What it is
Cancelling a CFDI (Mexico's electronic invoice) means asking the SAT, Mexico's tax authority, to void it. The request carries one of the SAT's four reasons, is signed with the hotel's digital seal and is asynchronous: Containn sends it, gets a receipt (acuse) and the SAT's answer comes later.
When to use it
| Reason | When it applies |
|---|---|
| 01 · Issued with errors, related | The invoice had an error and you already issued its replacement. It asks for the new invoice's folio fiscal (UUID), so the replacement is issued first. |
| 02 · Issued with errors, unrelated | The invoice had an error and you do not link it to another one. It is the reason the guest portal uses to fix details and invoice again. |
| 03 · The operation did not take place | You invoiced something that did not happen. |
| 04 · Nominative operation in a global invoice | You cancel a global invoice because a sale it included will be invoiced in the customer's name. |
Step by step
- In Invoicing, find the invoice in the list and click the Cancel invoice icon. If the reservation was invoiced in parts, you cancel only the part you choose.
- Choose the Cancellation reason. With 01, type the folio fiscal (UUID) of the replacing invoice.
- If your hotel did not save its seal for cancellations, upload the .cer, the .key and the password. They are used only for this signature and are not stored.
- Confirm. You will see the request receipt and the invoice shows as Cancelled. If it belongs to a reservation, the stay reopens so it can be invoiced again within the same 72-hour window.
- Later, click Check status with the SAT: it tells you whether it is cancelled, in progress, rejected (still valid), still valid, not found yet, or whether there was no answer.
When the SAT asks the customer to accept
If the invoice is over 1,000.00 MXN, the SAT may ask the recipient to accept the cancellation. The recipient has three business days to answer; if they do not answer the first request, it is deemed accepted. If they reject it, the invoice stays valid, and you will see that when you check the status.
What can go wrong
- More than 72 hours have passed since check-out. A reservation's invoice can no longer be cancelled from Containn. Standalone and master-account invoices have no such window.
- The invoice on credit has payments recorded. Void them first in Invoices on credit.
- The seal expired or belongs to another RFC. In production, a cancellation is never signed with an expired seal: renew it with the SAT and upload it again.
- Cancellation uncertain. If the certification provider does not confirm it received the request, check the status with the SAT: if it went through, it is recorded automatically.
Guests can also cancel and invoice again from their self-invoicing link, as long as your hotel saved its seal for cancellations.
Related articles
Stamping a CFDI 4.0 invoiceHow to issue the invoice for a stay, a master account or a standalone invoice, sealed with your hotel's digital seal.The digital seal certificate: how to upload it and where it livesWhat the CSD is, how it differs from the e.firma, how to upload it, and why its private key is not stored in Containn's database.Guest self-invoicingGuests invoice their own stay from a link or from the hotel's website, without going through the front desk. Deadlines, split invoices, cancellation.