Credit note against reissuing the invoice
An error surfaces on an invoice and somebody asks for a credit note. Often that is the wrong instrument, and using it leaves your accounts and the customs file disagreeing about what the shipment was worth.
If the document was wrong when written — a typo, a wrong HS code, the wrong price — reissue the invoice. If the document was right and something changed afterwards — a short shipment, a return, an agreed discount — issue a credit note.
| Credit Note | Commercial Invoice | |
|---|---|---|
| Fixes | A commercial change after the fact. | A document that was wrong when issued. |
| Original invoice | Stays valid. The credit adjusts it. | Superseded. |
| Customs value | Does not change a filed declaration. | May require amending the entry. |
| Typical trigger | Return, shortage, agreed discount. | Typo, wrong rate, wrong description. |
| Numbering | Its own series, referencing the invoice. | Same number with a revision, or a new one referencing the old. |
A credit note does not amend a customs declaration
This is the part that catches people. A credit note is a commercial adjustment between seller and buyer. It has no effect on the value the goods were entered at, and issuing one does not correct a declaration. Where the declared value was wrong, the fix is a post-entry amendment with the customs authority — a post-summary correction in the United States, an equivalent elsewhere — and doing that voluntarily is treated far more leniently than having it found.
Check what else has to move
Correcting an invoice in isolation frequently creates a new discrepancy where you have just closed one. If quantity changed, the packing list changes. If the description or HS code changed, a chamber-stamped certificate of origin has to be reissued rather than edited. If anything has already been presented under a letter of credit, talk to the bank before sending anything at all.
Cancels or reduces a previously issued invoice, for returns, short shipments or agreed price adjustments.
The primary customs valuation document: what was sold, to whom, on what terms, and for how much.
+Can I just email a corrected total?
No. The invoice is the valuation document, and the version in the customs file is the one that counts. Issue a document, and say on it what it replaces.
+What if the goods were short-shipped?
That is a credit note. The invoice was correct for what was sold; less arrived. If the shortage was known before the entry was filed, correcting the invoice first is cleaner.
Judge it by the document, not the feature list.
The generator on this page is the product, prefilled and editable. Fill it in and download the finished PDF — then decide.
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