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Skipped: a payment is applied

The document has money against it, so we leave it alone. Here is how to clear it, and when not to.

The message you saw

Skipped: a payment is applied. Remove the payment in Xero first.

Why this happens

An approved document that has a payment applied is tied to whatever that payment came from — usually a reconciled bank transaction.

Voiding it would break that link. Depending on the payment, that can unreconcile a bank line, change a period that has already been reported, or leave a payment pointing at nothing.

That is a decision about your books, not a technical one, so we never make it for you. The check also fires for a part payment, and for an overpayment or prepayment that has been allocated to the document.

What to do

  1. Open the document in Xero and look at the payment line at the bottom.
  2. If the payment genuinely belongs somewhere else: remove it (and unreconcile the bank line first if it has been reconciled), then run the selection again. The document becomes eligible as soon as the payment is gone.
  3. If the payment is correct and the invoice is wrong: do not remove it. Fix the difference with a credit note instead, so the bank side stays untouched.
  4. If the payment sits in a locked period, you will need the lock date moved before you can remove it — see the locked period article.

What happened to your document

Nothing was written. The document is exactly as it was, still approved, with its payment still applied.

Other help articles

Still stuck? The support page says what to include so we can answer on the first reply.