Sales invoices - Flag an invoice as 'in dispute / query'
Ability to flag an invoice when it’s in dispute or query.
Purpose: To ensure users do not pay an invoice when it is currently 'under query/dispute' in error.

We appreciate all the feedback received through this idea, everyone. Taking on board all your comments there are two sides of the fence when looking at flagging an invoice as 'in dispute' - Looking at the ability to flag a bill/supplier invoice as 'in dispute', versus the ability to flag a customer invoice as 'in dispute'.
It'd be good to get understanding of the interest in each individually so we've started a new idea for bills that you can add your support for.
But to give clarity, currently we do not have plans for developing a flag for bills, or sales invoices.
For those looking for this feature in sales invoice although not specific to each invoice, you may be able to make use of Credit Limits - Find out more and explore how to set up a limit for your customers through Xero Central.
We'll continue to track the interest for each of these areas moving forward and communicate any change for these ideas on each respectively. Thanks
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jim Alexander commented
Hey!
I'm the developer/director of a tool called InBill.
What you're asking for here is one of the many features of the software; I'd love to hear more about your requirements and give you a demo.
Hope to hear from you soon.
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Heather Heward commented
I agree with Sara and with all the other comments.
Can I ask why, on every issue I have with Xero, the feedback from Xero is 'we have no plans to do this'...?
Disputed invoices/more refined access levels for staff/holiday management starting at financial year not calendar year/etc are essential areas in any accountancy software. If this lack of response continues I am seriously thinking of taking my business elsewhere.....
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Sara Martin commented
as far as putting bills in query so they don't get paid in error this is vital. i agree with everyone else that tarting up the way it looks is irrelevant and a complete waste of time when critical functionality is missing.
you keep splitting these threads and then putting them back together again....is this a way of dividing the votes so you don't have to deal with the fact that everyone wants this.......
why are there still no plans to fix this when so many have issue with it. please answer as to how many votes it needs to be considered or are we actually wasting our time on this? -
Lucy Barker commented
Completely agree with the comments below - this is a basic vital function that should be included urgently. It seems crazy that you can't put invoices or Bills on hold!
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Farida Rodrigues commented
Every accounting basic functionality that should have been included from the beginning it is critical to allow the costs to appear in the accounts, but there be no risk of paying the bill by mistake which would remove all leverage. Not having the function to put the disputed invoice on hold has cost us lot as the disputed invoice gets picked up for payment in error. So, I am fully in support of this feature for Bills, and hope it gets put into the planned improvements sooner than later.
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Rachel Rook commented
Basic functionality that should have been included from the beginning, along with the ability to view supplier totals when making batch payments to ensure the correct amount is paid at EOM. HURRY UP and get the basics right!
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Peter Miles commented
I am not interested in flagging sales invoices in dispute, this can easily be done in the comments/notes, and should be well known by the person/dept for Credit Control.
However, for bills it is critical to allow the costs to appear in the accounts, but there be no risk of paying the bill by mistake which would remove all leverage.
So i am fully in support of tis feature for Bills, and hope it gets put into the planned improvements. -
Jan Campbell commented
There are comments on this request almost daily Xero - Is anyone looking into this request? How abut a response?
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kirsty bolderson commented
this is needed asap
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Accounts Giles commented
Ability to flag an account to categories such as 'on hold' 'pay on order' 'direct debit' 'credit account' 'do not use' with the possibility for users to add their own.
For us it would be useful to add one to say 'project open' and have personalised ones for specific contracts so that we know what stages of a job clients are on and what suppliers to use when.
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Barbara Fusco commented
Hi,
Yes please, this is much needed! And also the possibility to exclude the bill from the aged payables report (so a filter would be needed there too!).
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Tisha Barnes commented
This is an essential function. We need to be able to keep track of bills which are in dispute. Not having this facility means that we are relying on other systems to keep track of this which defeats the object!!
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Emma (Accounts) Rosenblatt commented
Credit limits does not solve this idea. And the idea of flagging a bill or invoice in dispute are them same concepts, just for bills and invoices. Invoices may need to be put in dispute because the customer has an issue and the invoice may be revised or have a price negotiation of some sort. And bills require a the ability to be flagged as 'in dispute' because we have an issue with what we have been billed for. Essentially the exact same idea but for bills and invoices.
Some may not use the feature, but there are many votes and many comments that indicated a large amount of businesses would indeed see the benefit of having this idea met with a solution.
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LEEAN MILLARD commented
We have other staff in accounts payable now. Not being able to flag a payable invoice is just - waiting for it to be paid by said other staff, who are unaware of which & why the invoices are disputed.
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Gillian Wright commented
Sage allows you to do this and put notes, it really is one that I need at the moment I have to have a seperate spreadsheet for my disputed invoices - not great for payment runs!
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Jenece Robinson commented
I have been waiting for years for this feature. Come On Xero........ Do Better
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Aaron Brown commented
As a major accounting package, I'm very surprised Xero doesn't have this feature - really needs to be addressed ASAP
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Deanna Milosev commented
We work with a lot of customers building new homes and when this happens we sometimes have to keep changing dates to keep the Invoice on hold and it doesn't come up in our overdue reports. If we could put the inv on hold it would be so much easier.
Would be good to be able to take progress payments and percentage of invoice without generating multiple invoice for the same job. -
Trevor Rawlinson commented
I echo everyone's comments and want to see this as a function on Xero.
I oversee Sales invoicing for our organisation and not being able to clearly flag an invoice as being in dispute/on hold is extremely frustrating.
Our reminders are sent out to all customers with outstanding invoices (unless something has changed you either have to have reminders on for all customers or no customers at all). This means customers who dispute an invoice at the early stage get reminders to pay. This would be OK if these reminders clearly stated on them that the invoice is in dispute/on hold, but they do not.
Also once a payment deadline is missed for a disputed/on hold invoice the amount owing gets added to the Overdue Invoices on the dashboard. This in itself in not necessarily an issue but, like with the aged receivables report, there no way of seeing clearly how much is a result of disputed invoices and the reasons. As already mentioned doing this in notes is just not viable and very time consuming having to go into each individual invoice to see if its status.
It would be a simple fix and I just don't understand Xero's resistance to adding this feature. The whole point of the ideas forum is surely to listen to user feedback and use it to improve the functionality of the software?
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Patricia Rynne commented
Xero is supposed to be an all-in-one package for our clients but ends up requiring additional software or running spreadsheets to keep on top of things like this. Adding this as a note on an invoice or bill isn't helpful if we are trying to keep track of them.