Invoices: VAT, Credit Notes, and the Period Lock
How the platform handles VAT rates per jurisdiction, credit-note workflows, and the lock that prevents accidental edits to closed periods.
Invoicing is where the financial reality has to align with the legal reality. VAT rates have to be right, credit notes have to be auditable, and closed-period changes have to be controlled. The platform now supports invoice basics, linked source-invoice credit notes, period-lock controls, net invoice/export reporting, margin context, and an open follow-up worklist for refund, payout, settlement, or dispute impact. Automatic refund payment, payout execution, and settlement correction records remain RM-134 downstream scope.
VAT per jurisdiction
Each invoice carries a VAT calculation derived from the seller’s jurisdiction, the buyer’s jurisdiction, and the type of supply. EU intra-community supplies (B2B with valid VAT numbers) are reverse-charged. Domestic supplies use the seller’s rate. Exports outside the EU are zero-rated with the customs declaration as evidence. The platform applies the right rule based on the entities’ stored data; the human can override with a reason for the edge cases.
Credit notes
An invoice that needs to be reduced or reversed should get a credit note, not an edit to the original. The /finance/invoices form still supports standalone credit notes with negative line totals. For sent, viewed, overdue, or paid source invoices, invoice detail supports a linked credit-note workflow: select source lines, credit a full or partial quantity or amount within the remaining limit, record the correction reason, category, and downstream impact, then send, apply, cancel, or reject the credit note while preserving the relationship to the source invoice. When downstream impact requires action, /finance/invoices surfaces an open credit-note follow-up band with the credit note, source invoice, owner, and amount.
Period lock
Closed-period behavior belongs to the same finance-control model: invoices from a closed period should not be edited in place, and corrections should land in an allowed period while preserving the original transaction date as reference. Linked credit notes can be posted in an open period even when the source invoice belongs to a closed period.
The invoice report
/finance/invoices/[id]/report is the printable invoice view with VAT number, invoice number, reverse-charge clause if applicable, payment terms, and bank details.