Stupid PPI call cut short without salesman looking up - one might go over documents (5,4)
I believe the answer is:
paper clip
'one might go over documents' is the definition.
(a paper clip physically goes over documents)
'stupid ppi call cut short without salesman looking up' is the wordplay.
'stupid' indicates anagramming the letters (in a stupid order).
'cut short' means to remove the last letter.
'without' means one lot of letters goes inside another ('without' can be similar in meaning to 'outside').
'salesman' becomes 'rep' (I've seen this before).
'looking up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'rep' backwards is 'per'.
'ppi'+'call'='ppicall'
'ppicall' with its final letter taken away is 'ppical'.
'ppical' is an anagram of 'paclip'.
'paclip' going around 'per' is 'PAPER-CLIP'.
(Other definitions for paper clip that I've seen before include "I can hold things together" , "it collects leaves together" , "bent wire" , "It keeps reports together" , "staple alternative?" .)