I cannot cancel an invoice or another certified document

Symptom

You want to cancel an invoice (or a credit note, a simplified invoice, a receipt) issued by mistake and:

• the Cancel certified document (or Cancel receipt) button does not appear; or
• the Cancel certified document window opens, shows Locks in red and only has the Close button.

The cancellation steps, when nothing prevents it, are in How to cancel an invoice or another certified document. This article only covers what prevents it.

Message

The messages below appear under Locks, in the Cancel certified document window. They were triggered in the demo database with the Certified accountant profile, on a single invoice, FT D26/43 (1 Kit de canetas at 10.00 € + VAT, 12.30 €), except the one about communication to the AT. The parts in italics change with the document. When there is more than one cause, the window shows one message per cause.

The communication to the AT has no answer yet:

The message says the document has a communication with the Tax Authority that was sent or got no answer, and tells you to check the status first, in Communications with the Tax Authority, with Check status: only then can the document be cancelled, because the cancellation also has to be communicated. Pending validation on screen: today's demo database has no test AT credentials and, without them, Communicate to the AT is refused (“… has no complete AT credentials for the test environment …”), so it was not possible to leave a communication without an answer and read the message in the window.

There is a draft credit note on the invoice:

“Document "FT D26/43" is referred to by active documents (Rascunho de nota de crédito (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço)). Delete the draft(s) Rascunho de nota de crédito (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço) (Actions › Delete): a draft is deleted, not cancelled. Then cancel this document.”

The invoice already has an issued credit note (here, a 6.15 € note on a 12.30 € invoice). The window shows three messages:

“Document "FT D26/43" has a payment state of "Partially Paid" — only a document that is still unpaid can be cancelled; once paid, partially paid or credited, its correction is a credit note, never a cancellation. If a further correction is needed, issue a new document (a debit note or a new invoice, as the case); if cancelling is really needed, talk to the certified accountant.”

“Document "FT D26/43" has already been rectified by NC D26/5 (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço): a document with a credit or debit note, even a partial one or one not yet reconciled, is not cancelled (Despacho 8632/2014, 3.3.8). The credit or debit note already issued corrects this document, so neither the document nor the note is cancelled. If a further correction is needed, issue a new document (a debit note or a new invoice, as the case); if cancelling is really needed, talk to the certified accountant.”

“Document "FT D26/43" is referred to by active documents (NC D26/5 (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço)). NC D26/5 (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço) is reconciled with this document and corrects it: it is not cancelled.”

And, when you try to cancel that credit note, the note's window refuses too:

“Credit note "NC D26/5 (NC de FT D26/43: Erro de preço)" has a payment state of "Paid": it is reconciled with the document it rectifies, and an issued credit note is not cancelled. If a further correction is needed, issue a new document (a debit note or a new invoice, as the case); if cancelling is really needed, talk to the certified accountant.”

The invoice is paid (in full or in part, by receipt): the message is the first of the three above, with the state "Paid" or "Partially Paid". The case is in How to cancel an invoice or another certified document, under “The window does not let you cancel”.

Verified causes

• Your profile cannot cancel. With the Administrative and Accountant profiles, the invoice does not have the Cancel certified document button; the warning at the top of the invoice says to ask a user with the “Fiscal officer”, “Certified accountant” or “Fiscal administration” profile to cancel it. Of the values of the Profile field, only the Certified accountant has that button. On a receipt, the Accountant does have Cancel receipt; the Administrative profile does not.

• The invoice's communication to the AT got no answer. After Communicate to the AT, the invoice's AT field was left Unknown: fiscaldoo does not know whether the AT received it. If it did, the cancellation also has to be communicated to it, so the cancellation waits for the answer. A Rejected communication does not block (seen on screen).
• Another document refers to the invoice. A credit or debit note on the invoice blocks the cancellation, even in draft. A cancelled note no longer blocks.
• The invoice is paid or has been credited. An invoice that is paid, partly paid or has an issued credit note can no longer be cancelled: it is corrected with a credit note. When the credit note is issued with the Credit Note button, fiscaldoo links it to the invoice straight away (as if it were a payment): the invoice gets the payment state “Partially Paid” (with the whole invoice credited, the Credited ribbon in the corner) and the note becomes “Paid”. That is why both refuse.
• The document is from a closed period. A document dated up to the fiscal year's lock date cannot be cancelled: it is corrected with a credit (or debit) note that refers to it. Pending validation on screen: the demo has no sales documents in 2025, the only closed fiscal year, and they cannot be issued after the closing.

What to check

1. The profile you logged in with: only the Certified accountant profile and the administrator cancel invoices.
2. The AT field in the invoice's Certified document block: Unknown means the communication has no answer yet.
3. In Linked documents, the numbers of Payments and Credit note; and, in the lock message itself, the invoice's payment state (for example “Partially Paid”).
4. Whether the transaction really happened. Cancellation is only for documents of transactions that did not exist; if the transaction happened, the correction is a credit note and nothing needs to be cancelled.

