Why you can't just edit
Once finalized, an invoice is immutable — 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 — same lines, 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 — "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 — it has been 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 a 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 — finalizing, sending, and the Copy action
- Invoice numbering sequences — why cancelled numbers keep their slot
- VAT schemes and VIES validation — VAT treatments carry over to correction documents