Invoice statuses
What each stage of your invoice means — from draft to cleared with FIRS — and what (if anything) you need to do.
Every invoice you create moves through a few stages on its way to being cleared with FIRS (Nigeria's Federal Inland Revenue Service). This page explains each status in plain language and tells you whether you need to do anything.
Status is not the same as payment. An invoice's status tracks its compliance journey with FIRS (is it registered and cleared?). Whether the customer has paid is tracked separately as the payment status. An invoice can be Cleared and still Unpaid — the two are independent.
The journey
Draft
You've created the invoice but haven't submitted it yet. Nothing has been sent to FIRS.
Processing with FIRS
You've submitted it. Taxlyne validates, signs, and registers the invoice with FIRS, then attempts to deliver it. This usually takes a few seconds — no action needed.
Cleared or Reported
The invoice is registered with FIRS. If your customer can receive it electronically it is Cleared (delivered end-to-end). If they can't, it is Reported — still valid and on file with FIRS, just not delivered to them over the network.
Status reference
| Status | What it means | What you should do |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Created, not submitted. | Review and submit when ready. |
| Processing with FIRS | Signed and sent; awaiting clearance. | Nothing — wait a few seconds. |
| Cleared | Accepted by FIRS and delivered to your customer. | Nothing. This is the fully successful outcome. |
| Reported | Registered with FIRS for tax purposes, but not delivered to the customer (they're not on the e-invoice network). Still a valid FIRS record. | Optional — invite your customer to onboard so future invoices deliver automatically. |
| Rejected | FIRS declined the invoice. The reason is shown on the invoice. | Fix the issue shown, then resubmit. |
| Needs attention | Something went wrong while sending. The reason is shown on the invoice. | Retry, or contact support if it persists. |
| Cancelled | The invoice was voided. | Nothing. |
Two statuses worth understanding
Reported (not delivered)
"Reported" is a success, not an error. Your invoice is registered with FIRS and counts for tax purposes. It simply wasn't handed to your customer electronically, because their business isn't yet reachable on the FIRS e-invoice network (or the sale is to a consumer, who doesn't receive e-invoices).
There's nothing wrong on your side, and you don't need to re-issue it.
What happens next — automatically:
It waits, safely on file
The invoice stays Reported while the buyer is offline. It's already a valid FIRS record, so nothing is lost and you don't need to do anything.
Taxlyne keeps re-checking the buyer
Taxlyne automatically re-checks, on a regular basis, whether the buyer has come onto the FIRS e-invoice network.
The moment they're reachable, it's delivered
As soon as the buyer's Access Point is online, the invoice is transmitted automatically and moves to Cleared — no resubmission and no action from you. (It is never re-signed; only the delivery step is retried.)
To speed this up, you can ask the customer to onboard to FIRS e-invoicing — but you don't have to; the delivery happens on its own once they're reachable.
Needs attention
This means a step failed while sending — for example a temporary network problem or a FIRS-side issue. The specific reason is always shown on the invoice. Most cases clear on a retry; if the same reason keeps appearing, contact support with the invoice number.
About payment status
Separately from the statuses above, each invoice tracks whether it's been paid:
| Payment status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unpaid | No payment recorded yet. |
| Partially paid | Some of the balance has been paid. |
| Paid | Paid in full. |
Payment status changes independently of the compliance journey — recording a payment does not change whether the invoice is Cleared or Reported, and vice versa.