Risk management / Disputes / Disputes reconciliation

Disputes reconciliation

Last updated: 14th July 2022

You have two options for reporting on the financial implications of disputes and reconciling chargebacks with your payments:

Disputes report via the Dashboard. This gives you a record of all dispute-related events.
Financial actions report via the Dashboard or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). This shows all payments, fees, refunds, and disputes events that impact your account balance.

In both reports, you'll find our dispute indicator codes, which help you match up the financial activity on your account with the progress of dispute cases.

The best way to track the progress of a dispute case is to use the payment ID (prefixed with pay_) of the payment to which the dispute applies. The payment ID stays the same across the disputes report, financial actions report, and webhooks.

Sometimes, you may receive more than one dispute against the same payment. These will show as two separate ADJM records for the same payment ID, with a different time for each.

Differences between disputes and financial actions reports

You will see different data for the same dispute case depending on which report you use. The disputes report records all dispute-related status changes. The financial actions report only records actions that have a financial impact on your account balance.

For example, if you lose a dispute, this will be reported in the disputes report with an RPDL indicator. But, because the disputed amount was already taken from your account when the dispute was first raised (ADJM), this will not be reported in the financial actions report.

Creating a disputes report

To generate a disputes report, and view any you've previously created, log in to the Dashboard and go to Reports. Select New report to create a new disputes report.

These reports list all of the disputes that occurred during the selected period, with various columns providing more information about each event.

Disputes report example

Here’s a simplified example of what two separate dispute cases might look like in your disputes report if you sort the data by payment ID.

Learn what the dispute indicator codes mean below.

Dispute ID	Dispute indicator code	Payment ID
`id_1`	`ADJM`	`pay_code_a`
`id_2`	`RPDR`	`pay_code_a`
`id_3`	`RPDW`	`pay_code_a`
...	...	...
`id_4`	`ADJM`	`pay_code_b`
`id_5`	`RPDR`	`pay_code_b`

So for the first payment ID (pay_code_a), you can see the dispute case associated with it has been won (RPDW).

For the second (pay_code_b), the dispute associated with it is currently in progress (RPDR) – the scheme is now reviewing the evidence you submitted.

Creating a financial actions report

You can generate a financial report via the Dashboard, or access them via SFTP. These reports record any charge or credit to your account, including those related to disputes.

Dashboard. Log in to the Dashboard and go to Settlements. Select a settlement from the list to open the settlement details page. In the Transactions breakdown section, select Download CSV to download a report of financial actions by payout ID. This will give you a breakdown of transactions for that particular settlement.

SFTP. To set up access to your financial actions reports via SFTP, contact your Customer Success Manager. We will set it up for you, providing you with an SFTP server, port, username and private key to access your reports.

As with the disputes reports, look up the payment ID of the disputed payment you’re interested in to find out more about it.

Financial actions report example

Here's a simplified example of two separate payments in a report, one of which has a dispute raised against it.

The action type column tells you what action was taken (where there are duplicates, it means there were multiple financial implications caused by that same action), and the breakdown type tells you more about the financial implication.

Learn what the dispute indicator codes mean below.

Action ID	Action type	Payment ID	Breakdown type
`code_1`	Authorization	`pay_code_x`	Scheme fee
`code_2`	Capture	`pay_code_x`	Captured
...	...	...	...
`code_3`	Authorization	`pay_code_y`	Scheme fee
`code_4`	Capture	`pay_code_y`	Captured
`code_4`	Capture	`pay_code_y`	Scheme fee
`code_5`	Chargeback	`pay_code_y`	Chargeback (`ADJM`)
`code_5`	Chargeback	`pay_code_y`	Scheme fee

Looking at the action type and breakdown type columns for the second payment ID (pay_code_y), you can see a dispute has been raised against it.

The ‘Chargeback’ action type appears twice because the financial actions report covers any action that has a financial impact on your account. So, in this case, first the disputed amount was debited from your account, and then you were charged a scheme fee for that same dispute.

Dispute indicator codes

The table below lists the dispute indicator codes you’ll see in your reports. Each code is associated with a different dispute status, allowing you to track the progress of live disputes as the cases progress.

Financial actions reports don't show all the codes below. Take a look at our chargeback breakdown types table to see which indicator codes you'll see in your financial actions reports.

If you want to be notified every time a dispute’s status updates, you can subscribe to the associated webhook.

Indicator code	API status	Description	Webhook
`RTVL`	Our API does not currently return retrieval requests.	You’ve received a request for more information (also known as a retrieval request). A dispute may be raised if you do not respond.	`request_for_information_received`
`ADJM`	`evidence_required`	You’ve received a dispute and you need to submit evidence if you want to defend against it.	`dispute_evidence_required`
`AUTO`	`resolved`	You've already refunded the customer, so we automatically submitted the relevant evidence and resolved the dispute for you.	`dispute_resolved`
`CBRV`	`canceled`	The issuer has canceled the dispute. You have been refunded the disputed amount.	`dispute_canceled`
`RPDR`	`evidence_under_review`	You’ve submitted your evidence and the issuer is now reviewing it. You have been charged a dispute fee.	`dispute_evidence_submitted`
`RPDW`	`won`	You have won the dispute. You have been refunded the disputed amount.	`dispute_won`
`RPDL`	`lost`	You have lost the dispute. You have been charged a dispute fee, if applicable.	`dispute_lost`
`ARBR`	`arbitration_under_review`	You have escalated your case to arbitration with the issuer and/or scheme.	`dispute_arbitration_sent_to_scheme`
`ARBW`	`arbitration_won`	The scheme has decided the case in your favour. You have been refunded the disputed amount.	`dispute_arbitration_won`
`ARBL`	`arbitration_lost`	The scheme has decided the case in the issuer’s favour. You have been charged an arbitration fee.	`dispute_arbitration_lost`