Reverse and undo in Business Central

Mistakes happen. A sale gets posted at the wrong price; a shipment goes out incomplete; a journal entry hits the wrong account; an invoice is sent to the wrong customer. Business Central offers several mechanisms to correct posted transactions while maintaining an audit trail — but the right mechanism per scenario isn't always obvious.

Posted documents are immutable. A foundational principle: once a sales invoice, shipment, journal, or other transaction is posted, the original record cannot be edited. Corrections happen through reversing or correcting transactions that preserve history.

Undo shipment. Posted sales shipments and posted purchase receipts can be undone under certain conditions. The Undo Shipment action on a posted sales shipment line reverses the inventory movement, returns the items to stock, and marks the line as undone. The original posted shipment remains visible in history; the undo creates a counter-entry. Conditions:

• Item hasn't been invoiced yet (still open inventory entry).
• Item hasn't been further processed (sold to another customer, transferred, etc.).
• No item charge has been applied.

Undo Receipt works the same way on the purchase side.

Cancel posted invoice. A posted sales invoice or purchase invoice has a Cancel action that creates a corresponding credit memo and applies it, effectively reversing the financial transaction. The original invoice remains; the credit memo is its formal reversal. Audit trail shows both with cross-references.

Correct posted invoice. A more powerful pattern. The Correct action on a posted sales invoice:

1. Creates a credit memo reversing the original.
2. Creates a new unposted sales invoice as a copy of the original.
3. The user edits the copy to the correct values.
4. The user posts the corrected invoice.

The result: the original (wrong) invoice, a credit memo that reverses it, and a new (right) invoice. Three documents in the audit trail tell the full story.

Reversing journal entries. Posted G/L journals can be reversed:

• Reverse Transaction — creates a journal entry that exactly negates the original.
• Reverse Register — reverses an entire batch of journal entries posted in one run.

Both leave the original visible and add the reversal as a separate posting. Useful for misclassified entries, wrong amount, wrong account.

Recurring vs reversing journals. Different concept: a reversing recurring journal is configured to automatically post the reverse next period (the standard accrual pattern). Not a correction tool — it's a normal accounting mechanism.

Reversing customer / vendor applications. When a payment was applied to the wrong invoice (or wrong customer), the Unapply Customer / Vendor Entries action reverses the application without reversing the underlying payment. Re-apply correctly afterwards. Useful for AR/AP cleanup.

What can't be reversed easily.

• Cost-adjustment cascades — once Adjust Cost — Item Entries has propagated cost into many outbound entries, reversing the originating inbound requires substantial work.
• VAT-period-closed transactions — corrections may require special VAT correction journals per country regulation.
• Statutory-locked period — reversing transactions in a closed period is restricted; may require period re-opening (audit-trail event) or posting the reversal in the current period.

Audit trail. Every reversal, undo, and correction is logged. The Change Log (if enabled) records the actions; posted documents carry references to their reversals; the GL register shows the original and the reversal side by side. Auditors can reconstruct what happened cleanly.

Common pitfalls.

• Deleting unposted documents thinking they're posted — unposted documents can be deleted outright, but a deleted draft leaves no trail. Be sure of the state before deleting.
• Reversing the wrong way — posting a credit memo to "fix" an invoice but not applying it to the original leaves both open. Use Cancel / Correct for proper linkage.
• Reversing in a closed period — runs into period-control errors. Reverse in the current period instead.

Operational discipline. Train users on the right mechanism per scenario. Mistakes are normal; messy mistakes are avoidable.