Mistakes happen. An invoice might have the wrong price, be missing a line, or need to be removed. What you can do depends mostly on whether the invoice already has a payment, credit, memo, or write-off.
When to Use This
Use this article when you need to fix a price, quantity, or line on an invoice that has not been paid or adjusted. You can also void an invoice so the customer owes nothing, or update details such as the due date, terms, or bill-to when the change does not affect the charges. If Rhythm has already received money or applied a memo, you usually cannot adjust or void the invoice. Use Apply a Credit Memo to an Invoice to reduce the amount owed, or handle a refund for the customer's payment.
Voiding or deleting an invoice works best as a same-day correction, right after the mistake happens. After the invoice's batch has posted, or after a credit memo, debit memo, payment, or write-off has been recorded against it, you need to use a credit or debit memo instead.
If an invoice already has a payment and the correction is not a simple credit or debit, you may need to start over. Cancel the original order, credit or reverse the payment so the money is available again, and create a new order or invoice for the correct amount. Then apply the credit, plus any new payment, to the new invoice. Use the same approach for a duplicate or mistaken invoice tied to an order that no longer exists: cancel the bad invoice, apply a credit memo to fully offset any remaining balance, then create the order the customer should have had.
If a payment was applied to the wrong invoice, you do not need to refund it. Use Issue a Credit from the payment's own Payment Options. This reopens the balance on the original invoice, and you can apply the resulting credit to the correct invoice. See Issue a Credit from a Payment.
If the order behind an open invoice has already been deleted, you can still clear the invoice without voiding an order that no longer exists. Apply a credit memo, or write off the remaining balance, then close the invoice.
If a cancelled registration does not create the cancellation-fee invoice you expected, reconcile it by hand. Apply a credit memo to reduce the balance tied to the refund, create a separate invoice for the fee that should have been charged, and settle that invoice with an offline payment or credit.
If a cancellation created a cancellation-fee invoice that should not have been charged, clear it the other way. Apply a credit memo to bring that invoice's balance to zero, then issue a manual credit for the fee amount so the attendee keeps usable credit on their account.
If final numbers could still change after you have already invoiced, treat the first invoice as provisional. For example, if a group's attendee count is not final, say so in the invoice's internal notes. Once the numbers are final, true it up with a credit or debit memo instead of repeatedly editing the original invoice.
Applying a coupon or discount after a card payment has already gone through can make Rhythm try to reverse or refund part of that payment instead of simply cancelling the difference. If that happens, you may need to follow up and reprocess the payment by hand instead of waiting for the reversal to clear on its own.
When a retroactive 100%-off coupon brings an unpaid invoice's balance to zero, the invoice may be marked Paid because the coupon covered the charge instead of voiding the sale. In some cases, the invoice still shows Cancelled, so check the invoice's own status rather than assuming it from the coupon alone.
Some accounts intentionally leave event registration invoices pro forma longer than usual. This keeps them open for registration and accounting staff to adjust through Adjust Items before the invoice is finalized. If you rely on this for back-office adjustments, remember that turning an invoice financial closes that option; see Adjust an Unpaid Invoice's Lines below.
Prerequisites
- You need permission to adjust invoices, edit invoice details, or void invoices, depending on the change.
- To adjust or void an invoice, the invoice must not be imported, must not already be void, and must have no transactions against it except a voided payment. If a live payment, memo, credit, write-off, or refund is attached, Rhythm refuses the change.
- The invoice's batch must be open, or for some changes, in error or closed. A batch that has posted or is posting blocks the change.
- Support can advise on how to fix an accounting problem, but Support does not change your account's G/L mappings, unpost or repost a batch, or reopen a fiscal period for you. Someone on your team with the right permission must make those changes.
Adjust an Unpaid Invoice's Lines
- Go to Finance & Billing › Transactions and find the invoice.
- On the invoice, open Invoice Options and select Adjust Items.
- Add, remove, or edit the product, quantity, or price on the lines that need to change.
