A dispute means you and the customer disagree about the bill. While that is open, PayBlah must not keep pressing them in your name. The stop applies to that invoice’s Workflow and to typed messages to that customer. It is not a collection step and it never sends a legal threat.
What an open dispute actually stops
- Staff Log dispute, portal I dispute this, or Activity Disputed sets the invoice to Disputed.
- The invoice line reads “Chasing is stopped — this invoice is disputed.” Activity usually badges the card Chasing stopped.
- Workflow reminders for that invoice are held (EXC-004). They do not “skip ahead” to Firm or Final.
- A typed send to that customer — Activity → Replies → Send reply, or the customer record Messages → Send Message — is refused: “Nothing sent — a dispute is open on this account. Resolve the dispute before messaging.” The typed-send path is not a way around the stop.
- There is no Pause / Resume button on a disputed invoice. Pressing pause is refused with “[invoice] is disputed — chasing is already stopped.”
The typed-send hold is for the whole customer if any of their invoices is Disputed or any dispute row is still open. Workflow hold is per invoice: other invoices for the same customer can still sit on their own path unless another gate applies (for example an untriaged inbound reply).
Portal raises are real stops
When the customer uses I dispute this (or writes clear dispute language) and presses Send message, PayBlah opens a dispute and stops reminders on the unpaid invoices that link covers. Confirmation is Dispute recorded. You do not re-raise it for the stop to count.
That is different from Ask them to stop chasing / Stop messages, which only files a request. Chasing continues on a stop request until someone Accepts or Declines it in Activity. Carrier SMS STOP is a third path (channel mute) and is not this article.
When follow-up may start again
Only a human close decides that, using the live radios:
- Customer Was Wrong — follow-up may resume on that invoice. “Customer” means the business on the bill (Customers), not a consumer-debt label. The button was not renamed away from this wording.
- Customer Was Right — follow-up stays off. Amend or cancel the invoice if the amount is wrong.
- Settled — follow-up stays off until you record a settlement. The agreed amount is not written on the close.
Recording an applied Record Settlement also stops chasing and marks the invoice Settled (not Paid). That is a money agreement, not a collected-in-full claim.
Firm and Final still need a person
If follow-up resumes and a later Workflow step is Firm or Final, that message waits in Activity → Approvals for Approve & send or Don't send. Closing a dispute never auto-approves, never auto-threatens, and never skips that gate. Wording that names court, enforcement or credit damage is held the same way.
Expected result
- Disputed invoice: no automated reminder, no typed send, badge Disputed / Chasing stopped.
- After Customer Was Wrong: chasing may run again on that invoice only; Firm / Final still queue.
- After Customer Was Right or dispute Settled: invoice is on the book, not automatically chased.
If something looks wrong
- Activity badge Still chasing on an open dispute — the invoice is not in Disputed. Open the invoice, do not keep sending, and tell Support if the raise did not stick.
- You need to write to the customer while a dispute is open — PayBlah will refuse the send. Use a channel outside this product, or close the dispute first if the contest is genuinely over.
- Do not treat a portal stop request, an untriaged reply, or a promise as the same thing as a dispute. Each has its own Activity panel and its own stop rules.