How to fix it

The button does not appear

Ask a user with the Certified accountant profile, or the administrator, to cancel it, with the document number and the reason. A receipt can also be cancelled by the Accountant.

A document in Draft has no fiscal number and is not cancelled: it is changed or deleted.

The communication to the AT has no answer

1. Sort out the communication first: in Accounting › Declare › Tax Authority › Communications with the Tax Authority, open the document's communication and follow Communication to the AT failed or is pending. Today, on a production database, Check status does not ask the AT anything and does not make the communication Accepted: that article says how to confirm, before resending, whether the AT already received the document.
2. When the AT field becomes Accepted (after Resend) or Rejected, click Cancel certified document again: the window no longer shows the lock.
3. Cancel and communicate the cancellation as in How to cancel an invoice or another certified document (steps 3 to 5).

If the AT already has the document and the communication is still Unknown, the lock remains: contact support.

Who does it: whoever has the Fiscal officer access, which comes with the Certified accountant profile (only that access, and the administrator, has Check status and Resend).

There is a draft credit note

1. Open the credit note (it is in the lock, and in the invoice's Linked documents › Credit note).
2. If the note should not be issued, open Actions and choose Delete; in the confirmation window, click Delete. A draft has no fiscal number: it is deleted, not cancelled, as the message says.
3. Go back to the invoice and click Cancel certified document. In the demo, once the draft was deleted, the window for FT D26/43 opened without locks, with the Reason field and the Cancel document button.

If the note should be issued (the transaction happened, only the amount was wrong), do not cancel the invoice: confirm the credit note and the correction is done.

Who does it: anyone with the Administrative, Accountant or Certified accountant profile can delete the draft note, even if someone else created it; cancelling the invoice is for the Certified accountant.

The invoice already has an issued credit note

The issued credit note already corrects the document. Both stay as they are: neither is cancelled, as the messages say (“its correction is a credit note, never a cancellation”). Whatever is still wrong is corrected with a new document.

• The transaction happened and the note corrected the wrong part (for example, a price): there is nothing more to do.
• The transaction did not exist and the note only credited part of the amount: talk to the certified accountant before issuing more documents. The rest of the amount can be credited with another credit note on the same invoice (see below).
• You think both have to be cancelled: do not do it by trial and error. Talk to the certified accountant first, who decides whether it is possible and how.

Pending validation by a certified accountant: whether a document rectified by an already issued credit note can ever be cancelled, and how (Despacho 8632/2014, point 3.3.8, cited by the message), or whether the correction is always made with new documents.

In the demo, FT D26/43 (1 Kit de canetas at 10.00 € + VAT, 12.30 €) has NC D26/5 (reason “Price error”, price from 10.00 € to 5.00 €, 6.15 €). Both stay in the ledger: the original (2111 Clientes gerais debit 12.30 €, 711 Mercadorias credit 10.00 €, 2433 IVA - Liquidado credit 2.30 €) and the note (711 Mercadorias debit 5.00 €, 2433 IVA - Liquidado debit 1.15 €, 2111 Clientes gerais credit 6.15 €). The original is “Partially Paid”, with 6.15 € outstanding.

A 2nd credit note for the rest of the amount is accepted. In the demo, with the Administrative profile, a 2nd note on FT D26/43, also with the reason “Price error” and the price from 10.00 € to 5.00 € (6.15 €), was issued as NC D26/6, with the same lines as NC D26/5. The invoice got the Credited ribbon, with nothing outstanding, and both notes became “Paid”. Each note asks for the VAT regularization reason, the Regularization reference date and the Regularization proof: see How to issue a credit note, which also covers the limit of what has already been invoiced.

Who decides: the certified accountant. Who issues a credit note: Administrative or Accountant.

The invoice is paid

If the payment was recorded by mistake, cancel the receipt first; if the payment happened, correct with a credit note. Both cases are in How to cancel an invoice or another certified document, under “The window does not let you cancel”.

The document is from a closed period

It is not cancelled: the correction is a credit (or debit) note that refers to it, issued with today's date: How to issue a credit note.

Do not try to get round any of these locks (deleting the document, going back to draft, changing it in developer mode): fiscaldoo refuses and every attempt is kept in the audit log. See I cannot change an invoice already issued.

Expected result

• The Cancel certified document window opens without Locks, with the Reason field and the Cancel document button.
• Once cancelled, the document is Cancelled, keeps its number and ATCUD and, if the AT had received it, the cancellation is waiting to be communicated until you click Communicate to the AT.

When to contact support

• The window shows a lock that does not match the document (for example, a credit note that does not exist or is already cancelled).
• The communication to the AT is still Unknown after Resend, or the AT already has the document and the communication is still Unknown.
• You need to cancel a document from a closed period.

Information to send

• The document number (for example FT D26/43) and the company.
• The full text of Locks, copied from the window.
• The profile you logged in with and the reason for the cancellation.
• The state of the invoice's AT field and, if any, the credit note number.