I cannot change an invoice already issued

Symptom

You want to correct an invoice (or a credit note, an invoice-receipt, a receipt) that has already been issued, and:

• the fields do not let you type and there is no button to go back to draft; or
• when you try to change it, a message appears saying the certified document cannot be changed.

Message

At the top of an issued invoice, with the Administrative and Accountant profiles, this warning appears:

“Document issued and signed: it can no longer be changed. To correct it, issue a credit note.”

With the same profiles a second warning appears below:

“An issued document is neither deleted nor changed. If it was issued by mistake, ask a user with the “Fiscal officer”, “Certified accountant” or “Fiscal administration” profile to cancel it (“Cancel” button on the document, with the reason), or issue a credit note referring to it (“Credit note” button).”

On screen, those buttons are called Cancel certified document (only shown to those profiles) and Credit Note.

With the Certified accountant profile there is only one warning, which ends with “To correct it, issue a credit note or cancel it stating the reason.”

If you try to change the document another way (an import, an integration, another app), the refusal says:

“Certified document "FT D26/48" cannot be changed: only its internal notes, attachments, messages and activities are editable (field(s) refused: partner_id). To correct it, issue a credit or debit note, or cancel it recording the reason (DL 28/2019, art. 7.º).”

If you try to go back to draft:

“Certified document(s) FT D26/48 cannot go back to draft: the number, the ATCUD and the signature are already part of the tax record (DL 28/2019, art. 7.º). To correct a document, issue a credit (or debit) note that refers to it; if it was issued by mistake, cancel it with “Cancel certified document” (reason required), which keeps the number intact.”

If you try to delete it:

“The document "FT D26/48" must be kept until 31/12/2036: tax documents are kept for 10 years (CIVA art. 52.º, CIRC art. 123.º) and cannot be deleted before that date, not even by administrators. If it was issued by mistake, cancel it or issue a credit note.”

The three messages were copied from the demo database in Portuguese, attempting the change through an integration; the field name in brackets changes with what you tried to change. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the retention period the message cites (10 years).

If you try to change the NIF or the name on the record of a customer who already has issued documents, when you save this appears, with any profile:

“"Cliente Teste DOCS-016, Lda" is already used in certified documents, so its tax number ("PT516001604") cannot be changed here: the SAF-T master files and the documents already issued depend on it. Documents keep the data they were issued with. If it was a typing error, ask the Fiscal officer to correct it with the audited correction ("Audited correction" button on the record); otherwise, create a new record.”

Verified causes

• The document has already been issued. When you clicked Confirm, the invoice got a number, ATCUD and signature and became Posted. The law forbids changing a document in that state (Decree-Law 28/2019, art. 7) and fiscaldoo always refuses, including for administrators. The attempt is kept in the audit log.
• The customer or product record has already been used on an issued document. The customer's name and tax number (NIF) can no longer be changed directly on the record, because the SAF-T and the documents depend on them; the address can still be changed on the record. Documents keep the data they were issued with.

What to check

1. The state of the document: if it is in Draft, you can change it. If it is Posted, you can no longer.
2. What is wrong: the amount or the lines (price, quantity, product, VAT), the customer details (name, address, NIF) or the whole document (issued by mistake).
3. Whether the transaction really happened or the document should not exist.

How to fix it

Choose the case that matches what is wrong.

Price, quantity, product, discount or return

Issue a credit note from the invoice: How to issue a credit note. If something was not invoiced, issue a debit note or a new invoice.

Who does it: Administrative or Accountant.

Customer name, address or NIF

There are two places to correct, and sometimes both:

• the issued invoice, if it went to the wrong customer or with wrong details: Correct the customer data, below;
• the customer record, if the name or the NIF were mistyped on the record: Audited correction, further below. It only changes the record, for the following documents; invoices already issued with the wrong detail are corrected with Correct the customer data.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: on an invoice already issued with the wrong NIF, when correcting the record is enough and when a credit note and a new invoice are needed.