- Select the save button to submit the adjustment.
Result
Rhythm recalculates the invoice's total and balance from the updated lines, then returns you to the invoice. An adjustment can also change fields such as the bill-to and business unit, even though the window focuses on line items. A line amount can be negative, such as a fee deducted from a remitted payment, and that is allowed even on a pro forma invoice.
Warning
Adjust Items is available only while the invoice's batch is open. After a payment, memo, credit, write-off, or refund is recorded against the invoice, Rhythm refuses the adjustment unless the only transaction is a voided payment. Once that happens, use a credit or debit memo instead. The same rule controls the pro forma flag: even after a pro forma invoice becomes a standard invoice in an open batch, changing that flag again still goes through Adjust Items, so it is blocked once the batch posts.
The Adjust Items window does not show participant or student names on line items the way the invoice does. If you are changing a specific person's line, note its position on the invoice before you open the window so you can find it again when the names are no longer visible.
What an Adjustment Does and Doesn't Change
Adjusting a line changes only the invoice. It does not update the order, registration, or membership behind it. One order can create several invoices, such as installments, so invoice adjustments stay separate from order changes that can trigger actions like fulfillment. An adjustment also does not update an invoice template's order-subtotal merge field. Rhythm shows the correct total and balance due after the adjustment, but a printed or emailed copy that uses that merge field can still show the pre-adjustment subtotal. For the same reason, the order's own total can still show its original amount even though the invoice's open balance reflects the change.
A line from an order or registration can reappear after you delete it from the invoice because the source record still includes it. Remove that kind of line by cancelling the item from the order itself. Most accounts offer a Cancel action on the order where you choose which items to remove, and that is more reliable than using the invoice's own delete control for that line.
If a Change Doesn't Seem to Take
Reopen the invoice and check the line quantities and amounts directly. An adjustment that looks like it did not update the invoice may already have saved, so confirm the current lines before you adjust it again. Rhythm can also show an error on an adjustment that actually went through, so treat an error message as a reason to check the invoice rather than proof that the change failed. If a line's description disappears from a printed or emailed copy after you edit the invoice, check whether the edit cleared that line's own description before assuming the invoice template is the problem.
When Adjust Items Isn't Enough
- Adding a brand-new line to a posted invoice. Once the invoice's batch has posted with subledger entries, Adjust Items cannot add a new line to that invoice. Create a new invoice for the additional charge instead. If every charge truly needs to appear on one invoice, cancel and recreate the transaction so all charges can be entered together.
- The batch has already posted or downloaded. Unpost the batch (see Unpost Batches), use Adjust Items to make the correction, then post the batch again.
- A line's price changed on the record it came from, such as a sponsorship whose pricing was updated after the order was created. Do not edit the invoice line directly in this case; apply a credit memo for the difference instead.
- Removing an already-applied discount or coupon. There is no direct way to remove one without a manual change to the invoice. If the batch has not posted, unposting it can reopen your options for changing the line; once the invoice has been cancelled, that path is gone.
- Both the invoice and its order need the new amount. Use a credit or debit memo instead of Adjust Items. Applying a memo runs the logic that updates the order too, so the subtotal an invoice template shows lines up with what you charged.
- The invoice or order is already paid and completed. You cannot adjust it, even for a small correction. Create a separate invoice for the difference and record the reason in its memo so you keep an audit trail.
Void an Invoice
Voiding sets the invoice's balance due to zero everywhere, and you cannot undo it. After an invoice is void, you cannot void it again, and you cannot void its related order either.
- On the invoice, open Invoice Options and select Void Invoice.
- Confirm when Rhythm asks: Voiding this invoice will set the balance due to zero and cannot be undone. Are you sure you want to proceed?
Result
Rhythm sets the invoice balance and every line balance to zero, then marks the invoice as void. This change is permanent, so there is no way to un-void the invoice.
