Respond to a payment dispute

What happens when a customer disputes a card payment taken through Nova Payments, how to send your evidence before the deadline, and what a won or lost dispute does to the invoice and your deposits.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Nova Payments under Sales & Billing. The page address is /settings/org/billing/payments. Disputes are on the Overview tab, which appears once payments are launched: one waiting for your answer is listed under Open items, and Disputes in the Open items heading opens the full list in a side panel at /settings/org/billing/payments/secure-page/disputes.

A dispute (a chargeback) is a customer asking their card company to reverse a payment. The card company holds the money straight away and gives you a deadline to answer. If nobody answers, it decides against you.

Before you start

• Seeing disputes needs permission to view disputes. Sending evidence needs permission to manage disputes. Without them the buttons are hidden or greyed out.
• Nova emails the people who manage Nova Payments, and anyone allowed to handle disputes, as soon as a dispute opens. The message is titled Payment disputed with the amount, says in plain words why the customer disputed it, and gives the deadline. Its button opens the Nova Payments page with the Disputes panel already open, so you can start at step 3.
• Gather what proves the work was done and agreed: the approved quote, the invoice, photos of the finished work, the customer's messages, a signed agreement or delivery record.

Steps

1. On the Overview tab of the Nova Payments page, read the item under Open items titled A customer disputed a charge. It shows the amount, when the response is due and the reason. Open the invoice and See the customer take you to the records; See dispute details opens the Finance & Ops page.
2. Press Respond to the dispute on that item, or Disputes in the Open items heading. A side panel headed Disputes opens on the page. It lists every dispute with its amount, reason, status and deadline.
3. Select the dispute. The panel asks what happened and lets you upload your evidence and add a short explanation. Keep it factual: what was agreed, what was delivered, and when.
4. Submit before the deadline. Once sent, the dispute's status reads Under review and there is nothing more to do until the card company decides.
5. Close the panel, or press the browser's Back button. The page refreshes its status on its own.

What you see

• Once the deadline is three days away or less and you have not sent evidence, Nova sends one reminder, titled with the days left: for example Dispute evidence is due in 3 days, Dispute evidence is due in 1 day, or Dispute evidence is due today. If the card company moves the deadline, you get a new reminder for the new date.
• While a dispute is open, the payment cannot be refunded. The refund page refuses with "This payment is being disputed. Wait for the dispute to close before refunding." A disputed booking deposit stays blocked until the dispute closes.
• If you win, Nova sends a message titled Dispute resolved in your favour; the money comes back in a later deposit.
• If you lose, Nova sends a message titled Dispute closed. The invoice is owing again for that amount, with a payment line marked "Chargeback lost" against it, and the card company's dispute fee is taken out of a later deposit. On the Bank Deposits page, What is in it shows it under Disputes. See See when a bank deposit arrives.
• If you keep your books in Nova, the lost dispute's fee is booked once as an expense to Bank & Processing Fees, taken from Undeposited Funds like the card payments themselves, so your profit and loss shows what the chargeback cost.
• The dispute fee is listed with your processing rate on the Nova Payments page: point at the info icon beside the rate to see it.
• Sales & Billing, then Collections (the Finance & Ops page) keeps every dispute under Recent disputes with a status of Needs response, Under review, Won, Lost or Closed.

If something looks different

• Respond to the dispute and Disputes are missing: your role cannot view disputes, or payments are not launched yet. See Set up Nova Payments.
• The email's button opens a panel that says "You don't have access to this page.": your role cannot view disputes. Ask an owner or admin.
• The panel says "This is taking longer than usual." or "This secure page couldn't load.": press Try again. If it keeps failing, close the panel, choose Refresh status in the Actions menu and open it again. See Check on Nova Payments after launch.
• A dispute went to Lost without you ever seeing it: the deadline passed with no answer. Check who gets Nova's payment emails so the next one reaches someone who can act. See Emails Stripe sends about Nova Payments.
• The customer says they did not mean to dispute it: they must withdraw it with their card company. Until the card company closes it, the money stays held and the invoice cannot be refunded.

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