Register an F24 payment and cancel it in SamBooks

What happens after an F24 is generated: registering the payment, linking it to a bank transaction, cancelling it, and the real effects on your books.

What this is for

Once an F24 exists (companion guide Generate an F24 tax form in SamBooks), it stays in "Generated" status until you actually pay it. Registering the payment in SamBooks isn't just ticking a box: it creates the payment's journal entry, closes the linked due date in the payables schedule, and — if the payment starts from the bank side — links the bank statement transaction too. This guide covers the whole lifecycle from there on: registering the payment, doing it from the three different places in the app where it's possible, understanding what SamBooks checks when you do it from bank reconciliation, and how to cancel — both a single payment and the whole F24.

Before you start

• The F24 must be in "Generated" status: a draft F24 doesn't have the payment button, and an already-"Paid" one doesn't offer it again (you need to cancel that payment first — see below).
• Role: registering or cancelling a payment requires a Manager or Administrative user.
• A liquidity account must exist for the company (bank, cash, POS…): it's the account SamBooks proposes for the payment's "Bank" row, when the balance is greater than zero.

Step by step

1. Open the F24 you want to pay

From the /f24 list or from its detail page /f24/{id}.

2. Click "Register payment"

In the list it's the checkmark icon on the row (only shown for F24s in "Generated" status); in the detail page it's the "Register payment" button top right, next to the final balance (same condition: only if status is "Generated"). This opens the "Register F24 payment" dialog.

3. Check the journal-entry preview

The dialog shows, row by row, the accounting entry about to be created: for every tax row of the F24, the proposed account (SamBooks resolves it on its own from the tax-code-to-account map — a ready-made set of references covering a limited number of codes, the most commonly used ones). If the F24's final balance is greater than zero, an extra "Bank" row in credit shows up too.

You can change the proposed account on any row, if the one SamBooks chose isn't the right one for your books. If a tax code has no account mapped, that row shows an empty selector ("account to choose") and the confirm button stays disabled until you pick one — you can't register the payment with an unresolved row.

4. Set the payment date

The "Payment date" field is pre-filled with today's date; change it if you paid on a different day.

5. Confirm

The "Register payment" button inside the dialog — worded identically to the one that opened it, though in the Italian interface the two read differently ("Registra versato" to open, "Registra versamento" to confirm) — creates the entry, closes the tributo_f24 due date in the payables schedule, and moves the F24 to "Paid" status. The outcome tells you: "F24 {period} paid on {date}. The payment due date has been closed.", with an "Open journal entry" link that takes you straight to the entry just created (if the payment nets to zero — full offsetting — there's no bank entry to open, and SamBooks says so: "Zero-balance payment (full offsetting): no bank transaction.").

The three places you can register the same payment from

It's always the same service, the same dialog, and the same result — only the starting point changes:

1. From the F24 page — the /f24 list (row icon) or the /f24/{id} detail page (button top right). This is the path described above.
2. From the payables schedule — the F24 due date shows up in /scadenzario as a liability tagged with an "F24" badge. The banknote icon on the row shows the label "Register F24 payment" (different from "Record payment", which is the one used for other due dates) and opens the same dialog.
3. From bank reconciliation — when the debit actually lands in the bank: /banking, Bank transactions tab, click the transaction you want to assign → the "Close due date" path → among the compatible due dates, pick the one tagged with the "F24" badge → the same payment journal-entry preview shows up, and the confirm button changes to "Register F24 payment". One click both links the bank transaction and registers the payment: it's the most common path when you're working from the bank statement rather than the F24 page.

The amount check when you close an F24 from the bank

An F24 is paid in full — unlike an invoice, there's no such thing as a partial F24 payment. That's why, when you register the payment from bank reconciliation (point 3 above), SamBooks checks that the bank transaction's amount matches — with a €0.01 tolerance for rounding — the F24's final balance, before confirming the match. If the gap is bigger, the operation is rejected with this message: "The transaction amount (…) doesn't match the F24 payment balance (…): an F24 is paid in full, pick the right transaction or register the payment from the F24 page."

What to do when you see it:

• The bank transaction only covers part of the F24 (say, an advance, or a wire transfer smaller than what's owed): that transaction isn't paying that F24. Link it to a different due date instead, or record it as a standalone journal entry, and register the F24 payment in full from the F24 page once the payment is complete.
• You picked the wrong F24 row (this happens when two F24s have similar amounts): go back to the list of compatible due dates and pick the correct one.
• The amount looks right but the gap persists: check the F24's exact final balance in its detail page before retrying — a gap bigger than a cent almost always means the wrong F24, or an amount typed incorrectly somewhere upstream.

What happens in the books when you register the payment

The journal entry that gets created carries the reason code "F24" and the description "Versamento F24 {reference period}": a debit row for every tax, on the account resolved from the map (or the one you chose), and — if the final balance is positive — a credit row on the liquidity account you picked, for the full amount paid. If the F24's final balance is zero (full offsetting between debit and credit rows), no bank row is created at all: only the offsetting rows between the tax accounts, no real movement in cash or in the bank.

