Reviewing and filing a document

What this does

A document in Review has been read and is waiting for you. The review page shows the image beside the extracted fields; you correct anything wrong, say how it was paid, and file. Filing creates the accounting record and marks the document Filed, with the document linked to what it created.

Before you start

documents.manage. A vendor for the bill (create one inline with Vendor Name if missing) and an Account (create an expense account inline if your chart doesn't have it yet).

Steps

1. Open the document from the list or the Review column of the kanban.
2. Check the extracted fields against the image: vendor, date, total, tax, and the line items table. Fix anything wrong. Corrections are remembered as feedback for the extractor.
3. Pick the Account. Purchases use an expense account. A remittance, such as a sales-tax filing, uses the liability it pays down (Sales Tax Payable, payroll withholding, a loan). Accounts Payable and credit-card liabilities are not in this list — bills and card charges have their own screens. For a document that's really a customer-side item, Create Invoice is offered instead.
4. Choose how it was paid, which decides what filing creates:
   • Record Card Payment & File — pick the card; posts a card charge. Type to find a card…
   • Record Check & File — pick the bank account and enter the check number; posts a check. Record Void Check & File for a voided one.
   • Record Payment & File (bank) — pick the bank account; posts a direct bank payment.
   • Record Cash Payment & File or Record Petty Cash & File — posts from cash or petty cash.
   • Create Bill & File — "pay from account, pay later." Creates an open vendor bill for payables to pay; nothing hits cash yet.
5. File. The document goes to Filed, the record is created, and the two are linked.

Save Draft keeps your corrections without filing, for when you need to ask someone which account or how it was paid.

Links. From the review page you can also link the document to a work order (a parts receipt for a job), to an asset (a title or registration), or to an already-posted transaction when the purchase is on the books and you're just attaching the paper. Visibility switches a document between internal and portal, which lets the customer see it on their portal.

What happens in the books

A direct payment (card, check, bank, cash, petty cash) posts a balanced entry through the same engine as the Write Checks and Enter Card Charges screens. An expense is debited. A liability remittance debits that liability instead — the same shape as a sales-tax payment, Dr Sales Tax Payable / Cr the bank or card — and does not create a bill or an Accounts Payable entry. Create Bill is only for an expense you will pay later; it posts nothing until the bill is paid from Payables. If an earlier step had already created a draft bill for an expense, a direct payment pays that bill instead of leaving a stray one. A liability payment does not pay that bill. Any open Transaction Inbox rows the document spawned are closed at the same time.

Common problems

"No accounts match." Type more of the name, or create the account inline.

Filing is refused as a duplicate. The gate found the same purchase already on the books. See Duplicates, errors, and dismissing.

I filed it against the wrong account. The document's link points at the posted record; correct the record from the register (or void and re-enter), not by re-filing the document.