Warning
Rhythm shows Void Invoice even on a paid invoice, but it refuses the void while a live, non-voided payment is still attached. Void or reverse the payment first. If you need to remove a duplicate or mistaken invoice from a billing run, voiding works the same way as it does for an invoice you created by hand. You do not need to delete every pro forma invoice from the run to remove one bad invoice. For record-by-record cleanup, void the invoice you do not want and then delete it if deletion is available, leaving the rest of the run untouched.
Because there is no payment to give back, voiding an unpaid invoice does not create a refund or credit. It simply clears the balance.
A pro forma invoice needs its own handling. It cannot be written off because it is not a real invoice yet, so void it if it should no longer stay open. Rhythm also will not let you void a pro forma invoice while it still has a balance due, so clear or resolve that balance first. An old pro forma invoice can otherwise stay on an account and still be paid indefinitely. Because Rhythm has no bulk action for changing invoice status, you must void a batch of them one by one instead of using a mass update.
Voiding an order does not automatically void or close the invoice it created. Receivables reporting follows the invoice's own status and balance, not the order's. If you void an order and its invoice is still open, void the invoice too so it no longer appears on your A/R report. During a cancellation or refund, an invoice's total can also look inflated because it shows the original order amount and the refunded amount together. That is expected display behavior, not a sign that the invoice needs correcting.
If a voided invoice still has a revenue recognition schedule, voiding it does not stop deferred revenue that is already scheduled to post. To correct that, move the invoice and its directly related transactions into a new batch in the same fiscal period. Archive that new batch so it does not need posting, then regenerate or repost the original deferred revenue batch so the unwanted entries drop out.
If an invoice was entered the wrong way and already has a payment, void or reverse that payment first (see Void or Reverse a Payment). That turns the payment into money or credit you can apply elsewhere. Once the invoice has no live payment left, void it, then recreate the transaction correctly, such as through the order or storefront flow it should have come from originally.
Edit an Invoice's Details Without Changing What It Charges
Use this option for corrections that do not affect money, such as the due date, terms, template, bill-to, purchase order number, or notes.
- On the invoice, open Invoice Options and select Edit Details.
- Change the fields you need to change. You cannot change the batch, line items, or pro forma setting here; use Adjust Items for those changes, regardless of whether the invoice's batch has posted.
- Save your changes.
Result
Rhythm updates the invoice's details without recalculating its total or balance. This works even if the invoice's batch has already posted, and even if the invoice has been paid, including an invoice whose balance due is already zero. For example, if you applied the wrong coupon and need to correct the invoice's terms afterward, you can fix that through Edit Details without voiding anything.
Editing an invoice's notes or memo used to fail on an invoice with a zero balance. The error said you had made an illegal attempt to change the total field, even though notes and memos do not affect the total. You should now be able to update notes and memo fields on a zero-balance invoice, whether the invoice was created manually or by a process such as an order.
Tip
Show Contacts, the option that lists an organization's individual contacts on an invoice billed to that organization, is remembered per organization rather than per invoice. Checking it while creating or editing an invoice keeps it checked for every invoice billed to that organization afterward. To stop showing contacts on that organization's invoices, open Edit Details on any of its invoices, clear Show Contacts, and save. This clears the remembered setting for the organization, not just the one invoice you are editing.
Delete an Invoice
Rhythm offers Delete Invoice only on an invoice that is already voided. Even then, deletion may fail because most accounts have invoice deletion switched off entirely. If you need the invoice out of your active records, void it instead of trying to delete it. Where mass delete is available, deleting a pro forma invoice this way also removes it from the member's Portal financials, and it no longer appears in a search by invoice number afterward.
Tip
There is no way to move a single invoice from one person's or organization's record to another. If several existing invoices need new owners so a contact can see and pay them directly, export the invoice records with their identifiers and Bill to Type. Change Bill to Type to Contact in the file, then use Mass Update on Invoices to apply the change in bulk.
