Accounting and dispute management
can provide great insight into customers’
purchasing behavior. Disputes can explain how businesses are seeing revenue
loss on their balance sheet. And when businesses have their expenses,
transactions and shipping invoices all organized in one data source, they will
be able to present this evidence more efficiently. Moreover, that allows them
to resolve disputes much faster than anticipated.
Here is how you can see the
relation between disputes and accounting from a ‘cause-effect’ perspective. Here
are some disputes that can affect your revenue stream.
Duplicate Processing
Duplicate processing occurs when
merchants charged customers more than once without their approval. This type of
dispute mainly originates from technical errors, such as faulty point-of-sale
(POS) terminals. But that invalid charge poses a risk in revenue loss when the
customer decides to file a dispute. By understanding what transactions are
associated to duplicate processing, you will gain a better understanding of how
to prevent this dispute from being filed in the first place. You will also need
to use some sort of codebook that distinguishes where and when duplicate
processing took place. This is where your organization skills really pay off.
Recurring Billing
Subscription billing has its
perks. When it is executed properly, it can be increasingly convenient for
customers and merchants alike. But that convenience can, unfortunately, has customers to forget to cancel their
subscription. Or in some cases, it makes them forget they have an active
subscription in the first place. That last recurring payment may be the
catalyst that filed a dispute. One way to prevent these disputes (and its
related chargebacks) is with clear, upfront descriptions about your recurring
billing process. This includes things like emails that alert customers about an
incoming charge, and product and merchant descriptors that show what initiated
the charge.
Shipping
All consumer disputes have a
reason code that specifically refers to a shipping issue. Shipping expenses are
great pieces of evidence to prove that a product was shipped. And its
associated invoices can prove your carrier successfully delivered the disputed
product. Well-managed expenses is an essential cure to prevent shipping issues,
let alone consumer disputes. It is even more effective when you have the tools
to automate and aggregate receipts, expenses and vendor information all in one
place.
Credit / Debit Issues
It is never a good feeling when a
transaction does not go as planned. And processing a transaction as credit,
rather than debt (and vice versa) can
issue severe chargebacks. This is another processing error that can easily
disprove a dispute or show that the merchant was at fault. It will all depend
on how well you record and organize your transactions. Like late presentment, credit-debit
issues are an opportunity to learn how this error occurred. When you make the
appropriate changes, you can expect a decline in revenue loss from these types
of disputes. And seeing growth on your balance sheet is always a good sign.
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