Answer portal messages, disputes and promises

Everything portal people hand in lands in one list, Portal → Requests, and on Today. Messages sit in a thread on the record they are about, so the whole conversation about an invoice or an order stays together.

Before you start

• You need the Customer access right.
• To send a message, a dispute or a promise, the person needs the Requester role (messages) or the Payer role (disputes and promises).

Steps

What portal people can send

1. A message: under Messages on an invoice, a project, an order, a purchase order or a request for quotation, they write in Write a message and select Send.
2. A dispute: on an invoice, Dispute this invoice, with a Reason, the amount in dispute (empty means all of it) and a Note, then Send the dispute.
3. A promise: on an invoice, Promise a payment date, with the day under I will pay on and the amount (empty means all of it), then Send the promise.

Answer and close them (your team)

1. Open Portal → Requests. The Waiting tab lists what nobody has handled yet; the other tabs filter by kind (Dispute, Promise to pay, Message, Delivery note, Document).
2. Select a line to open the record or its thread.
3. In the thread, type in Your reply and select Send. The person reads it under Messages on that record, marked as from your team.
4. Back in Requests, type a Note (optional) and select Handled. The line moves to the Handled tab with your name and note.

From Today

1. The same requests show on Today, for example "… disputes invoice …" or "Message from … about …".
2. Select Handled there to close one in one click.

Good to know

• Collections gets its copy. When Collections is on, a promise goes on the customer's case and holds the reminders; a dispute goes there too when your plan has the full Collections app. The line then says also in the partner app.
• The Inbox gets messages. When the Inbox is on, a portal message also becomes an Inbox conversation on the Portal channel, for that company and record. A reply written in the Inbox goes back to the record's thread in the portal. The message stays in Requests too. See answer portal messages in the Inbox.
• One open dispute per invoice. A second one is refused until you have handled the first.
• A promised day must fall between today and 90 days on.
• Marking handled sends nothing to the person. Answer them in the thread first if they expect a reply.
• Text only. Messages carry no files; suppliers send documents through Documents asked of you (see work with suppliers).
• A customer's or supplier's page in your apps shows the portal in its Linked block: the people, the last sign-in and the requests waiting.