Correct the invoice: Correct the customer data

With the Administrative profile, open Actions on the invoice and choose Correct the customer data; with the Accountant and Certified accountant profiles, Correct the customer data is a button on the invoice.

The Correct the customer data window shows the Customer on the issued invoice and comes with the Reason (“Correction of the customer data”, which you can change), the Corrected customer (the same customer: choose the right one, or correct the contact first), the VAT regularization reason and the Regularization reference date (today's date) already filled in. The VAT reason is not chosen: it comes as “Cancellation or reduction of the operation (invalidity, termination, return of goods, discounts)” and the window explains: “The credit note that cancels the invoice is a VAT regularisation in favour of the taxable person (CIVA art. 78.º n.º 2, field 40 of the VAT return); the new invoice charges the VAT again. The reason is set by this step: fill in the date and the evidence (how the customer was informed of the correction).”

Check the date and fill in the Regularization proof (for example, the e-mail sent to the customer with the new invoice). Without the proof, the window refuses with “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”. Click Issue credit note and prepare new invoice: the credit note for the whole invoice is issued with that VAT reason and the new invoice opens in draft, with the corrected customer. Check it and click Confirm. In the demo, with the Administrative profile, FT D26/40 (12.30 €, to “Papelaria Exemplo, Lda”) gave NC D26/4 for 12.30 € (711 Mercadorias debit 10.00 €, 2433 IVA - Liquidado debit 2.30 €, 2111 Clientes gerais credit 12.30 €) and the new invoice FT D26/42, to “Oficina Exemplo, Lda”, confirmed by the same profile. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the VAT reason and the return field the window sets when correcting the customer details.

The issued invoice keeps the details it was issued with.

Who does it: Administrative (in Actions), Accountant or Certified accountant (button on the invoice).

Correct the record: Audited correction

The address is changed on the customer record itself. The name and NIF of a customer with issued documents are not: the record refuses them (see “Message”) and tells you to ask the Fiscal officer for the audited correction, for a typing error. “Fiscal officer” is the name of the access right: in the Profile field, the one who has it is the Certified accountant.

1. Open the customer record and click Audited correction. Of the values of the Profile field, only the Certified accountant has this button (the administrator has it too).
2. In the Audited correction window, choose the Field to correct (NIF or Name), check the Current value, type the Corrected value and the Reason and click Fix.

The record gets the new value and the reason is kept in the audit log. Documents already issued do not change: they keep the NIF and name they were issued with, which are those in that document's QR code and SAF-T. In the demo, FT D26/53 was issued with NIF PT516001604; after it was corrected on the record to PT516001612, the invoice still has PT516001604, although the customer block, when you open the invoice, already shows the record's new details.

Who does it: the Certified accountant.

The document was issued by mistake (invoice or receipt)

If the transaction did not happen, the document is cancelled with the reason, without deleting it: How to cancel an invoice or another certified document.

Who does it: the Certified accountant or the administrator; for a receipt, also the Accountant.

Do not try to get round the lock (duplicating the invoice and deleting the original, changing the date, changing it in developer mode): fiscaldoo refuses and every attempt is recorded.

Expected result

• With a credit note: the original invoice stays the same and now shows the credit note that corrects it.
• With the customer details correction: there is a full credit note (the original invoice becomes Reversed) and a new invoice, with the right customer.
• With the audited correction: the customer record has the right name or NIF for the following documents; those already issued stay as they were issued.
• With cancellation: the document is cancelled, with the reason, and the number is never used again.

When to contact support

• The message appears on a document that was never issued (for example, a draft that cannot be edited).
• The series is blocked with the message “Issuing is stopped in this series: the integrity check found its chain of signatures broken.”
• You need to correct data that none of the paths above allow.

Information to send

• The document number (for example FT D26/12) and the company.
• The full text of the message, copied from the screen (not a photo).
• What you were trying to do and the profile you logged in with.
• The approximate time, so support can find the attempt in the audit log.