Invoice statuses, void and write-off

An invoice moves through a small set of statuses. Two of them — Void and Written Off — are corrections, and they mean different things for your books.

Statuses

Status	How it gets there	Ledger
Draft	Created but not sent. Fully editable.	Nothing posted.
Sent	You selected Send. Number and totals are final.	Receivable, revenue and tax posted.
Partially Paid	A payment smaller than the balance was recorded.	Cash against the receivable.
Paid	Payments cover the total.	—
Void	You voided a sent invoice that had no payments.	The original entry is reversed.
Written Off	You wrote off the unpaid balance as a bad debt.	Bad-debt expense against the receivable.

Overdue is not a status: it is a filter for Sent or Partially Paid invoices whose due date has passed. The list, the dashboard and notifications all use it.

Void an invoice

Void an invoice that should never have existed — wrong customer, duplicate, cancelled order. Voiding reverses the revenue, as if the sale never happened.

1. Open the invoice and select Void in the header.
2. Confirm. The invoice keeps its number and stays visible with the Void status.

Rules:

• Only Sent invoices with no payments, no allocations and no open credit notes can be voided. Delete or reverse the payment first, or use a credit note instead.
• Saudi invoices already cleared or reported by ZATCA cannot be voided — issue a credit note. See Saudi Arabia.
• Voiding requires the invoices.void permission (owners and admins by default).

Accounting effect

A reversal entry with the original lines swapped: Credit 1100 Accounts Receivable, Debit 4000 Sales Revenue, Debit 2100 VAT Payable (and Credit 4200 Discount Given if there was a discount). The original entry is never edited; both stay in the ledger and net to zero.

Write off a bad debt

Write off when the sale was real but the customer will not pay. The revenue stays; the loss is booked as an expense in the period you give up.

Writing off is currently done through the OneBooks API (POST /invoices/{id}/write-off — from a connected app, or by your accountant using the developer platform) or by asking support; a button in the invoice page is planned. The call takes the amount (default: the full balance; a partial write-off is allowed), the date and a reason.

Rules:

• A full write-off sets the status to Written Off and no payment can be recorded against it afterwards.
• A partial write-off keeps the invoice payable for the remainder.
• Requires the invoices.writeOff permission (owners and admins by default).

Accounting effect

Debit 5950 Bad Debt Expense · Credit 1100 Accounts Receivable for the written-off amount, in the same transaction that clears the invoice balance — so the receivables report and the ledger always agree.

Void or write off — which one?

Situation	Use
Duplicate, wrong customer, order cancelled before delivery	Void
Goods returned or price reduced after delivery	Credit note — Sales returns
Customer disputes part of the amount and you agree	Credit note for the disputed part
Customer went out of business or will never pay	Write off

Related

Corrections: void, write-off, reversal

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