Complete the VAT settlement to F24 payment workflow in SamBooks
8 min read
The thread that connects three guides: from a VAT settlement in debit to an F24 tax form, from the form to a registered payment, and what happens if you cancel a step halfway through.
What it's for
This guide does not re-explain how to compute a VAT settlement, how to generate an F24, or how to pay one: each of those three steps already has its own dedicated guide, linked at the bottom. This guide is the thread that ties them together — the point where a freshly computed VAT debit becomes a form to pay, the point where that form becomes a registered payment — and, above all, what happens when something in this chain is interrupted or cancelled halfway through.
In SamBooks the three steps normally run in sequence: VAT settlement in debit → F24 generated → F24 paid → due item closed. You can stay in the same area the whole time (from the settlement detail you reach the F24 with a shortcut), or you can go through bank reconciliation instead, when the debit hits your bank account first. Both paths lead to the same accounting result.
Before you start
- You need a role with write permissions on accounting: Manager or Administrative. A Viewer can follow the whole path read-only but cannot compute, generate or pay anything.
- The path described here applies to companies that settle VAT periodically. If your company is on the flat-rate scheme, there is no VAT settlement to start from: flat-rate F24 forms (substitute tax, INPS contributions) come from a different path, described in "Generate an F24 in SamBooks".
- A liquidity account (bank, cash…) must already exist in the company: it's needed for the last step, the payment.
Step by step
1. Compute the VAT settlement for the period
From Accounting → VAT (/liquidazioni-iva), press "Compute period", enter the year and period. If the result is in debit, this guide's path starts here. The full detail — what goes into the calculation, how to read the result, what to do if the reconciliation check doesn't add up — is in the companion guide Compute the periodic VAT settlement in SamBooks.
2. Generate the F24 from the settlement
From the detail page of the settlement you just computed, if it's in debit you'll find the "Generate F24" button at the top: it pre-fills the year and period on its own and creates the form immediately — a shortcut compared to going through Finance → F24 → Generate F24 → "From VAT settlement", with the exact same result. Once generated, that same button turns into "Download F24": the visual signal that the handoff has happened — there's nothing left to generate for this settlement.
3. Pay the F24
From here on, follow the companion guide Pay an F24 and cancel it in SamBooks, which covers in detail the three places you can do this from: the F24 page, the Due items page (the "Register F24 payment" icon), or bank reconciliation when the debit actually lands in the account. The section below focuses on that last case, because it's the one with the most pitfalls.
4. Check that the due item has closed
Once paid, the linked tax due item disappears from Due items (or is marked as paid), and — if you paid from bank reconciliation — the bank transaction shows as linked. If something doesn't match up, the "If something goes wrong" section below lists the most common cases.
Closing the F24 due item from the bank: what SamBooks checks
The most direct way to complete this path, when you're working from the bank statement instead of the F24 page, is: Finance → Bank, the "Bank transactions" tab (this is the real label of the second tab on the Bank page, even though the address still shows ?tab=riconciliazione — don't trust the name in the URL) → click the debit transaction → the "Close due item" path → among the compatible due items pick the one with the "F24" badge → a preview of the payment journal entry appears → the button turns into "Register F24 payment". One click both links the bank transaction and registers the payment.
Here SamBooks applies a check you won't find when paying directly from the F24 page: an F24 is always paid in full — unlike an invoice, there's no such thing as a partial F24 payment — so before confirming the match, SamBooks compares the bank transaction amount with the F24's final balance, with a 0.01 EUR tolerance for rounding. If the difference is larger, the match is rejected with this message: "The transaction amount (...) does not match the F24 payment balance (...): an F24 is always paid in full — pick the right transaction, or register the payment from the F24 page."
