Legal issue about invoices

VirtualCed

Hi there, I found an issue that could be a legal problem.
I made a invoice to a customer. The customer paid it.
Then the customers moves his premises and ask me to change the details for the future. When I do the change, the previously made invoices have the the address. It's illegal to change an invoice already issued. If the customer ask me a duplicata of the previous invoice, the document I'll send to him will be illegal.
The only workaround is to create a new customer with the new address, but it's not a good solution as we can't see the full history of a customer in this case.

ConnorM

Hey @VirtualCed! Thanks for bringing this concern up. While I can't exactly speak to the legality of this matter, what I'm going to do is have a discussion with my teams around this. I hear where you're at. It sounds like this is a major concern for you. What I'd recommend doing, if a customer needs to change their address, would be to export a PDF of each of their previous invoices, so you have them if they request a duplicate.

VirtualCed

Hi @ConnorM , this is actually what I did, but I think it should be an interesting feature to freeze already issue invoices. But thanks for the advice.

monica86

@VirtualCed

I know it is a old post but I would like to add that the same problem happen if it is business to change address. Unlike the customer we cannot create a second business with the new address because all the accounting and reporting won't work between the two businesses

I think this issue should have high priority considering all the implications.

Barsin

Hey there @monica86

If this is the case I would recommend creating a new customer with a new address. This might help you to avoid any legal issues and you can then use the newly created customer with the same and a new address. Hope this workaround helps somewhat!

monica86

@BarsinA
Thanks for your reply.
I think I didn't explain myself very well.
If to change the address is a customer the workaround you proposed can be acceptable, not great but acceptable.
My problem is that I changed address ( my business, I am a solo trader) and I cannot create a new business to workaround that because it would break any report or accounting and I cannot change the address on the profile of my business without having all the old invoice with the wrong address.

CallieP

Hi there @monica86 , thanks for getting back. I can't speak to the accounting/tax filing implications of changing address, so it would be best to talk to an accountant about the possible ramifications of anything already suggested or to be suggested in this forum about this. That said, if you're concerned about past invoices showing the wrong address, I can offer a few possible workarounds as options.

• You can export your old invoices as PDFs and save them on your computer/cloud in their previous state. Then, when you update your business address in Wave, the address will update even on the old ones, but you'll have evidence of them as having the previous address on in the past
• You could make your invoice notes/footer contain a notation about the address change, e.g. 'Formerly [insert address], changed to current address as of [insert date].'

Hopefully those options can help work around this situation!

JulienS

Hi,
We have the same problem, we changed offices and therefore business office's address. When we change the information of the business in Wave, it changes all former invoices included the ones approved and paid - which it shouldn't. Is there a way to change the address of the business from a certain date? Looked in many parts of the forum and can't find the solution.
I will post this topic in feature ideas as well
Thanks

AlexL

Hey @JulienS , unfortunately this isn't an option at the moment but we appreciate you posting this in Feature Ideas so that others can continue adding to the conversation for our Product Managers to see.