Prepare documents to challenge disputes
- Sellers with the reports permission to view disputes reporting can see open disputes.
- Sellers with the reports permission to respond to disputes can accept or challenge a dispute. Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
The Disputes team’s aim throughout the disputes process is to help you send relevant evidence to your customer’s bank that gives you the best chance of protecting your sale. The guide below will walk you through the documents we’ll be looking for should a customer dispute an online or in-person payment.
Watch a video to learn more about how the process works:
Before you begin
Disputes are broadly divided into two main categories: fraud and non-fraud. For fraud disputes, the cardholder is claiming that they did not authorize the transaction. For non-fraud disputes, the cardholder is typically claiming that they either didn't receive the good or service, the good or service was not what the cardholder expected, or the charge was incorrect for the good or service.
During disputes, the bank is looking for any supporting evidence you may have about the transaction, such as contracts, invoices, email correspondence, terms of service, or signed proof of satisfactory delivery.
When submitting evidence and documents to challenge a dispute, keep the information factual, clear, and concise. The types of documents that apply to your Square account can vary depending on the type of business you run and the type of dispute you receive. You may be asked to submit some or all of the following documentation when you challenge a dispute.
Per PCI Compliance, sellers are not permitted to store a customer’s CVV in any form. We recommend that you obtain verbal confirmation of CVV when adding a card on file from the Square Dashboard. You might also consider requesting this information in-person when your customer is present and filling out the authorization form. Download our card authorization form template >
Documents to submit for fraud disputes
These can be challenging to win. For card-present transactions, you are protected from fraud disputes on chip cards when you insert the chip or tap the card with Square hardware. For card-not-present transactions, we recommend Risk Manager, Square’s free tool that helps you catch and manage online payments that pose a potential fraud risk.
We recommend that you get signed authorization for the full amount to be paid as well for each individual payment if a purchase. An authorization form should accompany a contract in which you and a buyer have agreed to multi-part or recurring payments. The form should include:
- Your business name and address
- Your customer’s name and credit card information
- A brief description of the transaction
- A customer signature authorizing you to charge their card
Documents to submit for non-fraud disputes
The dispute form you receive from Square will request the documents that we expect will be most impactful for the specific dispute reason raised by the cardholder. Generally the more details you can provide, the better. Specifically, the below documents will help to demonstrate details on what was purchased, evidence it was satisfactorily provided, and that the refund and cancellations policies the customer accepted at the time of purchase.
Signed contracts are PDF or electronic documents that demonstrate a commitment to deliver and pay for goods and services. Not all businesses use contracts for customer transactions. If this is the case for you, you can upload receipts and/or invoices.
If you currently don’t use signed contracts, you can create and manage Square Contracts tailored to your specific business type from your Square Dashboard.
An invoice is a written document that includes a description of goods/services and the payment amount. As with contracts, you can use Square Invoices to send custom invoices to your customers. Be as specific and detailed as possible when filling out invoices. The more details we have regarding a purchase, the better equipped we are to assist you if a dispute occurs.
When you have finished the delivery of a good or the completion of a service, collect proof of that completion. For goods, this may be a delivery confirmation that displays the full address of the buyer. For services, this may be a certificate of completion.
- Before invoice payment: If the goods or services are delivered before an invoice is paid, you can toggle on Goods and services confirmation when creating the invoice. In order to pay for an invoice, your customer is required to confirm they accept the goods and services with satisfaction. This only covers final payments taken after goods and services have been delivered.
- After invoice payment: If the goods or services are delivered after an invoice has been paid, you can send a goods and services confirmation by navigating to the paid invoice on Square Dashboard and clicking More > Send goods and services confirmation. This option will not be available if a goods and services confirmation requirement was already included on the invoice.
Have a comprehensive cancellation policy in place, which covers returns, exchanges, and refunds and give a clear time-frame for when they can be done. Create evidence that this policy was acknowledged before the sale by each specific customer on each transaction by including a written version of your cancellation policy on any contracts or receipts and requiring a signature on these documents. Alternatively, for online transactions, use a “click to agree” button for terms and conditions during checkout. This will serve as better evidence of the policy than displaying the terms on your website or on a sign at the point of sale.
Communication with your customers
Providing the bank with proof that you took proactive steps to remedy an issue is an important way to strengthen your response to a dispute. If you have made an effort to resolve issues that may relate to the dispute — or had to postpone or cancel a delivery — we encourage you to share relevant screenshots or photos of these conversations.
We recommend you gather and upload the following types of documentation that illustrate how you offered assistance with resolving the customer’s issue:
Offering a partial refund to your customer: If you provided partial goods or services, you can provide signed proof of the goods or services and include an invoice or itemized receipt showing a breakdown of the transaction amount and the refund amount.
Offering a refund: We strongly recommend issuing all refunds through Square, and back to the card used for the original payment. This decreases your chance of losing a potential dispute, as well as lowering the risk of scams or fraud that may occur from refunding outside of the card network.
If you and your customer agreed on a refund outside of your Square account, providing proof of the refund is ideal. For example, photos of the front and back of a refund check that has been signed by the customer.Offering a credit voucher for future use: You’ll need to provide proof that the credit voucher has been provided to the cardholder. You can strengthen this documentation by specifying the time frame the credit voucher will remain valid.
Offering to reschedule services or delivery of goods: Providing specific dates if possible can help strengthen this support further.
Collect any supporting documentation the form asks for and attach it to the form before submitting it. Square will then send the information you provide us to your customer’s bank. We may reach back out to you if we think the bank will need more information. You can also upload additional information from your Disputes Dashboard within the seven-day timeframe. Once you submit the information request form to Square, additional information can not be shared with the bank.
How to format documents
To access the form and upload files, sign in to your Disputes Dashboard. Submit only HEIC, JPEG, PDF, PNG, or TIFF file types. We’re unable to successfully download any other file types. Files should be no larger than 5MB and no longer than 15 pages. If your evidence is too large than this, consider providing only the most relevant pages or sections in your response.
You can also submit your documentation from your smartphone. Tap Choose file in the form, and either take a photo of the documentation or select a photo you’ve previously taken.
Do not highlight documents you upload. The final version reviewed by your customer’s bank is in black and white, so highlighted text may be difficult to read.
If you are not able to view the form, make sure JavaScript is enabled in your browser and is fully up to date. To enable JavaScript, follow the instructions based on your browser: Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. If you continue to have issues uploading documents, try using a different browser.