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it has been half a year since your last update, could you please let us know if you are working on it yet?

FLORENCE PUA - if you only leave the invoices as draft or awaiting approval , when you run reports or run the balance sheet or the trial balance of the profit and loss accounts .... those invoices do not show. So you accounts would not be correct

My workaround is to add "DO NOT PAY" after the invoice number as that shows up in the report I run off.

Similarly, I add one of the following after the Supplier name "- DD/SO/CARD" to make sure those aren't paid manually.

Almost as important as the one where you can set a payment method that we don’t have….so on the bills to pay you can aeee what’s DD and what needs manual payment!

I agree with Chris! The workaround ideas are all very helpful but it's taking the heat away from Xero when this is a simple function that SHOULD be available in accounting software. Xero, you really need to listen to your users, they are the back bone of your company. Without users your software is useless!

Agreed Gemma!

And why are we all talking about workarounds? This isn't something odd, unusual or sorcery, it's a "in dispute" flag which should be in any basic accounts AP system, isn't it?!

Some great idea's on here for workarounds.

Personally, I am using the method of prefixing the invoice/reference number to QUERY or DO NOT PAY and then add notes. For me, it is more important that these invoices are not paid than whether they appear on reports or not. If any of the invoices are significant enough in value, I'll make an accrual for what I believe to be the correct amount so that it at least appears in a P&L report.

I like Sara and Lyall's way of working but let's be honest, this is a basic function that really ought to have been addressed by now.

Is anybody else imagining that Xero's developmemt team consists of maybe 2 or 3 people?

Sara's is a good way to handle the situation.

Another way is to create a credit note for the amount you are disputing. Send the credit note to the supplier as your claim. Allocate it to the invoice, then the amount that will be paid deliberately or accidentally will be the amount that you believe you owe.

When the supplier issues a credit note, adjust your credit note to match if necessary. If your claim is rejected, remove the credit note and pay the balance of the invoice.

Hi All,

We pay our invoices by scheduled payment date as they are generated in another system and transferred in. When they are in query I just change the payment date to Xmas day for instance so they never feature in the payment run until they are sorted and then I revert it back to a sensible date when the query is sorted. This was the invoices have the correct dates and are accounted for but don’t get paid.
No one listens. I started this thread years ago and Xero just change it and restart it multiple times to make it look less popular when the numbers get high.

Hi Chris :-) Frustrating, isn't it? As you, and all of us have said, it is a basic function, and Sage has had it for years. Xero, If you want to compete with Sage, you need to address this ASAP before you start losing custom! I know if this is not something that is addressed fairly quickly, I will be moving our custom to somewhere that can accommodate a basic requirement.

Hi Gemma, and everyone else, I think the answer to your question is no, no one listens, I commented over two years ago, and this thread must be older than that. It's such a basic function as we all say, but nothing happens - see the four admin responses, what a laugh. I've given up, so frustrating for something that has been included in accounting systems since the days when they were bespoke programs! FFS Xero, get on it, please!!!

As Debbie Jones has commented, we keep anything in dispute as a draft bill and then have to bring in an accrual for it so that it's included for reporting. Total faff when we should just be able to mark it as in dispute.

We recently paid an invoice that was in dispute by mistake, which forced us to find a workaround. Here are the methods we considered:

Keeping bills in draft or awaiting approval, but this prevents the amounts from showing in reports.
Using the planned date field, only completing it if the bill isn't under query.
Adding a comment in the reference field.
Currently, we use both the planned date and reference field methods, as relying solely on the planned date isn't robust enough. However, this approach requires editing the invoice to change the reference each time a condition is met, which is cumbersome and doesn't prevent the invoice from being paid.

I'm not a computer expert, but it seems a simple tick box to mark a bill as "not to be paid" along with a warning banner would suffice. This feature should be a high priority, given the interest from users, as evidenced by the votes on this post (and potentially others on the same topic, splitting the vote). The additional time wasted on workarounds by thousands of users for something seemingly straightforward is baffling.

For comparison, I found that in Sage, you can simply click "dispute" and select a reason. Voila.

If anyone else has other workarounds, please share them with the group as It looks like we'll need to find our own solution to this issue!!

Does anyone actually respond to these comments? This should be a basic function for accounting software.

Any update on this feature. We have a few people working in our accounts department. We can't rely on people remembering an invoice is in dispute with a supplier!!

Has there been any improvements to this feature as it would really benefit my company?

It would be useful if we could mark a bill as disputed/on hold so that it doesn't get added to a payment run and paid when it shouldn't have been. Not everyone using the software will know if a bill is on hold or not.

This is absolutely ridiculous; this is far more important than bills list views!! Yes there are work arounds but we shouldn't have to any other software even the old accredo had this function with the ability to add a reason why it is on hold.

Need a flag to show a bill has been disputed or in query so that it is not paid in error

@Stacey - I currently add a note in the reference part of the bill after entering the bill number so when looking at the Awaiting payment it shows up there alongside of the invoice/bill. I've taken to adding if they are Direct Debits or AP's also as part of the reference as it makes it easier for anyone looking at them. I even make a note if a copy of the bill is still to come and then just remove that once it comes as we need to account for those in our reports as well in some cases.
Not an ideal solution but would enable you to know which bill is in dispute and could have more details in the history about why. I've attached a sample of a DD and once it was sorted you could just remove the reference but still retain the history.