A disputed invoice is an invoice that a customer has formally questioned and is withholding payment on, wholly or in part. Typical causes are a price that differs from the purchase order, a short or damaged delivery, goods never received, duplicate billing, missing references or tax errors. Many disputes surface when the buyer's three-way matching of invoice, order and goods receipt fails.
For the seller, a dispute stops the clock on collection. Credit control teams log each dispute with a reason code, pass it to the sales or logistics staff able to resolve it, and track it separately from ordinary overdue accounts receivable. The outcome is payment in full, a corrected invoice, or a reduction through credit note processing. Disputes also matter to lenders: under receivables factoring and invoice discounting, a disputed invoice usually becomes ineligible for funding and may be charged back to the seller.