When a sale falls through after you invoiced

A sale collapsed before transfer and the commission invoice is already issued. When to void it, when to credit it, and how to keep debtors honest.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Real estate businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

The buyer's bond was declined. Or the buyer could not sell their own home in time, or a condition in the agreement simply lapsed. Whatever the reason, the sale is off, and the commission invoice you raised when the offer was signed is still sitting in your debtors.

Leaving it there is the worst option. It inflates what you think you are owed, it ages into the oldest columns of your debtors report, and if automatic reminders are switched on it may start chasing a seller who owes you nothing. Deleting it is not possible either, because an issued invoice has already posted to the ledger.

Whether any commission is still due after a collapsed sale depends on your mandate and the sale agreement, and that is a question for your attorney or adviser. This article deals with the bookkeeping once you know the answer.

Which correction fits

There are three ways to take an issued invoice out of what you are owed, and one way to avoid the problem altogether. They are not interchangeable.

The write-off belongs to a different situation: a seller who did owe the commission, perhaps because they withdrew in breach of the agreement, and a decision by the agency not to pursue it. For a sale that collapsed on a condition, voiding or crediting is the usual answer. For the write-off case, Investopedia's explanation of bad debt covers receivables a business expects never to collect and the methods used to estimate and write them off.

Voiding an invoice nobody has paid

An administrator can void an issued invoice that has no payments or credits against it. Voiding reverses the invoice's journal, so the debtor, the sales and the output VAT it posted are all taken back out.

That is the cleanest result for a collapsed sale: the invoice is cancelled, the reversal sits in the ledger beside the original entry, and nothing is left owing.

Before voiding, check two things:

• that no receipt has been recorded against the invoice, even a small one
• that you have not already issued a credit note against it

If either exists, voiding is not available and a credit note is the route.

Crediting an invoice that was part paid

Sometimes an invoice carries more than the commission. Some agencies bill a once-off marketing or administration charge on the same document, and the seller pays that part straight away. When the sale collapses, the paid charge stands and only the commission should go.

A credit note is issued from the invoice it corrects, either in full or for chosen lines. Here you would credit only the commission line. The credit note posts to the ledger, can be downloaded as a PDF or e-mailed to the seller, and uses the original invoice's date and tax codes, so the VAT reversed matches the VAT charged.

If the seller has paid more than what remains after the credit, the leftover credit is held for them rather than lost. You can leave it on their account for a future mandate, or an administrator can refund the receipt. There is no credit note without an invoice, so every credit you issue will always point back to the document it corrects.

Why a draft can be the better habit

Every one of the corrections above exists because the invoice was issued before the money was certain. A draft avoids that. Drafts can be changed or deleted, they take no number and they do not post anything. Issuing is the step that takes the next number and posts the invoice to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT.

So consider preparing the commission invoice as a draft when the offer is signed and issuing it when the transfer is close to registration, or when the conveyancer asks for your account. If the sale fails in between, you delete a draft instead of reversing an entry. Some conveyancers want your figure early to prepare their statement of account. In that case, confirm the commission amount to them in writing and issue the invoice once registration is in sight. Your accountant can tell you whether your tax position requires the invoice earlier.

Keeping the age analysis clean

Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals. In an agency, the oldest columns should hold genuine problems: commissions delayed by a slow registration, or a seller who owes money and has not paid. A collapsed sale left untouched will drift into the same columns and hide the cases that need your attention.

There is a second reason to act quickly. Credit control is on for new workspaces and e-mails overdue reminders and a monthly statement to customers with a balance. A seller whose sale fell through should not receive either about commission they do not owe. Voiding or crediting the invoice removes the balance, and with it the reason for any reminder.

A short routine after any failed sale:

1. Confirm with your adviser whether commission is still due.
2. If not, void the invoice, or credit the commission line if anything was paid.
3. Tell the seller in writing that the invoice has been cancelled.
4. Check that the seller no longer appears on the age analysis.

The next failed deal

Collapsed sales are part of agency life, and none of this needs to wait for month end. Open your debtors list today, find any commission invoice for a sale that is no longer going ahead, and deal with it using the table above. For the normal path, where the sale registers and the money arrives, see commission invoices paid by the conveyancer. If you run more than one agency company, keeping each entity's books apart helps make sure the correction lands in the right set.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.