This happens more often than you'd expect: a wire transfer that only covers a down payment, or two F24 forms with nearly identical balances where you picked the wrong one from the list of compatible due items. In both cases the fix is the same: don't force that transaction onto that F24. If the transaction really is a partial payment, link it elsewhere — or register it as a free-form journal entry — and pay the F24 in full from the F24 page once the payment is complete; if you picked the wrong row, go back to the list of compatible due items and choose the right one.
Cancelling midway: what actually happens
The three steps in this chain aren't independent when you go back: cancelling one has effects on the others, and the direction of that effect depends on where you are.
- You cancel the VAT settlement and there's a linked F24 not yet paid: SamBooks cancels the F24 in cascade together with the settlement — you don't need to cancel it yourself first. The confirmation dialog tells you this explicitly before you proceed.
- You cancel the VAT settlement and the linked F24 has already been paid: here SamBooks blocks the settlement cancellation, with this message: "This settlement has a linked F24 ({id}) that has already been paid: it cannot be cancelled. Restore/cancel the F24 first." — you first need to open the F24's detail page and press "Cancel payment" (which returns it to "Generated"), and only then can you go back and cancel the settlement.
- You cancel only the F24 payment (from its detail page, "Cancel payment"): the payment entry is deleted — it's not a reversal — and the due item reopens; if the payment had been registered from bank reconciliation, the link to the transaction is also released and the transaction goes back among those to reconcile.
In practice: the cascade works on its own going forward (settlement → F24 not yet paid), but stops once the payment has actually happened — a deliberate check, because silently cancelling a real payment would be an accounting error.
Ask Sam
The whole path has its equivalent in chat, step by step: you can ask Sam to compute a period's settlement, generate the F24 from that settlement, and register its payment — with the same checks and the same results as the buttons, including the same amount guard if you ask Sam to close an F24 due item by matching it to a specific bank transaction. The two paths, form and chat, stay equivalent at every step: you can even start one way and continue the other — for example computing the settlement from the page and then asking Sam to generate the F24 from it.
If something goes wrong
- "Generate F24" doesn't show on the settlement's detail page — the settlement isn't in debit (it's in credit or balanced: nothing to pay), or the F24 has already been generated: in that case you'll already see "Download F24" in its place.
- The bank transaction amount doesn't match the F24 balance — see the dedicated section above: an F24 is never paid partially.
- I can't cancel a VAT settlement — check whether it has a linked F24 that's already been paid: if so, cancel that payment from the F24's detail page first.
- I cancelled an F24 by mistake while the settlement was still live — that's not a problem for the settlement: it stays settled, and shows "Generate F24" again, ready to generate a new one whenever you need it.
- I can't find the "Bank transactions" tab — it's the second tab on the Bank page, the one with the queue of transactions to assign; the first tab is called "Accounting" and is a different thing (the liquidity accounts ledger).
Frequently asked questions
If I cancel a VAT settlement, what happens to the F24 I had already generated? If it hasn't been paid yet, it's cancelled together with the settlement, automatically. If it has already been paid, cancelling the settlement stays blocked until you cancel the payment first.
Can I pay an F24 directly from the bank without going through the F24 page? Yes: from the "Bank transactions" tab on the Bank page, the "Close due item" path, selecting the row with the F24 badge. It's the same payment, just a different entry point.
Why does SamBooks stop me from closing an F24 with a smaller bank transaction? Because an F24 is always paid in full: if the bank transaction is smaller than the F24 balance, it isn't really paying it off, and linking it anyway would record a payment in the accounts that never actually happened for that amount.
Does the fourth-quarter VAT balance follow the same path? No: the fourth quarter doesn't generate an F24 from the settlement — it flows into the annual VAT balance after the annual VAT return, covered in "Generate an F24 in SamBooks".
Can I do the whole path just by asking Sam, without opening any page? Yes: computing the settlement, generating the F24, and paying it each have their own chat equivalent, with the same checks as the buttons.
Who in the company can follow this path? Anyone can view it. Computing, generating or paying requires a Manager or Administrative role; a Viewer gets a permission error if they try to act.