Help → Skipped: a payment is applied
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
- Open the document in Xero and look at the payment line at the bottom.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- Skipped: the document is inside a locked period
The document date falls on or before a lock date.
- Skipped: the contact is archived
The customer or supplier has been archived, so Xero will not change their documents.
- Paused: the daily API limit was reached
The daily API call budget for that organisation is nearly used up.
- Reconnect needed
The stored connection expired or was revoked; sign in again.
Still stuck? The support page says what to include so we can answer on the first reply.