Cancel the payment (back to "Generated")

Only from the F24's detail page (/f24/{id}), when the status is "Paid": the "Cancel payment" button top right (not in the list, only in the detail page — it's a rare action, meant to be taken with the form's full context in view). The confirmation explains exactly what happens: "Deletes the payment journal entry (if any) and reopens the due date in the payables schedule. The F24 goes back to "Generated"."

One important point: this is not a reversal with an offsetting entry that cancels out the first one — it's a deletion of the payment entry, done in place. If a bank transaction had been linked to the payment (because you'd registered it from reconciliation), that link is dissolved along with the deletion: the transaction goes back to the ones waiting to be reconciled in the Bank transactions tab, ready to be reassigned.

Cancel an F24 that hasn't been paid yet

Different from the previous point: here you're deleting the whole form, not just the payment. This is done only from the list /f24 (there's no equivalent button in the detail page): the "Cancel F24" icon on the row, shown only for F24s in "Generated" status — it disappears for both "Paid" and "Cancelled". The confirmation says: "The F24 will be cancelled: the linked accounting entries (withholdings closing entry) are deleted and any payment due date is cancelled too. An already-paid F24 cannot be cancelled."

If the F24 you want to cancel is already "Paid", this button doesn't show up: you first need to open the detail page and click "Cancel payment" (previous paragraph) to bring it back to "Generated", and only then go back to the list to cancel it entirely.

What actually gets deleted depends on the F24's type: only the withholdings generator writes an accounting entry at generation time (every other generator only writes one at payment time, as seen above) — cancelling a withholdings F24 deletes that entry, and the withholding amounts it contained go back to "pending", ready to be included in a new withholdings F24. For the other types (periodic VAT, VAT advance, substitute tax, contributions) there's no entry to delete at this point yet — cancelling only touches the linked due date, which gets cancelled (not reopened: unlike cancelling a payment, here the due date doesn't become usable again).

Download the PDF

From both the list and the detail page, "Download PDF" generates the official facsimile of the F24 form (all six sections, across multiple pages if needed). It's available in every status, including "Cancelled" — useful to keep a record of what had been filled in even after cancelling.

Ask Sam

Every action described here has a chat equivalent: you can ask Sam to register an F24's payment ("register the payment for June's F24"), to cancel an already-registered payment, or to cancel an unpaid F24 entirely — same checks, same result as the buttons. You can also ask Sam to generate the PDF of an already-issued F24: it shows up as a downloadable attachment right in the chat, no need to open the F24 page.

If something goes wrong

• "The F24 … is a draft: it needs to be generated first" — happens only in the (rare) cases where an F24 isn't official yet: generate it from the generation menu first, then pay it.
• "The F24 … is already paid: restore it before registering it again" — you can't register the same payment twice: if you need to correct it, cancel the payment first, then register it again with the right data.
• Row with no account assigned — the confirm button stays disabled: pick an account for every row before paying.
• Bank transaction amount different from the F24 balance (closing from reconciliation) — the match is rejected, with the exact explanation in the message: see the dedicated section above.
• "An already-paid F24 cannot be cancelled" — cancel the payment from the detail page first (back to "Generated"), then cancel the F24 from the list.
• Closed accounting period — both cancelling a payment and cancelling an F24 with a linked entry (withholdings) are blocked if the entry's accounting period is already closed: the message flags it explicitly.

Frequently asked questions

How do I register the payment of an F24? From the F24's list or detail page, click "Register payment" (shown only when status is "Generated"), check the journal-entry preview, and confirm with "Register payment" inside the dialog.

Can I pay only part of an F24, like I can with an invoice? No: an F24 is always paid in full. If you've paid less than what's owed, that transaction doesn't close the F24 — see "The amount check when you close an F24 from the bank".

The bank transfer doesn't match the F24 amount: why does SamBooks block it? Because a partial F24 payment doesn't exist: registering the full payment anyway against a smaller transaction would record a cash outflow in the books that never happened for that amount. Link the transaction elsewhere, or check you picked the right F24.

I registered the payment by mistake: how do I undo it? Open the F24's detail page and click "Cancel payment": it deletes the payment entry (it's not a reversal) and reopens the due date. If the payment was linked to a bank transaction, that transaction becomes available for reconciliation again.

Can I fully delete an F24 I generated by mistake? Yes, but only if it hasn't been paid yet: from the /f24 list, "Cancel F24" icon on the row. If it's already "Paid", cancel the payment from the detail page first.

What happens to the withholdings if I cancel a withholdings F24? The accounting entry written at generation time is deleted and the withholding amounts go back to "pending": they'll be included in the next withholdings F24 you generate.

Can I download the PDF of a cancelled F24? Yes, "Download PDF" stays available in every status, to keep a record of what had been filled in.

Related guides

• Generate an F24 tax form in SamBooks — how the F24 is born before you get to this guide.
• Reconcile bank transactions in SamBooks — the full reconciliation path, of which "Close due date" toward an F24 is one route.
• Payables schedule in SamBooks — where you see the F24 due date alongside every other open item.