisis is not just an accounting inconvenience - it’s a multi-million-pound inefficiency embedded in UK business culture. Every unclaimed credit note reduces cash flow, weakens negotiation power and distorts true profitability.

OmniPATH Automation and virtual card technology give organisations the tools to recover these silent losses - restoring visibility, control and trust across the entire purchase-to-pay cycle.

Hidden inefficiencies like untracked credits are the silent killers of profitability. By combining auto-detection and virtual card control, businesses can turn reactive finance into proactive intelligence - ensuring every credit is claimed, every transaction traced and every pound protected.

‍