Reversals: Making changes to a Xero Paid/Authorised Billing Document

Rather than editing the sent document in place, a Reversal retires it and replaces it with a corrected one, keeping a clean, auditable trail on both sides. It applies equally to Invoices and RCTIs.

When to use a Reversal and when not to

A reversal is one of two ways to resolve a document with pending changes, and which one applies depends entirely on how far the document has already progressed in Xero. The other is Accept Changes. A reversal is specifically for documents that are too far along in Xero (Paid/Authorised) to simply update in place.

Consider a Reversal when

• The document is already Paid or Authorised in Xero - real accounting activity has happened against it, so simply editing it in place isn't an option; AgriNous needs to retire it and issue a corrected one instead.
• You want the correction to preserve what's already recorded in Xero (like a payment) rather than asking anyone to undo real-world accounting activity to make room for a plain edit.

Don't use a reversal when

• You just want the edit pushed to Xero too, and nothing's blocking it. Use Accept and Export instead - it's the equivalent of Accept Changes but syncs immediately. This only works if the business is mapped in Xero and there are no outstanding billing warnings.
• A payment is already assigned to the document in Xero and you don't need a new version of it. In this case, Accept Changes will warn you that proceeding "without a reversal" means undoing that payment first - if you'd rather keep the payment as-is, a reversal may be an option.

Quick rule of thumb: if Xero already considers the document settled, reach for Reversal. If it doesn't, you almost certainly want Accept Changes or Accept and Export instead.

Before triggering a reversal

• ⚠️ Reversing is a genuine replace, not an edit - the original document's ID is gone afterwards; the new one is a different document, linked back only by the Reversal badge and the statement section showing the revision.
• ⚠️ Since the original no longer exists after a reversal, there's no such thing as "reversing a reversal" - if something's still wrong after that, you're working with the new document going forward, not undoing the reversal itself.
• ⚠️ If the reversal fails, you'll see an error asking you to contact support - this isn't a "try again" situation, since something's out of step between AgriNous and Xero that needs a closer look.

Set up

• You needs a Xero Integration enabled.
• The document must already be Paid or Authorised in Xero. If it isn't at that stage yet in your accounting system, AgriNous won't let you reverse it.
• Remove any Retained Proceeds first. A document with proceeds retained against it can't be reversed until you remove them.
• If the change would delete the document entirely while it's still active in Xero, you'll need to delete or void it in Xero first - AgriNous will tell you this rather than let the reversal proceed.

How to reverse a document

1. Find the document — on the Money screen, or in a Sale's Billing tab — showing a change indicator (the Financial/Cosmetic changes icon, or a value in the "Has Changes" column). If there's nothing to review, there's nothing to reverse.
2. Click Review to open the comparison view, showing the document as it currently stands in Xero side by side with the changes AgriNous wants to make.
3. You'll be offered three ways to resolve it - choose Accept with Reversal.
4. Confirm when asked, "Are you sure you want to reverse this document?"

What happens next

• The original document is retired, and a new document takes its place - same underlying charges, updated to reflect the change. A Credit Note equal to the amount due on the original document is generated.
• If the original document was paid before the reversal, apply the credit note to the replacement. If not, apply it to the original. ⚠️ Failing to apply the Credit Note will leave both documents in an unpaid state.
• The new document carries a "Reversal" badge, so anyone looking at it later can see it superseded an earlier version.
• The old and new versions are shown together in a mini-statement section within the Billing Document, so the revision is clearly visible.

Xero integration

A Reversal resolves the Xero side automatically as part of the same action - there's no separate "Send to Xero" step afterwards. Xero has to already agree the original document is Paid or Authorised before AgriNous will let you replace it, and it needs the old one to be safely gone from Xero (deleted or voided) if the change would otherwise remove it entirely.