Why you can't just edit
Once finalized, an invoice is immutable, and that's what makes its number and PDF trustworthy in an audit. So corrections work the way accounting does: you don't change the document, you issue a new document that reverses the old one, and the two stay linked. TaxItEasy gives you two such documents: the cancellation invoice (full reversal) and the credit note (partial reversal).
Cancelling an invoice (full reversal)
On the invoice's read view, click Storno (cancel) and give a reason. In one step, TaxItEasy:
- creates a mirror-image negative invoice with the same lines and negative amounts;
- assigns it its own number from your credit-note sequence (never a reused invoice number);
- renders and stores its own PDF, headed "Cancellation Invoice", with a prominent reference box reading "Cancellation invoice for
" ; - finalizes it automatically and back-links it to the original.
Original plus cancellation net out to exactly zero. The original keeps its number and stays in your records, so your invoice series stays gapless (see invoice numbering sequences).
Zero setup required. If you've never created a credit-note sequence, one is auto-provisioned at the moment of your first cancellation (prefix ST-, format inherited from your invoice sequence). A cancellation never fails because of missing configuration.
Two guards: a cancelled invoice can't be cancelled twice, and drafts can't be cancelled at all. A draft has no legal existence yet, so just delete it.
Credit notes (partial reversal)
When only part of an invoice needs reversing (a returned item, a price reduction, a partial refund), use Issue credit note. The dialog lists the original line items with per-line checkboxes and a quantity picker: credit exactly the lines and quantities you choose. Crediting more than the original quantities is blocked. Leaving every line unchecked issues a full credit of the invoice.
The key difference to a cancellation: after a partial credit, the original invoice stays valid. It hasn't been reversed, only reduced by a linked second document.
The locked document chain
Every document in the chain is itself finalized and immutable: the original, the cancellation, the credit note. Each carries its own number, its own PDF, and a link to the original; the cancellation's read view shows the banner "This is a cancellation of
Corrections are always dated today, which places them in the current VAT period, the legally correct treatment for VAT corrections, rather than rewriting a period you may already have reported.
Cancel or credit: which one?
- Cancel when the invoice is wrong as a document: wrong customer, wrong VAT treatment, wrong date, fundamentally wrong content. Then fix and reissue. The
Copybutton clones the cancelled invoice into a fresh draft (new provisional number, finalize state reset) so you don't retype anything. - Credit when the invoice was right but the amount owed changed afterwards: returns, goodwill discounts, partial refunds. The original stays valid; the credit note adjusts the balance.
A rule of thumb: if your customer should end up holding a corrected invoice, cancel and reissue. If they should hold the original invoice plus a credit, issue a credit note.
Like invoices, credit notes and cancellations can be emailed to your customer from the read view, with the same delivery tracking. See create and send an invoice.
Related
- Create and send an invoice covers finalizing, sending, and the Copy action
- Invoice numbering sequences explains why cancelled numbers keep their slot
- VAT schemes and VIES validation shows how VAT treatments carry over to correction documents