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'

Hi community, we acknowledge the strong feelings in this idea and why you need a feature to flag bills directly within Xero. We really appreciate all your feedback and the detailed explanations of how this would help streamline your accounts payable.
We are dedicated to providing a solution for this over the longer term, but this will take some time requiring changes that sit beneath the face of bills.
In lieu of a direct feature for this we wanted to highlight some of the options discussed by the community here:
- Add a note to the bill: A detailed note on the bill itself can serve as a clear internal reminder of the dispute.
- Utilise tracking categories: Creating a specific tracking category like "Disputed Bills" can help you filter and report on these items.
- Adjust the due date: Temporarily extending the due date can prevent accidental payment while the dispute is being resolved.
- Update the reference to add a notation such as [reference number] - Do not pay
- Adjust the planned date to be very far out in the future
We know these options won't fit all needs here, and we are invested in continuing to develop Purchase and more specifically bills in Xero to suit your needs.
We'll continue to provide updates with any progress that steps closer to enabling you to flag bills that are in dispute in Xero. Thank you for continuing to engage and share insights through this idea.
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Farzana Mughal commented
This is very important so as we don't pay what shouldn't be or if they are duplicated invoices with different invoice numbers for which we await a credit note. By flagging we can cross reference.
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Annette Ainsworth commented
If a bill could be shown in red as on hold/inquery that would be very helpful. I hope you can do something for this very soon.
Thanks
Annette
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John Anibaldi commented
Hi Hannah,
if Xero developers could just add a "contacts group" column to the bills to pay awaiting payment list, then we users could create our own ON-HOLD or IN-DISPUTE contact groups and assign contacts as required. Then we could filter out these groups from the awaiting payment list prior to proceeding to batch. (refer attached mock up). I know this would mean filtering out all payments to a contact rather than just a single invoice, but I would have thought that it's a relatively quick solution to implement. Also, the byproduct is we can then create batches by different supplier groups, which would be handy. cheers -
yubraj sah commented
Is there any update on this Hannah? This would be a great feature to have
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Vivien Knight commented
I would also like to be able to change an approved bill back to awaiting approval. But let's get this small issue of putting an invoice on hold resolved?
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Mariete Santos commented
The ability to change a Approved Bill back to Awaiting Approval would help as well please.
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Arnis Veisbergs commented
Hannah,
Thanks for the update. Frankly it's just not good enough!
Are we going to wait for another year until the next update?
This is a basic function that should have been available from day 1. -
Julie Sutton commented
Chris - the same across all the main suggestions of what most of us consider "fundamental" basic requirements (this, supplier statements, ability to "pay" credit notes, reports showing debtor days to name bit a few)
These boards are basically ignored by Xero or a cursory response once in a while as "not on the road map" - pointless! And beyond frustrating... to be honest it is just laughable
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Chris Curlett commented
Frankly ... I feel with this number of supporters XERO treats users with contempt. This "suggestion site" is a sop to users and from ZERO's possition is merely an unwanted necessity!
Come on Xero - prove me wrong!
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Trevor Jones commented
PLEASE ADD THIS TO BILLS AND INVOICES. A simple "check box" / "flag" will suffice so it is easily identified and can be used in "filters" when looing for items to be paid.
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Pete Eastwood commented
It does rather feel like Xero have been seduced by the sexiness of the app and on the fly usability, at the expense of developing core features which seems to have ground almost to a stop.
Even more odd when their own instigated suggestions forum here highlights this as a long standing top priority for customers.
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Karen Coppen commented
Like others, I can't believe this isn't a function available. A really necessary feature when paying suppliers at end of month be be able to see any bills that are in dispute/waiting a credit so that they do not get paid accidentally. I run an aged payables detail report to pay suppliers and it surely must be fairly straight forward to develop a column showing a bill on STOP .
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Greer Williams commented
The ability to put a flag or star next to a bill within the 'Bills to Pay' list would be so helpful!!
My ideal time for use would be when I'm awaiting a credit note to come in for the invoice - the bill needs to be entered, but I don't want to pay it when it becomes due as I'm waiting for the credit note to arrive. If the credit note isn't here when the bills is due, then it's time for me to follow up with the supplier!
As so many others have said - why isn't this feature already here!? A simple 'flag this invoice' button with an optional notes section is all that's required (in my opinion, anyway). Given the complexity of Xero I feel like this addition would not be that hard... but I don't do software development so what would I know 😂🤷♀️
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Helen Wilkins commented
Does anyone know how to unfollow this idea? I am fed up of all the emails when It doesn't look like Xero will ever respond
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Luke Abbott commented
Unfortunately Yazz, there clearly is no threshold. It is becoming abundantly clear to all users of this forum that Xero have no intention of listening to what their customers want. They develop the "beautiful" things they fancy developing. Why else are there a number of items marked as "working on it" or "under review" that simply only have 4 or 5 votes to them, whilst this one (and countless others) have 100s!
The best part about this whole forum is the daily emails I get from it on all the topics I've voted on, reminding me that so many others are in the same boat, and that if I finally give up waiting for Xero to respond there are hundreds of others who might like to join me in obtaining a group discount from Sage or Quickbooks 😂
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Yazz Bhatti commented
I would like to know the threshold Xero has for votes before an idea is accepted as something they are willing to even consider working on.
There are countless things that Xero could do better, instead they're focussed on beautification projects that do nothing but break the consistency of the software.
Can someone from Xero support answer this simple question?
What is the threshold of votes before Xero deems an idea or feature request as something to be considered?
Do we have to badger your CEO Sukhinder Cassidy's office for a response?
Is your CEO even aware that there are glaring holes in basic functionality that your software should have but doesn't and that can't be solved with a third party plugin?
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Liz Timms commented
This is another function I am surprised is not available in Xero.
I would like to understand the reason behind Xero not planning to develop it at this time, it would be helpful if they could provide more information.
It is important to have all purchase invoices reflected in the accounts from a finanacial perspecitive, but the ability to inadvertently pay a disputed invoice is concerning.
Other accounts packages I use hmanage to handle this. Come on Xero - listen to your users
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Louise Hutton commented
I cannot believe this feature has not already been developed!
I would be interested to see how the voting buttons above have been used - I went for critical.
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Emma Rosenblatt (Accounts) commented
Please update us on the status. It has been a year...
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Yubi Sah commented
Kelly I think is an important feature to have and quite surprised with how Xero is trying to ignore one of the highest-voted thread