AWRA Help Center

Disputes live at /sales/disputes. Reach them from Sales → Credit Notes → Disputes, or from an invoice: its related menu carries Raise dispute, and an invoice under dispute shows a Disputed chip linking to it. A customer can also raise one from the customer portal. Each dispute gets its own number, starting DSP.

Raising A Dispute

1. Open the invoice the customer is disputing and choose Raise dispute. A draft or cancelled invoice cannot be disputed, and an invoice can have only one open dispute at a time — if one exists you are taken to it.
2. Choose the Reason: pricing or discount, quantity short or over-billed, damaged or faulty goods, wrong item delivered, goods or service not received, duplicate billing, tax charged incorrectly, service quality, or other.
3. Enter the amount in dispute (no more than the invoice total) and What the customer says.
4. Optionally tick the Lines in dispute; leave them all unticked when the whole invoice is in question.
5. Optionally Assign to a colleague and attach Evidence — up to ten files of 10 MB each: photos, PDFs, office files, CSV, text, or a saved email (.eml or .msg).

From the moment it is raised, dunning reminders for that invoice are paused. They resume on their own when the dispute is closed without a credit.

Working It

• Start review moves an open dispute to Under review and assigns it to you if nobody had it.
• Assign to on the dispute page hands it to someone else; they are told in the bell, and by email if that notice is switched on.
• Evidence takes more files at any time, and while the dispute is open a file can be removed again.
• Comments are internal notes by default. Tick Reply to the customer and the comment becomes a reply the customer reads on the dispute in the customer portal; unticked, only your team sees it.

The Disputes list filters by status — open or under review, resolved, rejected, withdrawn — and shows the customer, invoice, reason, amount, assignee and date raised.

Settling It

Under Decide on the dispute page there are two ways to finish:

• Resolve with a credit note — enter the Credit amount (up to the invoice’s balance) and a reason, add any Goods returned (below), and press Draft credit note. The credit note is drafted against the invoice. If no approval is needed it is issued and applied at once and the dispute closes as Resolved — credit issued. If it needs approval, the dispute stays under review and closes only when the credit note is approved; if the credit note is rejected, the dispute goes back to review.
• Close without credit — choose Rejected (the claim is not upheld) or Withdrawn (the customer dropped it) and say why. Reminders for the invoice resume. A dispute whose credit note is still waiting for approval cannot be closed this way until that note is rejected or withdrawn.

Credit Note Approval (Optional)

Approval is off until you switch it on, under Settings → Sales & POS → Sales Defaults: tick Credit notes must be approved before they are issued, and optionally enter Only when the credit is at least an amount, below which credits are issued straight away (0 sends every credit note for approval). It applies to every credit note, whether drafted from a dispute or from Credit Notes.

• A credit note waiting for approval posts nothing: no ledger entry, no returned stock and no eTIMS credit note until it is approved.
• Everyone holding the approve credit notes permission, except the author, is told in the bell (and by email if switched on). It appears in the approvals hub and on the credit note itself, with Approve and issue and Reject.
• The person who drafted it can never decide it. In the approvals hub they see Waiting for another approver instead of the buttons.
• The author is told when it is approved or rejected, with the reason.
• A pending credit note can be withdrawn with Withdraw on its page.

Goods Returned

When the customer sends goods back, list them under Goods returned on the credit note — from a dispute or on Create Credit Note. Enter only what physically came back: the item, the quantity, the warehouse and location it goes to, and Restock or Quarantine.

• Nothing moves until the credit note is issued. On issue, the quantity goes into the chosen bin and its cost comes back out of cost of sales.
• Restock makes it available for sale again. Quarantine places it on hold in the same bin, counted as yours but never offered for sale until it is released.
• The quantity cannot be more than the invoice line sold, and the location must belong to the warehouse chosen.
• A service item carries no stock and cannot be returned to a shelf. A serial-tracked item is booked back as a stock check-in so each serial is named, and left off the credit note.
• Once returned goods are back in stock, the credit note cannot be cancelled until a stock adjustment sends them out again.

Disputes From The Customer Portal

A customer signed in to the customer portal can press Dispute this invoice on any invoice you have issued them, choose what is wrong, describe the problem, optionally give the amount they dispute (left blank, the whole invoice), and attach up to five files as evidence.

• It lands in the same Disputes list, unassigned, and everyone who works disputes is told. Reminders for the invoice pause exactly as for one you raise.
• The customer follows it under Disputes in the portal, sees its status, and adds comments while it is open. A comment from them goes to the assignee, or to everyone who works disputes while it has none.
• They see their own comments, your replies marked Reply to the customer, and the files they sent. Internal notes and your own evidence stay on your side.

The Timeline

Both the dispute and its credit note show a Timeline: who raised, assigned, commented, attached evidence, drafted, approved or rejected, returned stock and closed, oldest first. A dispute’s timeline includes its credit note’s steps and the other way round. It is read from the audit log, so it cannot be edited.

Notices

Five notices, each with a bell copy and an email, switched on or off under Customer invoices & collections in notification settings: a dispute assigned to you, a customer raising a dispute from the portal, a customer replying in the portal, a credit note awaiting your approval, and your credit note approved or rejected.

Permissions

• View invoices — see the disputes list, a dispute and its evidence.
• Manage customer disputes — raise, assign, review, comment on, attach evidence to, credit and close disputes.
• Approve credit notes — approve or reject a credit note waiting for approval.

Disputes, evidence (including saved emails), comments and returned-goods lines are in the mobile app as well.

Common Mistakes

• Expecting reminders to restart while a credit note waits. The dispute is still open until the credit note is issued, so reminders stay paused.
• A credit larger than the balance. A credit note applies in full or not at all; one larger than what the invoice still owes is refused. Credit the amount you mean.
• Ticking Reply to the customer on an internal note. The customer reads it in the portal. Leave it unticked for anything meant only for your team.
• Listing goods that did not come back. Every returned-goods line puts stock on a shelf. Leave the quantity blank for lines that stayed with the customer.
• Approving your own credit note. You cannot; ask another approver, or switch approval off if a single person is meant to issue credits.

Related

• Credit Notes — issuing and applying credit notes outside a dispute.
• Customer Portal — where customers raise and follow disputes.
• Dunning Ladder — the reminders a dispute pauses.
• Credit notes — the feature overview.