Voiding, Deleting, or Closing Transactions

You may need to change a transaction you have entered if it has errors or you do not intend to complete it. The following sections explain the differences between voiding, deleting, and closing transactions:

Voiding Transactions
Deleting Transactions
Closing Line Items and Transactions

Important:

Before you delete or void a posting transaction, check to ensure that the transaction is not part of a match on the Reconcile Account Statement page. You should not delete transactions that have been reconciled. For more information, see Viewing Submitted Transactions.

Voiding Transactions

Voiding a transaction sets its total and all its line items to 0 but does not remove it from the system. This is the preferred way to cancel an existing transaction because the audit trail is preserved. After you void a transaction, you cannot make changes that have general ledger impact to the original transaction, including changing the posting period.

If you void a transaction that was created to close another transaction, the original transaction is reopened. For example, if an invoice was created to bill a sales order, voiding the invoice reopens the sales order and sets the order’s status to pending billing. Then you must invoice the order again. Another example is a bill payment that has been applied to a bill. If you void the bill payment, the bill is reopened. Another payment must be entered against the bill.

To void a transaction:

Open the transaction for editing.
Click Void.

If the preference to void transactions with a reversing journal entry has been enabled, only certain types of transactions can be voided. For more information, see Void Transactions Using Reversing Journals Preference.

Voided sales orders do not show on the Transactions subtab of customer records. To view voided sales orders, go to Transactions > Sales > Enter Sales Orders > List.

Additional help is available for some transaction types as follows:

For information specific to check transactions, see Voiding a Check.
For information specific to credit cards, see Voiding Credit Card Transactions.

Deleting Transactions

Important:

If the Use Deletion Reason feature is enabled in your account, users must provide a reason for deleting transaction records. For more information about the feature, see Recording a Reason for Deleting a Transaction.

You may want to remove a transaction from the system entirely. For example, after entering a transaction you may realize it contains many errors. You can delete it and reenter the transaction.

From the Actions list on the transaction, select Delete. This option appears only if the Void Transactions Using Reversing Journals preference is not enabled. Only users with a role that has full permission to a type of transaction can delete that type of transaction. If you do not have the necessary permission, Delete does not appear on the Actions list.

If inline editing is enabled in your account and you have the necessary permission, you can delete transactions from the transaction’s List page. Hover over the New column and click Delete Record from the menu that appears. For more information about inline editing, see Using Inline Editing.

If the Use Deletion Reason feature is enabled in your account, both deletion methods open a Delete popup window specific to the type of transaction being deleted. You must select a deletion reason and may optionally include a memo. If you select the deletion reason Other, you must include a memo. When you click Delete, the transaction record is removed from your system.

A deleted transaction does not retain a record of the transaction details. However, a record of the deleted transaction remains in your audit trail.

Note:

You cannot delete a transaction if it is linked to other transactions. For example, you cannot delete an invoice that has been paid. You can, however, close linked transactions.

Closing Line Items and Transactions

You can manually close transaction line items when you do not intend to fulfill or receive open items on the order. For example, you sell 10 items to a customer and have already fulfilled five of them. Then you discontinue the item and cannot fulfill the remaining five. If you close the line manually instead of changing the quantity, you retain a record of how many were ordered originally.

To close a line item on a transaction, click Edit on the transaction. Click the line you want to close, check the box in the Closed column and click Done. Then click Save.

Note:

You must bill the sales order before you manually close the line. When all lines on a sales order are fulfilled or closed manually, the sales order is removed from the billing and receiving queues.

When you view sales orders, purchase orders, and return authorizations, click the Close or Close Remaining button to close the entire transaction. This action checks the Closed box for all lines on the transaction and changes the status of the transaction to Closed. You can reopen a closed transaction by clearing the Closed box for all lines on the transaction.

For specific information about sales orders, see Closing a Sales Order.