Entering bills

What this does

A bill is a vendor invoice you'll pay later. Entering it records the expense on the bill date and the amount owed in Accounts Payable, so the aging is right and nothing gets forgotten. Money Out → Accounts Payable is the dashboard; View Bills is the full list with search and a status filter; the bill's own page shows its lines, payment history, and attached documents.

Many bills are entered for you: a vendor invoice forwarded or scanned into Documents and filed with Create Bill & File becomes a bill with the document attached.

Before you start

accounting.manage. The vendor in the list, and the expense account. If Require bill approval is on in AP settings, know who approves.

Steps

New bill. Vendor, Vendor Invoice # (Ref), Bill Date, Due Date (defaults from the vendor's payment terms; falls back to the bill date if blank), Amount, and the Expense Account. Turn on Split across accounts to enter lines instead of one account; every line needs an account and an amount, and they must total the bill. Notes are internal.

Three ways to save:

• Save as Draft. The bill is parked. Nothing posts, nothing is owed yet, and it isn't payable. Drafts can be deleted.
• Approve & Save (approval off). The bill is approved and payable at once.
• Submit for Approval (approval on). The bill waits as Pending approval until an Owner or General Manager opens it and clicks Approve or Reject.

Bill statuses: Draft, Pending approval, Approved (open, payable), Partial (some paid), Paid, Rejected (owed nowhere; drops out of Outstanding Bills), Voided.

Reconcile to Work Order. A bill created from a document that was linked to a work order shows this panel: it proposes which bill lines match which parts lines on the job (exact and fuzzy matches, or assign by hand) and Apply writes the actual cost onto the work order lines. It changes job cost and margin only; nothing in the ledger moves.

What happens in the books

Approving (or saving with approval off) posts the accrual: Dr the expense account(s) / Cr Accounts Payable, dated the bill date. A draft posts nothing. Rejecting a pending bill posts nothing and marks it rejected. A bill created from a document is a draft until it's approved, from the bill page or from its inbox row.

Common problems

The bill won't approve: lines don't total the amount. A bill created from a scan can carry lines that don't sum to the header. Fix the lines on the bill (or the header) until they match; the app won't invent a balancing line.

I entered it against the wrong account. Void the bill and re-enter it if it hasn't been paid; a paid bill's expense is corrected with a journal entry.

The due date is wrong on every bill from this vendor. Set Payment Terms (days) on the vendor record.

It's really a cash purchase, not a bill. Record it on Checks or Credit Cards instead and delete the draft. If it was already approved, void it.