Fixing a sent PEPPOL invoice — credit notes done right

You sent an invoice, hit deliver, and only then spotted the wrong amount or the wrong line. With a PDF you might just resend a corrected version and hope your customer files the right one. On PEPPOL — and under EU VAT law generally — you don't have that choice. Once an invoice is issued, the fix is a credit note, not an edit.

Why editing is off the table

EU VAT treats an issued invoice as a fixed fiscal document the moment it reaches the buyer (by PEPPOL, email or post). Belgian Royal Decree No. 1 spells it out: the supplier corrects with a credit note, never by modifying the original. Eurobillr enforces this — once an invoice has been transmitted, edit is locked and the only correction path is the credit-note button.

There's a practical reason on top of the legal one: your customer's accounting system has already booked the invoice. A second invoice with the same number creates duplicates or worse, mismatches between your books and theirs. A linked credit note nets out cleanly on both sides.

How it flows on PEPPOL

A credit note travels exactly like the invoice: same network, same UBL / EN 16931 payload, same access points. The difference is the document type — 381 (credit note) instead of 380 (commercial invoice) — and a BillingReference field that points back to the original invoice's number. That link is what makes accounting software automatically net the two against each other.

In Eurobillr the flow is short:

1. Open the sent invoice → Credit note → choose full or partial.
2. Eurobillr clones the lines (negated), links the two documents, and

tags the credit note for your VAT return.

1. Send the credit note — same recipient, same channel as the original.

If the original went via PEPPOL, the credit note does too.

Full vs partial — which to use

• Full when the invoice is wrong end-to-end (sent to the wrong

customer, completely cancelled order). The credit note cancels the whole amount.

• Partial when only some lines or quantities are wrong. Keep the

lines you're crediting, remove the rest. Then issue a new corrected invoice for what was actually delivered.

Don't try to "edit by credit note" by issuing a credit and then a new invoice with the same number as the original. The numbering has to stay sequential and gap-free — the original keeps its number, the credit note gets its own, and any replacement invoice gets the next number in the sequence.

VAT consequences

A credit note reduces your output VAT for the period in which it's issued (not the period of the original invoice). On the VAT return it flips the sign of the original amounts. Eurobillr pre-fills the return from real documents, so the credit note shows up in the right boxes automatically — no manual adjustment.

If the original was a reverse-charge or intra-community supply, the credit note carries the same VAT mode. The recapitulative listing is reduced accordingly.

What to do before you send

A few habits remove most "oh no, send a credit note" moments:

• Configure your workspace's footer and bank details once, not per

invoice — typos there are the most common reason to re-issue.

• Use Eurobillr's VIES check on intra-EU B2B

customers before applying reverse charge. A bad VAT number caught on send is much cheaper than one caught after.

• Use the PDF preview before pressing send for new clients. The five

seconds it takes save the credit-note dance later.

Step-by-step in the app: issue a credit note. And if the issue is just a forgotten reminder schedule, see get paid faster with QR codes and online payments.