Finance Index
What's the difference between rejecting, cancelling, voiding, and deleting an invoice?
Reference guide to void cancel delete invoices, including invoice workflow, coding, approvals, ERP impact, and AP controls.
Rejection sends an invoice back during workflow (before posting) - wrong, duplicate, or not yours. Cancellation ends processing on an invoice that won't proceed. Voiding reverses an invoice that already posted, creating an offsetting record so the books correct themselves with history intact. Deletion erases the record entirely - which is why mature AP processes almost never allow it: every other mechanism preserves the trail; deletion destroys it.
At a Glance
| Aspect | Short Answer | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| The difference between rejecting | Rejection sends an invoice back during workflow (before posting) - wrong, duplicate, or not yours. | Keeps vendor records and payment decisions reliable. |
| Payment impact | If it hasn't posted, cancel or reject it - nothing hits the GL. | Reduces payment errors, timing issues, and reconciliation cleanup. |
| Reverse an invoice that already | Don't reopen the period - post the reversal in the current open period, referencing the original, per your ERP's closed-period handling. | Keeps accounting records aligned with the ERP. |
| The invoice was approved | Remove it from the payment run first (timing is everything), then void or cancel per its posting status, documenting the vendor's cancellation on the record. | Reduces payment errors, timing issues, and reconciliation cleanup. |
| AP ever hard-delete invoices | Void with a trail, almost always. | Helps finance decide what to do next. |
How do I void an invoice that was entered wrong but not yet paid - and what posts to the GL?
If it hasn't posted, cancel or reject it - nothing hits the GL. If it posted, void it: the ERP generates a reversing entry (debit AP, credit the original expense/asset) in the appropriate period, and the open payable disappears from payment selection.
How do I reverse an invoice that already posted to a closed period?
Don't reopen the period - post the reversal in the current open period, referencing the original, per your ERP's closed-period handling. Materially large reversals into a reported period are a controller conversation, not an AP keystroke.
The invoice was approved and scheduled for payment, but the vendor cancelled the order - how do I pull it back?
Remove it from the payment run first (timing is everything), then void or cancel per its posting status, documenting the vendor's cancellation on the record. If payment already executed, you're in recovery territory - request return or credit.
Should AP ever hard-delete invoices, or should everything be voided with a trail?
Void with a trail, almost always. Defensible deletion is limited to true non-records - test documents, accidental uploads that never entered the workflow. Anything that was ever a candidate payable should end in a terminal status, not an empty space.
How do I cancel an invoice in the AP tool and keep it in sync with the ERP so they don't diverge?
Use integrated cancellation/void flows that update both systems from one action, and reconcile statuses periodically. Divergence - cancelled in one system, open in the other - is how cancelled invoices get paid and open invoices get forgotten.
A duplicate got posted - do I void it, credit it, or delete it, and what does the auditor want to see?
Void it, with a note linking to the original invoice. The auditor wants the complete story: both records, the detection, the void, and who did it. A vendor credit memo is for vendor billing errors; deletion is for nothing.
Stampli perspective
Stampli supports cancelling and managing invoices with the action and its reason captured in the audit trail, and keeps invoice state synchronized with the ERP so a reversal in one system doesn't leave a ghost in the other. The governing principle is that corrections create records rather than erase them - reversibility with history, not disappearance.