> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.techfootintl.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cancel Payment

> Voiding or invalidating a payment record to correct billing ledgers.

## Cancelling a Payment

A **Cancel Payment** action is used to invalidate a payment record that has been applied to a customer's bill. Unlike a refund, which involves actively transferring money back to a customer, cancelling a payment is an administrative action used to correct ledger inaccuracies or handle failed transactions.

### Cancel Payment vs. Refund

* **Cancel Payment:** An administrative correction. It voids the recorded transaction and restores the outstanding balance on the invoice. No money is sent to the customer.
* **Refund:** A financial cash outflow. It represents returning actual collected funds back to the customer's original payment method.

### Common Use Cases

* **Data Entry Errors:** A staff member manually logs a payment for the wrong amount (e.g., 1,000 instead of 100) or selects the wrong date.
* **Misapplied Payments:** A payment is accidentally applied to the wrong invoice or the wrong customer account. The incorrect payment must be cancelled so the funds can be logged correctly.
* **Failed or Bounced Transactions:** A payment (like a physical check or manual bank transfer) was recorded in advance but ultimately bounced or failed to clear.

### System Impact

* **Balance Restoration:** When a payment is cancelled, the invoice's outstanding balance is immediately increased by the cancelled amount.
* **Audit Trail:** To maintain strict financial compliance, a cancelled payment is not permanently deleted. It remains visible in the payment history (typically struck-through or tagged as "Cancelled") so your team has a clear audit log of all account activities.

<Note>
  Use the Cancel Payment feature strictly for correcting recording errors or handling failed payments. If a customer is legitimately requesting their money back for a successful payment, you should process a **Refund** instead.
</Note>