You send an invoice, the customer pays, and it feels done. Then your accountant runs a report for the year, and a stack of your invoices is not in it.
Invoices that stay in draft do not create a journal entry, do not appear in your revenue totals and do not show up in your tax report. For practical purposes they do not exist yet.
This post is part of our guide to keeping CRA-ready records.
Free: the Invoice and Tax Records Checklist. The weekly, monthly and year-end checks that turn tax time into an export, not a rebuild. Get the checklist
What stuck drafts cost you
If your accountant runs a report, or the CRA asks for your income records, those draft invoices are invisible. You either under-report income or scramble to find them.
Why invoices stay in draft
Every invoice in Odoo Community starts as a draft by design, so you can review it before committing. The problem is that confirming is a separate step, and it is easy to skip when you are busy.
The process: four steps from draft to confirmed
1. Confirm each invoice when it is final
Open it, check the customer, date, lines and tax on every line, then click Confirm.
Example: “Invoice reviewed, HST on every line, confirmed.”
Pro tip: Do it the moment the invoice is ready. The status moves from Draft to Posted, a journal entry is created and it gets a permanent sequential number (for example INV/2026/0042).
2. Find the drafts you missed
Go to Invoicing, then Customers, then Invoices, open Filters and select Draft. Repeat under Vendors, then Bills.
Example: “Seven customer drafts and three bill drafts found.”
Pro tip: Work oldest first, so the entries post in the right order.
Free: the Invoice and Tax Records Checklist. The weekly, monthly and year-end checks that turn tax time into an export, not a rebuild. Get the checklist
3. Fix mistakes without deleting
Once Posted, an invoice is locked. Reset it to Draft to edit it, which leaves a visible reversal, or issue a credit note if it has been sent and paid.
Example: “Wrong tax rate: reset to draft, corrected, confirmed.”
Pro tip: Never delete an invoice. The CRA expects an unbroken number sequence and gaps raise questions.
4. Cancel what should not post
For cancelled jobs or test records, use Cancel rather than deleting.
Example: “Cancelled job 118, invoice cancelled.”
Pro tip: Keep the cancelled record. It explains the gap.
Where this runs
Navigation paths here are for Odoo Community’s Invoicing module. If your instance is customised or older, menu labels may differ slightly. The same four steps apply to any invoicing tool: nothing counts until it is final. Before closing your books, check that the Draft filter on both Invoices and Bills is empty or holds only genuinely in-progress items. The process is the point. The tool just keeps it going when you are busy.
Your next step
Run the Draft filter today. This post describes a record-keeping process. It is not accounting or tax advice. Confirm your filing requirements, eligible deductions and GST/HST obligations with your accountant or the CRA directly. If you want to see the full path from quote to paid invoice, the free 7-Day Growth Challenge on invoicing covers it.
Free: the Invoice and Tax Records Checklist. The weekly, monthly and year-end checks that turn tax time into an export, not a rebuild. Get the checklist