If an invoice's status does not match its balance, reopen it and save through Edit Details to correct the status. Use this when an invoice still shows a balance due after being paid in full, or shows an incorrect negative balance due. Rhythm re-derives an invoice's status from its current balance on every save, even when you save through Edit Details without changing the charges.
Dates. You can change both the invoice date and the payment date directly. You cannot change an order's date because the order details screen has no field for it, so correcting an order's date needs Support's help. If an invoice is missing its invoice date, it may not appear in date-based invoice searches or finance reports. Adding the date back through Edit Details restores it there.
Terms and due dates. Changing your account's payment-term settings does not change the due date already stored on an existing invoice. Only invoices created after the change use the new term. To correct the due date on an invoice created before the change, edit its terms directly through Edit Details. If an invoice's due date or displayed terms do not match what you expect, check whether the underlying process's payment-term default was actually changed, and to what. It may still be using its original due-upon-receipt setting, or a different term than the one you thought was applied.
Addresses. An invoice's bill-to address is its own stored value, so it does not always match the order or contact record it came from. If a postal code or other address detail is wrong on the invoice, correcting the order or contact record will not necessarily fix it. Edit the invoice's own address through Edit Details. In some cases, the public invoice or payment page has shown the same address for bill-to and ship-to even after an edit that displays correctly in the Console. If that happens, reopen the invoice or have the customer refresh before assuming the edit did not save.
Ownership. Edit Details also lets you change who owns the invoice, including switching the bill-to between a contact and an organization. This helps when a payment's visibility needs to follow a different record. Changing the owner affects only the invoice itself. It does not relink the invoice to a different order, so if an invoice is tied to the wrong order, changing its owner alone will not fix that mismatch. To move billing from a contact to an organization on an existing invoice, open Invoice Options › Edit Details, switch the bill-to from the contact to the organization, then save.
If an invoice was created without a billing contact, open it, add one through Edit Details, save, and resend the invoice. If the billing contact belongs on the order instead, add it there and resend once it is set. To change Bill To Type on many pro forma invoices at once, such as switching a batch of them from a contact to an organization, run an invoice query and use Bulk Changes (see Remove or Update Many Invoices at Once below). This updates the invoices only and does not change the type on their related orders.
Templates. The Template field controls which layout an invoice uses when it prints and emails, but the template is effectively set when the invoice is created. Fixing the underlying template design, or changing your business unit's default template, affects only invoices created afterward. An existing invoice keeps the template it started with until you change that invoice's own Template field. To move many existing invoices to a different template at once, run an invoice query for them, open Bulk Changes, choose Mass Update, select the Template field, and enter the new template's ID. This updates the template association without resending the invoices.
If a change like removing a line or add-on does not work through Edit Details, that is expected. Edit Details never changes line items, no matter what the invoice's batch status is. Use Adjust Items instead, which is blocked once the batch has posted. Once other transactions exist against the invoice, use a credit or debit memo.
Delete an Invoice
Rhythm offers Delete Invoice only on an invoice that is already voided. Even then, deletion may fail because most accounts have invoice deletion switched off entirely. If you need the invoice out of your active records, void it instead of trying to delete it. For a non-proforma membership dues invoice, the correct action is usually to void the associated order at the order level rather than voiding or deleting the invoice record itself.
Warning
An invoice linked to an installment schedule cannot be deleted at all, even after you void it.
An invoice with a credit memo attached cannot be deleted, and neither can the credit memo. The relationship between them blocks both records. If you need the balance gone, move the related transactions to an archived batch, or apply an additional credit memo to bring the visible balance to zero, rather than trying to delete either record.
If an invoice was voided or deleted the same day as its order, it may never have generated subledger entries. Rhythm can remove it so completely that no invoice record or invoice number remains, so you may see an order with no invoice to open. Deleting a related invoice or order can also leave a payment entry in transaction history that no longer opens from All Transactions, which can block follow-up work like generating an invoice from that record.
