How to remove a credit note allocation in Xero

Last updated: July 2026

Short answer: open the credit note and click the remove icon next to the allocation. You don't need to void anything — the allocation itself is deletable, and both documents simply reopen.

Step by step

1. Find the credit note (status Awaiting Payment or Paid) under Business → Credit notes, or via the invoice it was applied to.
2. Open it. Allocated amounts are listed at the bottom, each linked to an invoice.
3. Click the remove icon (×) next to the allocation you want to undo, then confirm with Delete.

The invoice's amount due goes back up by the removed amount, and a fully-paid credit note returns to Awaiting Payment with that credit available again. Reports reflect the change immediately.

Who can do this

You need the advisor, standard, or an invoice-only role with approval rights. Read-only users can see allocations but not remove them.

Undoing a lot of allocations at once

The remove icon is one allocation at a time. If a bulk import went wrong or a batch of allocations was matched badly, clicking through hundreds of credit notes is its own afternoon. This is why BulkOps (built by us) treats undo as a first-class feature: every batch of allocations it executes is recorded as a job with before/after state, and one click reverses the entire job — every allocation it created is removed in Xero, and the whole history is exportable as a CSV audit trail. The same guarantee applies before anything runs: you get a full preview and untick any match you don't like.

Related: How to bulk allocate credit notes in Xero.

FAQ

Does removing an allocation delete the credit note?

No. The credit note survives with its credit restored. Deleting or voiding the credit note itself is a separate (and more drastic) action.

Can I remove an allocation from a locked period?

If a lock date covers the documents, you'll need an adviser to adjust the lock first — allocations inside a locked period can't be changed.

Can allocations be removed through the Xero API?

Yes — the Accounting API supports deleting credit note allocations, which is what makes genuinely reversible bulk tools possible.