Bills - Flag a Bill as 'in dispute / query'
Ability to flag individual bills as in dispute
Purpose | To enable review and ensure the business does not make payment for a bill when it's currently 'under query'

We appreciate wanting to see more rapid movement, everyone. Having done a lot of exploration into this area our team have a good handle on the needs to solve this, however we want to be honest that development will be some time away with the team currently focused on improving bills list views and updating add/edit bill pages. For the time being to keep you up to date we're going to move this idea back to Submitted until more active work takes place for this.
I can assure you this idea is the best place to be leaving feedback for this feature, and Xero Product Ideas as a whole is the best place to be sharing where you'd like to see change across Xero products. As a community team we're advocating on your behalf constantly to see where ideas can be worked on, and this site is where our product teams regularly come to better understand and see where they can develop solutions for our customers alongside other priorities they're balancing. You'll see in many places we're beginning to see how we can get our community members more involved in research and testing for ideas early on in the development process.
As soon as there is more news around the teams work in this space we will be back to share this with you all, here.
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Kathy Skinner commented
@ John - I've taken to putting either (DD) or (AP) next to the Invoice number so it shows up after a bill is entered and also if I do a batch payment I can ignore those ones. It also means if someone else is viewing unpaid bills they can see as well any DD or AP ones straight off.
Maybe that will help on the meantime. I may also put other comments there e.g "hold payment" then just add a note in the history as to why it's on hold. -
John Sinclair commented
Would be really useful.
Also, would be useful if invoices collected by Direct Debit could be flagged in some way to save them being accidentally included in a bank payment run. -
Louise Parrish commented
To be able to flag and add a note (for reminder purposes, eg need to query...) a purchase invoice sitting in drafts or awaiting payment, would be very useful. For comparison, Dext prepare allows you to do this.
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Ann Dalgleish commented
Currently we amend the invoice number to DO NOT PAY, although this is not a failsafe method. Before now, we have been sent a duplicate invoice to chase payment which has been put on Xero, but then the duplicate invoice number is not picked up.
It would be really helpful to have a flag for bills on hold. -
Greg Weedon commented
This would be an awesome feature. We currently are copying POs to draft bills, once we receive the invoice from the supplier we attach it and move it to awaiting approval, once we physically receive the order and verify the packing slip we move it to approved ready to pay. This has always been a headache.
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Sara Martin commented
Dear Xero,
why is this still under review....it has had over a 1000 votes on this version (you've split/ merged my previous versions of this request) how many votes does it need before you will actually action it with any speed.
Under review does not pacify anyone, pleaseget on with it.
and while you are at it bin 'new invoicing' it looks awful and i won't use it until i can't not -
Yubi Sah commented
Hi Admin,
When can we expect this feature? The thread started in 2022 and is one of the highest-voted ideas. Xero really need to deliver on what customer wants rather than just making cosmetics changes like changing how the invoicing looks and upsetting customers.
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Michelle Priest commented
Approved bills cannot be reverted to draft but sometimes there will be an approved bill waiting for a credit note or it is to be paid by Direct Debit.
Notes can be added or the reference changed to include the message DO NOT PAY but, as it is not clear to someone in a hurry, these bills can accidentally be scheduled for payment in a batch and paid.
If there was a way to mark an approved bill as DO NOT PAY to prevent them being scheduled for payment it would be very helpful. -
Shipa Ahmed commented
Have option to mark supplier invoice as disputed - the invoices need to posted, so its inlcuded in the account but if you dont want to pay the invoice until a query is resolved, there should be option to mark it as DISPUTED/DONT PAY for companies who have different people doing different roles.
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Liz Dark commented
We process our invoices through Hubdoc which then come through to Xero. Sometimes, an invoice has been processed to be paid, but then a product is damaged and we wait for a credit note to be issued. We would like it so we can mark some how, that invoice "not to be paid as waiting on a credit to come through"
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Liz Dark commented
Ability to mark invoices that are waiting on a credit "do not pay"
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Chris Curlett commented
XERO 968 users need this and 12 YEARS of inaction is unacceptable.
Perhaps a new mantra would be better ...
"XERO ignores user's needs" would be more appropriate
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Julia Bastin commented
@Bianca Davitt - 12 YEARS for a basic accounting function!!!! WTF. Xero really is the worst bookkeeping software I have ever used.
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Bianca Davitt commented
@Chris Curlett - unfortunately it's not 7 months..... I have been voting for this feature for the last 12 years. They deleted the old version of the forum with the old thread on it. So I would not hold your breath.
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Chris Curlett commented
From November 2023 to June 2024 (7 Months) should be enough time to implement something as simple as this when it is requested by so many. What is the hold up.
This is far more important than a new Invoice system which was not requested by users and there are so many complaints about.
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Chris Curlett commented
Come on XERO, 968 people wanting this is enough of a reason to expedite its implementation!
Users want/need this - the community would prefer to see some action rather than stalling double talk! XERO actions speak louder than platitudes!
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Kelly Nour commented
As Xero does not have the standard functionality of a document (invoice) date and document posting date, we have to enter a supplier invoice in the same month as we receive it to capture the cost correctly, even if the is a dispute on the invoice. Having the ability to flag it as "In dispute" eliminates the possibility of it being paid by mistake
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Philip Hankers commented
Changing the Sales invoicing by just moving functionality around and in the process make the resulting layout less user friendly compulsory is clearly more important to Xero than adding the "on hold" bill functionality.
Shame on Xero's "development" priorities.
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Chris Curlett commented
COME ON XERO DO SOMETHING USERS NEED TO HAVE DONE.
Less condescending emails and more improvements would make a change.
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Joel Mansford commented
Coming round to 6months and still no sign of this...
As a software developer I can't understand why this is taking so long?