> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.quotamint.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Credits and the ledger

> Grant, charge, refund, and audit exact credit balances

Credits are decimal units with six digits of precision. QuotaMint stores balances as exact numeric values and never uses floating-point arithmetic for deductions.

## Credit lifecycle

A balance can change through:

* The plan's **monthly allocation**, granted automatically once per calendar month
* A **manual change** made in the dashboard: a top-up, an operator correction, or a refund
* A **usage charge** from a successful `consume` request

Every change is recorded in an append-only ledger — the amount, the balance after the change, and why it happened. The ledger is the audit history; it cannot be edited.

## Add credits from the dashboard

Open the customer's detail page and add credits. Authorized roles only — see [workspaces and roles](/dashboard/workspaces).

* **Top-up:** purchased or externally granted credits.
* **Refund:** returning credits for a charge you are reversing. Adding credits back is always safe for the balance.
* **Correction:** a manual adjustment when something needs fixing.

Each dashboard change is recorded in the ledger with its reason, so the balance history stays explainable. Double-check the current balance before adding a top-up twice: manual additions are additive, and two recorded additions are two balances added.

Refunds and corrections cannot push a balance below zero.

## Monthly grants

An active plan can define a monthly allocation. QuotaMint grants it once per customer per current calendar month, and the grant is recorded in the ledger. Restarts and repeated runs cannot double-grant. A mid-month plan assignment receives the current month's allocation; earlier months are not backfilled.

## Zero-cost features

A credit feature may cost zero. It can still be entitled or denied by plan status and feature access. Successful usage remains auditable in usage reporting.