You delivered on 27 December; the invoice will go out in mid-January. The revenue belongs to the closed year and is recorded there as an invoice to be issued, at its amount excluding VAT. It is the exact counterpart of invoices not yet received, on the sales side, and it follows the same cut-off rule.
The essentials in five points
- The trigger is delivery or performance of the service, never the issuing of the invoice.
- Revenue is recorded excluding VAT, against a customers — invoices to be issued account.
- VAT follows your regime, cash-received or debits, and is generally not yet due at this stage.
- Missing an invoice to be issued understates the result: the error works against you, not in your favour.
- The entry is reversed at opening, before the real invoice is recorded.
1. Spotting the unbilled sales
As with purchases, the source is the physical flow rather than the accounts. The difference is that here the information sits inside your own business, which makes it easier to obtain and harder to excuse if it is missing.
- Pull the delivery notes issued in the final weeks of the financial year.
- Tick off those with no matching invoice.
- List services that are finished and accepted but not yet invoiced.
- Go back to ongoing projects or engagements and isolate the portion performed.
- Check orders closed on the warehouse side but not on the invoicing side.
- Price each line at the contractual price or the rate in force.
Services delivered progressively are the trickiest case. Only the portion genuinely performed before the closing date attaches to the year, and that portion must rest on something verifiable: an accepted deliverable, a signed record, or a progress statement approved by the customer.
2. Recording the revenue and handling VAT
Revenue is recorded excluding VAT. What happens to the VAT depends on the regime you file under, and that is the point to settle with your accountant.
| Item | Treatment at closing | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Amount excluding VAT | Revenue of the closed year | The receivable arose on delivery |
| Counterpart | Customers — invoices to be issued (3427) | Earned but not yet invoiced |
| VAT under the cash-received regime | Not due: nothing has been collected | It becomes due on payment |
| VAT under the debits regime | Not due while no invoice has been issued | To be regularised on issue |
Under both regimes, then, VAT is normally not yet due at the closing date. Some charts of accounts still record it in a VAT-to-be-regularised account to keep the accounts symmetrical; that is a presentation choice to settle with your accountant, not a filing obligation.
3. Pricing a partially performed engagement
An engagement started in November and delivered in March does not attach entirely to either year. It has to be split, and the split must rest on something other than intuition.
- Identifiable deliverables: Attach whatever was accepted before closing, at the price set for each deliverable. This is the cleanest basis.
- Milestone billing: Use the milestones reached and accepted. A milestone reached but not yet invoiced is an invoice to be issued.
- Time-and-materials engagement: Value the hours actually worked at the contractual rate, based on an approved timesheet.
- Fixed price with no milestones: Estimate percentage of completion from something objective — costs incurred, tasks delivered — and document it.
Keep the document that justifies the split with the closing file. It is that document, not the amount itself, that you will be asked to explain.
Missing an invoice to be issued works against you
Unlike a forgotten cost, forgotten revenue reduces the reported result. That may feel comfortable in the short term, but it distorts the comparison between years, understates equity, and weakens the file you present to a bank or an investor. The correction, when it comes, then inflates the following year artificially. In both directions, the omission costs you.
4. Reverse, then invoice for real
Like an invoice not yet received, an invoice to be issued is a holding entry that must be cancelled as soon as the real invoice exists.
- Reverse the entry at the opening of the following year.
- Issue the real invoice and record it normally, VAT included.
- Check that the revenue does not appear twice across the two years.
- Recognise any difference in the new year.
- Watch the delay between delivery and invoicing: that is what creates the problem.
- Check at year end that the invoices-to-be-issued account has cleared.
If the invoices-to-be-issued account grows year after year, the real issue is not accounting but operational: you are invoicing too late. Cutting that delay improves cash flow as much as it improves the close.
Mistakes to avoid
- Waiting for the invoice to be issued before recognising the revenue.
- Attaching a whole engagement that straddles two years to a single one.
- Estimating completion with no objective basis and no supporting document.
- Recognising VAT as due when it is not yet due.
- Failing to reverse the entry and counting the revenue twice.
- Letting the invoices-to-be-issued account carry over uncleared from year to year.
Frequently asked questions
When should an invoice to be issued be recognised?
As soon as the goods are delivered or the service performed before the closing date without an invoice having been issued. The receivable is earned; only the paperwork is missing.
Should VAT be declared on an invoice to be issued?
In principle not at the closing date: under the cash-received regime nothing has been collected, and under the debits regime no invoice has been issued. VAT becomes due afterwards, depending on your regime. Have your accountant confirm this point.
How do I handle a project started but not finished?
Attach only the portion performed before closing, supported by something verifiable: an accepted milestone, a progress statement, an approved deliverable. The rest belongs to the following year.
Is a deposit received an invoice to be issued?
No. A deposit received with no service performed is an advance, shown as a liability. It becomes revenue only as the work is performed.
Does BelloPOS help spot unbilled sales?
Partly, yes. Sales are timestamped from BelloPOS Lite onward. Delivery notes and sales invoices belong to commercial documents, available with BelloPOS Pro: there you can find deliveries with no invoice attached. Pricing the entry remains an accounting task.
What to take away
The invoice to be issued is the entry that gives a year back what it actually produced. Start from delivery notes and accepted services, price it excluding VAT, let VAT follow your regime, and reverse at opening. And if the list is long, treat the cause: your invoicing delay.
Sources
The figures and rules quoted above come from these pages, read on the date given in the article.
- Ministry of Economy and Finance, General Code of Accounting Standardisation, read 1 September 2026
- Moroccan Tax Administration, 2026 General Tax Code
Deliveries and invoices, on the same thread
BelloPOS timestamps sales from Lite onward; delivery notes and sales invoices arrive with the commercial documents in BelloPOS Pro, alongside accounting journals and exports.
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