Wrong amount, wrong customer name, a discount agreed after the fact, goods returned - sooner or later every business needs to correct an invoice. In the Netherlands you do that with a creditnota (credit note), never by editing or deleting the original. This guide shows when you need one, what it must contain and how the VAT is corrected, with a worked example.
In ProFaktura a credit note is one click on the invoice: next number in the series, reference to the original, negative lines and VAT filled in. Credit notes are free, without limit.
A credit note is a correcting invoice with a negative value. It reduces or cancels an invoice you issued earlier, and it does so with a document of its own - a new number, a new date, a reference to the original. The original invoice stays in your records exactly as it was sent. Together the two documents tell the full story: what you invoiced, what turned out to be wrong, and what the customer finally owes.
For the Belastingdienst (the Dutch tax office) a credit note is an invoice like any other. It follows the same requirements, it sits in the same numbering series, and it is kept for the same 7 years.
The pattern is always the same: small correction of an amount - partial credit note; anything that changes the identity of the invoice (customer, VAT treatment, description) - full credit note plus a new invoice.
This is the rule new entrepreneurs most often break, usually with good intentions. Three reasons it matters:
ProFaktura enforces this for you: an issued invoice is stored unchanged, with a checksum, and the only way to change what the customer owes is a credit note.
Everything a normal invoice needs (the factuureisen), plus the link to the original:
Example: partial credit note for returned goods.
On 3 September 2026 you issued invoice 2026/0041 to Bakkerij Jansen for five display stands at € 200 each: net € 1,000, VAT 21% € 210, total € 1,210. One stand arrives damaged and the customer returns it.
Your last invoice since then was 2026/0043, so the credit note becomes 2026/0044, dated 17 September 2026. Line: display stand, returned damaged, 1 × € −200. Net € −200, VAT 21% € −42, total € −242. Reference: credit note for invoice 2026/0041 of 3 September 2026. The customer had not paid yet, so they now pay € 1,210 − € 242 = € 968.
Your VAT return: the € 210 stays in Q3 (invoice of 3 September). The € −42 is also in Q3, because the credit note is dated 17 September. Both fall in the same quarter here, so you report € 168 of VAT on this customer. Had the credit note been issued in October, the € −42 would go into Q4 - you would not touch the Q3 return.
Example: full credit note for a wrong customer name. Invoice 2026/0045 went to J. de Boer instead of De Boer Installatie B.V. with its VAT number. You issue credit note 2026/0046 for the full negative amount, referring to 2026/0045, and a new invoice 2026/0047 with the correct details. Three documents, no gaps, and the customer's bookkeeper can follow every step.
The VAT on a credit note reduces the VAT you owe. You process it in the btw-aangifte (VAT return) for the period in which you issued the credit note. You do not reopen the return of the original invoice - that period is closed, and the credit note is the document that makes the correction visible in the new one.
Was the original invoice under the reverse charge or at 0%? Then the credit note carries the same treatment: no VAT amount, the words btw verlegd, and for an EU customer the negative amount also appears in your ICP-opgave (intra-EU sales listing) for the quarter of the credit note. Did you forget a credit note altogether in a quarter you already filed? That is what a suppletie (supplementary return) is for - but a credit note issued on time avoids it.
Are you in the KOR small business scheme? Your invoices carry no VAT, so your credit notes carry none either - only the net amount changes.
Open the invoice you want to correct and choose Credit note. ProFaktura creates the document for you:
You send the credit note by e-mail like any invoice; both documents stay linked in your list, and the original remains unchanged with its checksum. With Pro the VAT dashboard shows the corrected amounts in the right quarter, so the btw-aangifte is ready without manual sums. Credit notes, like invoices, are in the free plan without limit.
Want to avoid the credit note in the first place? Most corrections come from a missing detail on the original. Our guide on how to invoice in the Netherlands lists every required field; the page on the reverse charge covers the VAT treatment that is corrected most often.
No. An issued invoice is part of your gapless numbering and may already be in the customer's books. Deleting it leaves a hole in your series that the Belastingdienst reads as a missing invoice. Issue a credit note for the wrong invoice, then a new invoice with the correct details.
Yes. A credit note is an invoice with a negative amount, so it takes the next number in the same consecutive series as your invoices. It also refers to the number of the invoice it corrects.
The VAT on the credit note reduces the VAT you owe. You process it in the VAT return for the period in which you issued the credit note - not by amending the return of the original invoice.
Yes. A credit note for a discount, a returned item or a wrongly charged extra can cover any part of the original amount. Only the lines being corrected appear on it, with their VAT.
The credit note documents that you owe the customer money. You either refund the amount or offset it against their next invoice - agree with the customer which, and note it on the credit note.
Read next: how to invoice in the Netherlands · VAT return in the Netherlands · deductible business expenses