A complaint touches three parties: the business that owns the address (the owner), the business held responsible for the work (the supplier: a subcontractor, or the owner itself when nothing is subcontracted) and the customer. Each gets its own part of the story. The steps are in Handle a complaint; this article is the rules behind them.
The assessment
Every complaint is Justified, Not justified or Not assessed, which is where it starts. It exists so you can count how many of a supplier's complaints actually held up.
- Only the owner sets it: on the new complaint form, in the complaint's facts, or in the resolve step. Setting it back to Not assessed forgets who assessed it and when.
- Reopening a complaint keeps the assessment.
- The supplier sees the answer and cannot change it. The customer is never told.
- The complaints list shows it as a chip beside the status and can be filtered by it.
Two deadlines
A complaint can carry two clocks, each optional and set as Within 1 hour up to Within 48 hours from when you save:
- Deadline for the supplier is what you give the business responsible for the address.
- Deadline to the customer is what you promise the customer.
The owner sees both. The supplier sees only its own deadline and never learns what you promised the customer. The customer sees only the customer deadline, in the portal simply called Deadline to fix. A customer raising a complaint in the portal cannot set either.
Each clock stops at the moment the address was put right: the first completed stop at that address on a dispatch linked to the complaint, after it was raised or last reopened. With no such stop, resolving the complaint by hand stops the clock. The customer's clock stops whoever did the work. The supplier's clock only counts work the supplier itself was responsible for, so another supplier you sent instead does not stop it.
The pill says where a clock stands: 2 h left while it runs, 1 h over once it has passed, and afterwards Fixed 30 min before the deadline, Fixed exactly on the deadline or Fixed 2 h after the deadline. A complaint resolved as Redone by another supplier or own crew, when the responsible supplier had not fixed it, reads Taken over by another supplier on the supplier's clock, and counts as a missed deadline for that supplier. In the list a row shows the more urgent of the two clocks (the one due first); hover it to see which one it is.
Editing a complaint keeps both deadlines unless you choose otherwise, and reopening touches neither.
Outcome and who redid it
Resolving asks how the complaint was put right:
- Redone by the responsible supplier: the supplier went back and did it again.
- Redone by another supplier or own crew: somebody else did. Redone by names who: your own business or one of your subcontractors, accepted or invited, but never the responsible supplier itself (choose the first outcome for that).
- No rework needed: nobody went back.
- Other, with an optional Redone by.
The outcome can be left Not specified. The panel starts on what the complaint's dispatches say: the business behind the latest completed stop at the address since the complaint was raised or reopened suggests both the outcome and who redid it. Reopening clears the outcome and who redid it; resolving again sets them anew.
Charging the supplier for the rework
When the responsible business is one of your subcontractors, the resolve step offers Charge {0} for the rework. It is switched on when somebody else redid the work (or a charge already stands) and off otherwise, and it can always be switched off: resolving without a charge is normal. A complaint assessed as Not justified can still be charged.
The amount. It starts on what the business that redid it was paid for the complaint's dispatches at the address (Suggested: what the business that redid it was paid for the rework), or failing that the cost on the rate card (Suggested: the cost on the rate card). Change it to whatever was agreed; it must be above 0 and at most 10,000,000.
Where it goes. The charge is a negative line on the supplier's draft settlement for the current month under Invoice for Subcontractor, created if there is none (Added as a deduction on {0}'s draft settlement for {1}). The line has no work type and no dispatch behind it, and reads Charge-back for complaint: with the address and the date. The supplier's bell says You were charged for the rework on a complaint on the address, when the line is written and whenever its amount changes.
The customer invoice is never touched. A charge moves money between you and your supplier only. There is no credit-note document in SnowManager: a charge-back is simply a negative line on a settlement, written for you. Any line on any invoice can be given a negative price the same way, which is how a credit is made, so crediting the customer for the same complaint is a separate decision you make on their invoice; see Review and send a customer invoice.
Changing it later. The complaint shows Charged to {0} with the amount and the state of the settlement, read from the line itself.
- While that settlement is a Draft, press Edit beside the amount on the complaint to change it, or Remove charge to take it off. Removing archives the line; nothing is deleted.
- The line can also be edited on the settlement like any other line, its negative price included. It carries a Complaint badge there. Whatever the line says is what the complaint shows.
- The supplier sees the same line, and the same badge, on its own Invoice as Subcontractor page, where the settlement is read-only. The badge's hint there tells the supplier the deduction is for a complaint its business was held responsible for and that the complaint is under Complaints; the complaint is named only to the business that owns it and the business held responsible, so any other business that can read the settlement sees the deduction without the badge.
- To leave the charge out of a settlement, remove it or archive the line.
- Once the settlement has left draft, the complaint cannot change the charge any more: Already settled: the invoice is no longer a draft, so the charge cannot be changed here.
- Reopening the complaint keeps the charge. Resolving again follows whatever the switch says then.
The Charged back chip marks such complaints in the list, and the outcome filter has a Charged back entry. In the exports the line lowers that supplier's cost in Supplier overview per month, and is listed as a negative supplier posting in Extra services and credit notes.
A dispatch sent for a complaint
Carried out by on the dispatch form decides who gets the stop and how it is invoiced by default:
- the responsible supplier redoing its own work: not invoiced at all, since the customer already paid for the work once and the supplier is not paid twice;
- anyone else (another subcontractor, or your own crew): Subcontractor only, so whoever redid it is paid and the customer is not billed again.
You can still change the invoicing on the form. Such a dispatch is always created on its own, never joined to or collected into another dispatch, so the choice is not overwritten. See Who is invoiced for an address dispatch.
Who sees what
| Owner | Supplier | Customer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment | sets it | reads it | no |
| Deadline for the supplier | yes | yes | no |
| Deadline to the customer | yes | no | yes |
| Name and phone of who complained | yes | yes | only on complaints raised in the portal |
| E-mail of who complained | yes | no | only on complaints raised in the portal |
| Outcome, who redid it, the charge | yes | yes | no |
| The charge-back line, badged as a complaint | on the settlement it holds | on its read-only copy of the settlement | no |
| Which business was responsible | yes | yes | no |
| Dispatches sent for it | yes | those it can open | no |