Delete a payment on an invoice or bill: a guide for Xero users

Short answer: open the paid or part paid invoice or bill, click the "Less payment" line, then Options and Remove & Redo. The payment is deleted, the document goes back to awaiting payment, and the bank statement line stays so you can reconcile it again. A deleted payment can't be restored. Before you do it, check whether you should unreconcile instead, and whether the payment is part of a batch.

Checked against Xero Central on 5 November 2026.

Delete, unreconcile or leave it

Xero separates three situations (Delete an invoice or bill payment):

• The payment should not be on this document at all. Delete it with Remove & Redo. This is also the step before voiding a paid invoice or bill.
• The payment is on the right document but matched to the wrong bank line. Unreconcile it instead. The payment and the statement line both stay; only the connection between them goes (Unreconcile an account transaction).
• An overpayment is applied to the wrong document. Remove the overpayment allocation, then apply it to the right one or refund it.

Delete a payment, step by step

1. Write the payment down. Note its date, amount, account and reference. Xero's warning is plain: a payment deleted with Remove & Redo can't be restored, and if you delete one in error you recreate it.
2. Check the lock date. After a lock date is set, users can't add or edit transactions dated on or before it; only an administrator can remove the lock date, temporarily (Set up or remove lock dates).
3. Check for a batch payment. A batch is handled from the bank account: delete the whole batch with Remove & Redo, which puts its bills back to awaiting payment, or edit the batch to take one bill out. A reconciled batch has to be unreconciled before a bill can come out (Delete a batch payment).
4. Open the document. In the Sales menu select Invoices, or in the Purchases menu select Bills, then the Paid or Awaiting Payment tab, and open the paid or part paid document.
5. Remove the payment. Click Less payment, then Options and Remove & Redo. The document returns to awaiting payment.
6. Deal with the bank line. The statement line is still in the bank account. Reconcile it with the right invoice or bill when you are ready.

The same payment can also be deleted from the Account Transactions tab of the bank account. A payment applied from a non-bank account you've enabled payments to, such as owners funds, is deleted the same way. On a phone, the Xero app removes payments from invoices only; for a bill, Xero says to use the web version.

Removing a payment so you can void

This is the most common reason. Xero only voids an invoice that is awaiting payment, so a paid one needs its payment removed first (Delete or void an invoice). Bills follow the same rule, and Xero adds that you can remove only one payment from one bill at a time (Delete or void a bill). If a credit note is allocated as well, that allocation comes off too; the credit note guide covers it.

Where the native way runs out

• One payment at a time. Each removal is its own set of clicks on its own document. For a large batch that is a long afternoon.
• No undo. A deleted payment is gone. Recreating it gives you a new payment that still has to be reconciled.
• The bank side waits for you. Every statement line that was matched comes back for reconciling.
• Nobody records why. Unless you add a note, the document's history will not say which payment was removed, or why.

The faster way: Unapprove

Unapprove is a web app that works with Xero. Be clear on what it does here: it has no run that only deletes a payment and leaves the document open. If you want to keep the invoice or bill and re-apply the money, do it in Xero as above.

Remove payments and void. When the aim is to cancel paid documents, this run does both halves for a selection. For each invoice or bill it:

• reads every payment and credit on it before writing anything;
• removes the payments, then any credit note allocations, and reads each removal back from Xero;
• voids the document and reads it back;
• adds a history note listing every payment removed, with date, amount, account and reference, which the run file lists too.

It leaves alone a payment reconciled with a bank statement line, a payment that belongs to a batch payment, and prepayment or overpayment allocations; a document with one of these is skipped whole and listed with the reason. You confirm by typing the count, for example VOID PAID 30. The payments permission is requested only when you choose this run. The guide to voiding paid invoices in bulk has the details.

Documents dated on or before your lock date (why) and documents for an archived contact (why) are skipped in every run.

Price: free for 14 days, with unlimited previews and three documents processed in total. After that, $29 per month per connected organisation, or a one-off $49 Clean-up Pass for 30 days with unlimited documents. Prices are in US dollars and exclude VAT and sales tax (added at checkout); the pricing page has the details.

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Questions

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