Recording CU received in SamBooks

How to file the Certificazione Unica forms you receive from your withholding-agent clients, including by importing from PDF, and how to read the automatic gap against your accounting entries.

What it's for

When one of your clients pays your invoice (a TD06 fee note) while withholding tax at source, at year end they send you a Certificazione Unica (CU): documentary proof of what they withheld from you. This guide covers where to record it in SamBooks — page /dichiarativi/cu-ricevute — and how to read the automatic comparison between what you've certified and what already shows as booked.

It's the opposite path from Preparing the Certificazione Unica (CU): there you withhold tax from the professionals you pay; here it's your client withholding it from you, and you record their certification. The accounting entry that produces the "Booked" figure on this page, though, is created elsewhere: when you reconcile the payment of your invoice in Banking — see Booking the withholding tax your clients deduct.

Before you start

• You need a write-enabled role — Gestore (Manager) or Amministrativo — to record, edit or delete a received CU; Visualizzatore (Viewer) and Logistica can only view.
• From the sidebar open Tax returns, then the "CU received" card (subtitle "Certificazione Unica received from withholding agents: proof for the withholding credit (RN20).").

How to do it, step by step

1. Read the three summary cards

At the top of the page you'll find three cards, and they always describe a single year: the one in the "Tax year" filter above or, when that filter is empty, the year before the current one. That asymmetry is what trips people up: with an empty filter the table below lists CU forms from every year, while the three cards keep talking about last year. If you have only recorded CU forms for the current year and the cards read zero, set the filter to the right year before hunting for a bug that isn't there:

• "Certified withholding {year}" — the sum of the withholding totals of all the CU forms you've recorded for that year, with a count of certifications.
• "Booked" — how much already shows in the journal for that year on the withholding-tax-suffered account (labelled "Already in journal (RN20)"): it's the same figure, computed with the same query, that feeds line RN20 of the income tax return.
• "Difference" — the gap between the two. Green card with "Certified and booked match" if the gap is under a cent; yellow card with "Check unrecorded CU or missing entries" if they don't.

2. Understand what feeds each figure

"Certified" adds up the CU forms you recorded on this page — a manual figure, dependent on how many you've entered. "Booked" instead reads the journal entries already present: it looks for entries posted to an account whose name contains the Italian stems "ritenut…" and, further along, "subit…" — the chart of accounts is Italian and is never translated, so the account in question is 1.50.10.001, Ritenute d'acconto subite (lavoro autonomo) (withholding tax suffered, self-employment). That is the account SamBooks writes to automatically when you reconcile the payment of a withholding-bearing TD06 invoice, as described in Booking the withholding tax your clients deduct. If you rename that account — into English, or in any way that drops those Italian stems — the comparison stops finding it and the gap stays open even though the entries genuinely exist: before blaming a missing CU, check the account's name in Settings → Chart of accounts. One more difference worth knowing: "Booked" counts the year of the journal entry (which is the bank transaction date), while "Certified" uses the tax year written on the CU.

3. Which side to look at when the gap turns yellow

The difference is "certified minus booked", so its sign already tells you which side to look at. A positive gap (certified above booked): the CU is recorded but the withholding-suffered entry does not exist yet, usually because the payment of your invoice has not been reconciled in Banking — reconcile the transaction (see the reconciliation guide linked above). A negative gap (booked above certified): the entry is there but the matching CU is not — record it on this page. A third, less visible case: CU and entry both exist but fall in different years, typically last year's invoice collected in January.

4. Record a received CU

Press Add CU at the top right. A dialog opens with these fields:

• Tax year — required, 2000–2999; the filter's year comes pre-filled, or the year before the current one when the filter is empty.
• Received on — optional.
• Withholding agent — required, the name of whoever withheld the tax from you.
• VAT number / Tax code — at least one of the two is required.
• Total compensation (€) — optional (saved as 0 if left empty).
• Total withholding (€) — required, non-negative.
• Reason code, Tax code, Filing protocol, Notes — all optional (the first two only show an example placeholder, "A" and "1040": they aren't pre-filled).

If you save without a required field, an inline message tells you: "Enter the withholding agent's name.", "Enter the agent's VAT number or tax code.", "Enter a valid total withholding amount.", "Enter a valid tax year (2000-2999).".

5. Import the data from the PDF instead of typing it

In the creation dialog, at the top you'll find the "Import from PDF" box with an Upload PDF button: upload the CU file you received. SamBooks first scans it with antivirus, then reads it with OCR and pre-fills only six fields: tax year, withholding agent's name, VAT number, tax code, total compensation and total withholding. Reason code, tax code and filing protocol are never extracted from the PDF: if you need them, enter them by hand after importing. When it's done you'll see "Fields pre-filled by OCR ({percentage}% completeness). Check the values." — always verify the numbers before saving, OCR is a help, not a guaranteed read.

