How to Cancel an E-Invoice (and Why a Credit Note Is Usually the Right Move)

Short answer: once a Peppol e-invoice has been transmitted through the network and accepted by the receiver's Access Point, it cannot be unsent or deleted. The standard way to "cancel" it is to issue a credit note (UBL CreditNote, document type code 381) that fully reverses the original invoice. If you need a corrected invoice, you send a new one afterwards. The 24-hour cancellation window you may have read about is India-specific (GST e-invoicing) and does not apply to Peppol or the EU.

1. Can you cancel an e-invoice?

It depends on the e-invoicing system. In Peppol (used across Europe, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand), the answer is no. Once an e-invoice has been transmitted from your Access Point to the recipient's Access Point via the AS4 protocol, there is no mechanism to recall, retract, or delete it. The document has been delivered. The recipient may have already booked it.

In India's GST e-invoicing system, you can cancel an e-invoice within 24 hours via the Invoice Registration Portal (IRP). After that window closes, you must use a credit or debit note. In Malaysia's MyInvois, the window is 72 hours. But in most European and Peppol-based systems, no cancellation window exists at all.

2. Why an e-invoice is harder to cancel than a paper one

A paper invoice lives in an envelope. If you catch a mistake before mailing it, you tear it up and print a new one. Even after sending, you might call the client and ask them to discard it. E-invoices are different for three reasons:

3. The Peppol / EU answer: issue a credit note

What is a credit note?

A credit note is a financial document issued by the seller to reduce or fully reverse a previously issued invoice. It is the formal, legally recognized way to correct or cancel an invoice in most accounting and tax frameworks worldwide.

In Peppol, a credit note is a separate UBL document type: CreditNote (as opposed to Invoice). It uses UNTDID 1001 document type code 381 (credit note), while a standard invoice uses code 380. The credit note references the original invoice through the BillingReference /InvoiceDocumentReference field.

UBL CreditNote vs Invoice

Full vs partial credit notes

A full credit note reverses the entire original invoice. Every line item, the full amount, and the full VAT are credited back. This is what you need when you want to effectively "cancel" an invoice.

A partial credit note reverses only part of the original. Use this when one line item was wrong, the quantity was incorrect, or you need to adjust the price without cancelling the whole invoice. The EN 16931 semantic model supports both.

Mandatory fields per EN 16931

A valid credit note under Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 must include:

4. Step-by-step: issue a credit note on e-invoice.be

Whether you use the dashboard or the API, the process is the same: create a credit note that references the original invoice, then send it via Peppol.

Via the API

Create the credit note as a JSON document. Note the document_type is set to CREDIT_NOTE and the referenced_invoice_id points to the original invoice.

POST https://api.e-invoice.be/api/documents/
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "document_type": "CREDIT_NOTE",
  "invoice_id": "CN-2026-001",
  "invoice_date": "2026-06-11",
  "referenced_invoice_id": "INV-2026-042",
  "vendor_name": "Your Company BV",
  "vendor_tax_id": "BE0123456789",
  "vendor_address": "Kerkstraat 1, 1000 Brussels, BE",
  "customer_name": "Client NV",
  "customer_tax_id": "BE0987654321",
  "customer_peppol_id": "0208:0987654321",
  "currency": "EUR",
  "items": [
    {
      "description": "Consulting services (full reversal)",
      "quantity": 10,
      "unit_price": 150.00,
      "tax_rate": 21.00
    }
  ]
}

Then send it via Peppol:

POST https://api.e-invoice.be/api/documents/{id}/send
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY

// Response
{
  "id": "doc-cn-abc123",
  "state": "SENT",
  "document_type": "CREDIT_NOTE",
  "invoice_id": "CN-2026-001",
  "referenced_invoice_id": "INV-2026-042",
  "vendor_name": "Your Company BV",
  "customer_name": "Client NV",
  "created_at": "2026-06-11T14:30:00Z"
}

The API converts your JSON to a valid UBL CreditNote document, sets the UNTDID 1001 code to 381, adds the BillingReference pointing to INV-2026-042, validates it against Peppol BIS 3.0 schematron rules, and delivers it to the recipient's Access Point.

Want to send a corrected invoice afterwards? Create a new document with document_type: "INVOICE" and a fresh, unique invoice_id. See our API documentation for the full reference, or read the API integration guide.

5. Country comparison: cancellation rules worldwide

Different countries have different e-invoicing systems with different cancellation rules. Here is how they compare.

The pattern is clear: most mature e-invoicing systems converge on the credit note as the standard correction mechanism. Systems that allow direct cancellation (India, Malaysia, Serbia) typically restrict it to a short time window.

6. Common reasons to cancel an e-invoice

These are the most common scenarios where a business needs to reverse or correct a sent e-invoice:

7. Credit note vs cancellation vs amendment

These terms are often confused. Here is what each one means in the context of e-invoicing:

The takeaway: in Peppol, the credit note is the only correction mechanism. Whether you call it "cancelling", "voiding", or "amending", the technical answer is always the same: issue a credit note.

8. Common mistakes when correcting e-invoices

9. Frequently asked questions