For a legacy invoice or order that will not delete, void the order instead of continuing to try to delete it. If an order created the invoice you are trying to remove entirely, void and delete the invoice first, then delete the order. Only after that can you delete a related contact. If voiding an order leaves its invoice open and still generating customer statements, void that invoice and then delete it.
Remove or Update Many Invoices at Once
For bulk work, use Rhythm's Bulk Changes from a Finance & Billing invoice search instead of correcting invoices one at a time.
- Run a query for the invoices you want to change. For example, use the Invoices query type in the Finance & Billing Query Center, filtered to Proforma: Yes and an invoice date range, to find pro forma invoices left over from a billing run. See Design and Run a Query.
- Select Bulk Changes beside the results, tick the invoices, then choose Mass Delete or Mass Update from the Change menu.
- Follow the wizard: download and review the preview, acknowledge that the change is permanent, and run it.
See Delete Records in Bulk and Update Records in Bulk for the full wizard and what the preview and results show.
- Mass Delete works well for unpaid or pro forma invoices you want gone. Each invoice still has to meet the same deletion rules as a single delete: already void or pro forma, with invoice deletion turned on for your account. A row that does not qualify appears as an error in the results instead of being removed.
- You cannot mass-void invoices. Rhythm has no bulk action that voids a batch of invoices at once, so each one must be voided individually. Mass Delete, run against invoices that already qualify, is the practical way to clear out many at once instead.
- You also cannot mass-update an invoice's Status or Pro Forma field, or an order's status to void or cancel it. A mass update that touches either one fails because Rhythm's normal save rules protect those fields from an ordinary field update, and bulk update uses that same path.
- A mass update also cannot fix invoice amounts in bulk. The same protection that keeps Edit Details from changing what an invoice charges applies to a bulk update. Use individual adjustments or memos for amount corrections instead.
- If bulk status changes are not available for what you need, write off the invoices or cancel the related orders instead.
What Can Stop a Correction
- The invoice already has a live transaction against it — a payment, credit, memo, write-off, or refund that is not voided. Rhythm refuses adjustments and voids, so use a credit or debit memo instead. The same kind of live transaction can also block voiding or deleting the related order, not just the invoice.
- The invoice's batch isn't open. Adjustments and voids need an open batch, or on some paths, a batch that is in error or closed. A posted or posting batch blocks the change. In practice, direct editing is reliable only while an invoice is pro forma or its batch has not posted. Once a batch posts, its invoices carry subledger entries, so use a credit or debit memo to correct a posted invoice instead.
- The batch itself is in an error state. Void and delete can be unavailable for that reason alone, separately from anything about the invoice itself. An invoice in an open batch with no error can still be voided normally.
- The invoice's batch has already posted or downloaded, and the invoice was created by mistake. Unpost the batch first, void the invoice, delete it if you need it gone entirely, then post the batch again.
- You don't want to unpost the batch. If you would rather not reopen a posted batch, write off the invoice and create a new one with the correct charges instead.
- The invoice is imported from a previous system. Imported invoices cannot be adjusted or voided at all. See Regenerate Imported Open Balances if you need to collect what is still owed.
- You're changing a field an ordinary detail edit doesn't allow, such as changing an amount through Edit Details instead of Adjust Items.
Before you enter a correction, check whether the invoice already has a zero balance or is already cancelled. The fix you are about to make may not be needed.
Tip
Fixing an invoice's accounting impact and removing the invoice itself are different goals. If the real problem is a deferred revenue entry or a general ledger balance that is wrong, unposting and reposting the batch (see Unpost Batches) may be all you need. Voiding or deleting the invoice is a separate step, and it is not always the right one.
Related Reading
To create a new invoice from scratch, see Create an Invoice. To find the invoice you need to correct, see Find and Review Invoices. After an invoice has a payment or other transaction against it, use Apply a Credit Memo to an Invoice to reduce what is owed instead of adjusting it directly. To move an invoice into a different batch before it is posted, see Move Transactions to Another Batch.