6. Edit an already-recorded CU

Clicking a row in the table opens the same dialog in edit mode (without the OCR section, which is only for creation): fix any field and save with Save changes.

7. Delete a wrong CU

At the bottom of the edit dialog you'll find the "Delete CU received" zone: "Removes the certification from the withholding-credit summary. Reversible from Sam's timeline." Press Delete, then confirm on "Delete this CU received?" with Yes, delete.

8. If it says one already exists

Trying to record a second one for the same year and the same withholding agent (same VAT number or same tax code), SamBooks rejects it with an explicit message — "Esiste già una CU ricevuta {year} per il sostituto {identifier} (id {number}): usa la modifica." (a CU already exists for that year and agent: use edit instead) — no need to delete and recreate: open the existing row and correct it from there.

9. Filter and browse the list

The "Tax year" filter (placeholder "All") filters the table and at the same time moves the three summary cards onto that year. Leave it empty and the table shows every year, while the cards stay on the year before the current one (see step 1). The list is paginated (10 rows per page by default, selectable up to 50).

What all of this is for

The "Booked" total on this page is the same figure that, at year-end closing, feeds into the credit for withholding tax suffered against the taxes due (the income tax return line dedicated to this, RN20): recording the received CU forms here isn't a task for its own sake, it's the documentary proof that shows — CU in hand — why that amount was credited.

If something's not right

• The gap stays yellow even though I've recorded all the CU forms: check that the payment of your invoices is reconciled in Banking (see Booking the withholding tax your clients deduct), and check that account 1.50.10.001 in the Chart of accounts still carries the Italian words "Ritenute … subite" in its name.
• The cards at the top read zero but the CU forms are there in the table: the cards only ever show one year. With the "Tax year" filter empty they show last year while the table shows all of them — type the year into the filter and the three figures line up.
• OCR misread a number: fix it by hand in the form before saving, or edit it afterwards from the row.
• It says a CU already exists for this agent: open the existing row and use "Edit", don't try to recreate it.
• I deleted a CU by mistake: the action is reversible from Sam's timeline (AI history).

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam to record, update or delete a received CU ("record the CU received from client Bianchi Srl, year 2025, withholding 400 euros"), or to give you the creditable summary for a year ("what's the gap between certified and booked CU for 2025?"): it uses exactly the same checks — required identifier, non-negative amounts, block on duplicates for the same agent and year.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I record the Certificazione Unica forms I receive from clients? In Tax returns → CU received (/dichiarativi/cu-ricevute), "Add CU" button.

Can I upload the CU PDF and have it read automatically? Yes, in the creation dialog with "Import from PDF": it pre-fills tax year, name, VAT number, tax code, compensation and withholding. Reason code, tax code and protocol still need to be entered by hand.

The CU's OCR got the numbers wrong, what do I do? Correct the values in the form before saving (the notice reminds you explicitly), or edit the row after recording it.

What does "gap" mean for CU received? The difference between the total withholding of the CU forms you've recorded and what already shows as booked in the journal on the same account.

My received CU forms don't match my accounting, why? Usually a CU hasn't been recorded yet, or the payment of the matching invoice hasn't been reconciled in Banking yet (the entry is only created on reconciliation).

Why do the cards at the top read zero when I have just recorded the CU forms? Because they only show one year: the one in the "Tax year" filter, or the year before the current one when the filter is empty. Type in the year of the CU forms you recorded.

How do I edit a CU received I already entered? Click the row in the table: the same form opens in edit mode.

How do I delete a wrong CU received? Open the row, at the bottom of the dialog you'll find "Delete CU received", with an explicit confirmation.

It says a CU already exists for this agent. It means you've already recorded one for the same year and the same VAT number/tax code: use edit on the existing row instead of creating a new one.

What are received CU forms for? They're the documentary proof of the withholding tax your clients deducted from you, and they feed the credit on your income tax return.

Do received CU forms lower corporate tax? The withholding tax suffered, of which the CU is the proof, is credited against the taxes due: recording it correctly is the precondition for doing so with verifiable data.

Which fields are required to record a CU? Tax year, the withholding agent's name, at least one of VAT number or tax code, and the total withholding.

Can I have Sam record the CU from chat? Yes: describe the agent, year and amounts, and Sam records it with the same checks as the manual form.

Related features

• Booking the withholding tax your clients deduct — where this page's "Booked" figure comes from.
• Preparing the Certificazione Unica (CU) — the opposite path, when you're the one withholding tax.
• Applying withholding tax, social security fund and stamp duty on an invoice — where your client sets the withholding on the invoice they pay you.