Corrective invoices and voiding

Corrective invoice or void?

Once an invoice is issued, Spanish rules (and those of most EU countries) say it must never be edited or deleted: it stays in your records exactly as it was issued. Invoice 14 enforces this. If something is wrong, you have two options:

• •Corrective invoice (factura rectificativa): the invoice was sent and is real, but the amount needs to change — a price or quantity was wrong, you agreed a discount afterwards, something was returned, or the customer won’t pay. You issue a second document that corrects the first.
• •Void: the invoice should never have existed — a duplicate, or one issued by mistake that the customer hasn’t received. It is cancelled, but its number stays used.

When in doubt, use a corrective invoice. Once the customer has the invoice, voiding it leaves them holding a document that no longer exists in your books. Your gestor can tell you which applies in your case.

Create a corrective invoice

1. 1Open the issued (or paid) invoice you need to correct.
2. 2Click Corrective invoice and confirm. A corrective draft opens, titled Corrective invoice (draft).
3. 3Choose the Reason (AEAT code) (see below).
4. 4Adjust the lines. They start as a full credit: every original line with a negative price.
5. 5Check the totals, then click Issue invoice.

The correction works “by differences”: the lines say what changes compared with the original, not what the invoice should have been. For example:

• •Cancel the whole invoice: keep every reversed line as it is.
• •Partial credit: you charged 10 hours but should have charged 8. Remove the other lines and set the reversed line to a quantity of 2.
• •Different price: keep the reversed line (−450.00) and add a new line at the right price (+400.00), so the corrective invoice totals −50.00.
• •Extra charge: delete the reversed lines and add a positive line for what you forgot to bill.

The customer and the tax treatment are fixed to those of the original invoice, and negative prices are only allowed on corrective invoices. A corrective invoice can’t total zero — it has to change something. If only non-amount details were wrong, such as the customer’s address, update the customer, credit the whole invoice and issue a new, correct one.

Reason codes

The reason is printed on the corrective invoice and, with VERI*FACTU, reported to the AEAT. The codes come from the Spanish VAT law:

• •R1: Price, quantity or discount change, return, or error of law (art. 80.1–80.2). The usual choice.
• •R2: Customer insolvency proceedings (art. 80.3).
• •R3: Bad debt (art. 80.4).
• •R4: Other correction.

What happens when you issue it

• •It takes the next number in a separate corrective series: your invoice prefix with an R in front, such as R2026-0001.
• •The PDF is titled “Corrective invoice” and states the number and date of the invoice it corrects, the method (by differences) and the reason.
• •Both invoices link to each other: Corrects on the corrective invoice, Corrected by on the original. The list marks it corrective.
• •It doesn’t count towards your plan’s invoice allowance.
• •In your tax reports, it nets against the period it is dated in.

A credit leaves the corrective invoice with a negative balance. If you pay the money back, record it as a refund on the corrective invoice (Payments and refunds). You can issue more than one corrective invoice against the same original.

Void an invoice

1. 1Open the issued invoice.
2. 2Click Void and confirm.

Void only appears on issued invoices with no payments recorded. Once any payment is recorded, the invoice can only be corrected, not voided.

• •The invoice is marked voided. Its number is never reused, so your numbering has no gaps.
• •It stays in your invoice ledger but counts nothing towards your totals and tax reports.
• •The email and payment cards disappear; you can still download the PDF.
• •It still counts towards your plan’s invoice allowance, because its number was used.

Voiding can’t be undone. If you need the invoice after all, issue a new one.

With VERI*FACTU on, voiding also sends a cancellation record (anulación) to the AEAT, shown on the invoice’s AEAT record card. If you see AEAT is still processing this invoice, wait a minute until the original record is accepted and try again. See VERI*FACTU records and the QR code.