Credit notes and corrections: why you never edit an issued e-invoice
In paper days a wrong invoice could be crossed out and rewritten. With e-invoicing, once an invoice is issued and reported or cleared it is final. Every correction is a new document that points back to the original.
The rule
The NBR pilot policy brief states that any adjustment to an issued e-invoice, including values, dates, addresses or descriptions, must be processed through a credit note or a debit note.
Which note to use
- Credit note: reduces or cancels what the invoice charged, for example a return, a discount given later or a billing error in the customer's favour.
- Debit note: adds to what the invoice charged, for example a forgotten item or a price increase.
When the mistake is not about VAT or amounts
For errors in other fields, such as a date, an address or a description, issue a credit note that fully offsets the wrong invoice, then issue a new invoice with the right details.
Same structure, same checks
A credit or debit note follows the same schema as the invoice it adjusts, whether that invoice was detailed or simplified, and is validated and reported the same way.
Practical habits
- Check the data before the invoice is sent: review and approval cost less than a credit note.
- Keep an invoice that was rejected as a draft and correct it, because a rejected invoice was never accepted.
- Link every note to the invoice it corrects.