Coupa invoice disputed. Here's how to fix it.
If a customer says your Coupa invoice was rejected, it's almost always sitting in Disputed. Here's what that means, why it happens, and which fixes are yours and which are your customer's.
The work, end to end.
Find the reason
Void or correct
Back to approval
Follow up with AP
The PO price is wrong, not the invoice.
Only the customer can change the PO. Ask them before correcting.
Coupa says disputed, not rejected.
The Coupa Supplier Portal has no Rejected status. When an invoice is sent back to you, it moves to Disputed: your customer disagrees with something on it, needs clarification, or found an error.
A dispute comes from one of two places. Coupa raises it automatically when the invoice breaks one of your customer's tolerance rules, or an approver raises it by hand and writes the reason. Open the invoice's history to see which: automatic disputes are marked as the auto dispute process, manual ones show the person's name.
Customers can also add their own statuses, like a price mismatch hold, so the labels you see may differ from customer to customer.
What each status means.
Draft
Created but not sent. You can still edit or delete it.
Pending Approval
Your customer is reviewing it. You can't edit or delete it while it's here.
Approved
Accepted for payment.
Processing
With the customer's accounts payable team and should be paid soon.
Disputed
Sent back to you with a reason. This is what most people mean by rejected.
Voided
Cancelled. Nothing on it will be paid.
Why Coupa invoices get disputed.
Price or quantity over tolerance
The unit price or quantity is further from the PO than your customer allows.
Total over the PO
The invoice would bill more than is left on the purchase order.
Extra charges
Shipping, handling or miscellaneous charges your customer's rules don't accept.
Tax doesn't match
Line or total tax differs from what your customer's tax setup expects.
Currency or date
The invoice currency differs from the PO, or the invoice date is backdated too far.
Attachment or PO reference
The required backup is missing or unreadable, or the PO number is missing or wrong.
How to resolve a disputed invoice.
Find the reason
In the Invoices tab, set the view to Disputed. The reason shows in the list, and the invoice history shows who raised it.
Void it if it shouldn't exist
If the invoice was a duplicate or has already been paid, void it.
Correct it if the details were wrong
Use Correct Invoice to fix it in place. For a standard invoice the number stays the same, and the corrected invoice goes back through your customer's approvals.
Ask your customer if the PO is wrong
Some fields, often the price, can be locked on a correction. If the PO itself is wrong, your customer has to change it before your invoice can match.
What only your customer can fix.
A wrong PO
Price, quantity or balance on the purchase order. You can't change it from your side.
An invoice stuck in Pending Approval
It's in their approval chain. Comment on the invoice and ask the buyer or AP contact to move it.
Tolerance holds
Only your customer can review an invoice against their own rules and release it.
Or hand the portal to us.
Checking portals, reading dispute reasons and chasing accounts payable teams is a big part of billing work. Zaffre's billing specialist does it every day for the suppliers we work with, inside their own portal logins, and brings the calls that are theirs to make back to them.
Common questions.
Does Coupa reject invoices?
Not by that name. Coupa sends an invoice back as Disputed. Some customers add their own hold statuses, but the supplier portal itself uses Disputed.
Can I edit an invoice that's pending approval?
No. Once it's submitted you can't change it. Comment on the invoice and ask your customer to dispute or void it so you can correct it.
Does a corrected invoice keep the same number?
For a standard invoice, yes. Country-compliant e-invoices, used in parts of Europe and Latin America, work differently: you cancel or adjust with a credit note, and the corrected invoice needs a new number.
Can I reuse the number of a voided invoice?
Coupa only documents reuse when your customer deletes the invoice. After a void, use a new number or a suffix, or check with your customer first.
How do I issue a credit in Coupa?
Create a credit note and enter a negative quantity on the line you're crediting.