Record vendor bills

A bill records what a vendor has charged you and when it falls due. You enter it as a draft from the vendor’s invoice, check it, and post it: posting fixes its figures, books the payable in the ledger and adds the amount to the vendor’s balance.

Enter a bill

Enter a bill on its own for anything you did not buy on a purchase order, such as rent, a repair or a utility.

1. Go to Payables ‣ Transactions ‣ Bills and click New bill.
2. Pick the Vendor. The currency, payment term and subsidiary fill in from the vendor, so check them rather than retype them.
3. Enter the number printed on the vendor’s invoice in Vendor invoice no., so the bill can be found from the vendor’s paperwork and is not entered twice.
4. Enter the invoice’s date in Date. The Due date follows from the payment term; change it only when the vendor’s invoice gives a different one.
5. On the Lines tab, pick the item in Item / description and enter the Qty. Click Add line for each further item.
6. Pick the Warehouse if the bill holds stocked items, so they can come into stock when you post.
7. Click Save draft.

The bill is saved as Draft with its own number, and opens so you can check it. Nothing has reached the ledger yet.

Field	What it sets
Subsidiary	The company that is billed, and whose number range the bill takes. It cannot change once saved.
Vendor	Who billed you.
Date	The bill’s date. The exchange rate, the fiscal period and the due date are all read at this date.
Due date	When payment is due, worked out from the payment term.
Currency and Exchange rate	The currency you are billed in. The rate can be changed only when the currency differs from the subsidiary’s, and starts at the rate on file for the date.
Payment term	The term the due date is worked out from.
Vendor invoice no.	The vendor’s own invoice number. A vendor cannot have two bills with the same number.
Warehouse	Where stocked items come in when the bill posts.
Reference	Your own reference, such as a contract or delivery note number.

Each line is priced from the vendor’s price list: the listed price shows faintly in Unit price, and the bill uses it unless you type the price on the vendor’s invoice. Disc. % and Disc. amount give a line discount, and Tax group sets the tax. Under the lines, Document discount percent or Document discount amount takes a discount off the whole bill.

The Posting profile tab shows Use default, which means the vendor’s profile. The Notes tab holds Vendor notes and Internal notes, which only your staff see.

Note

Unit price can be typed only by roles allowed to change prices. For everyone else it shows the listed price, locked, so the person who enters bills needs that permission to key the vendor’s price.

Bill the goods received on a purchase order

When you bought on a purchase order, bill what has been received, so you pay only for goods that arrived, at the price you agreed on the order.

1. Click New bill and pick the Vendor.
2. On the Lines tab, click Bill from PO. The panel lists the vendor’s goods receipts that still have quantities to bill.
3. Pick a receipt. Its lines are ticked, each with the quantity still to bill.
4. Untick a line the vendor has not billed yet, or lower its Qty to what the invoice shows.
5. Click the button that adds the lines, for example Add 4 lines.
6. Enter the Vendor invoice no. and Date, then click Save draft.

The bill takes the order’s currency, payment term, posting profile and warehouse, and each line carries the order’s price and discount, which you cannot change. When it posts, it moves no stock, because the receipt already did; it clears the value the receipt set aside as received but not yet invoiced.

Example

A café orders 40 cases of milk from a dairy. Twenty-five arrive on Monday and fifteen on Thursday, and the dairy sends one invoice for each delivery. The café bills Monday’s receipt for 25 cases against the first invoice, and Thursday’s for 15 against the second. A bill can never cover more than was received.

Post a bill

Post a bill once it matches the vendor’s invoice, so it counts as owed and can be paid.

1. Open the draft from Payables ‣ Transactions ‣ Bills.
2. Click Edit if anything needs changing, and Save draft again.
3. Click Post, then Confirm.

The bill shows Posted and can no longer be edited. The ledger holds its journal entry, listed on the Related tab, and the vendor’s balance includes it. A stocked item on a bill that stands alone has come into the warehouse. An item that is not stocked is booked to its Expense account; when the item has none, it is booked to the Cost of goods sold account of the bill’s posting profile, so give every service you buy an expense account.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Saved but not posted. You can edit it.
Posted	In the books, with nothing paid yet.
Partial	Part paid or debited. Balance due under the lines shows what is left.
Paid	Nothing left to pay.
Void	Withdrawn; its journal entry has been reversed.

Void a posted bill

Void a bill that should never have been posted, such as one entered twice or for the wrong vendor. You can void it only while nothing is paid or debited against it.

1. Open the posted bill and click Void.
2. In Date, enter the date the reversal books on.
3. Click Confirm.

The bill shows Void. A reversing journal entry books on the date you gave, the vendor’s balance drops back, and stocked items the bill brought into stock leave the warehouse again.

Caution

A voided bill cannot be posted again. To correct part of a posted bill, such as one line billed at the wrong price, raise a debit note against it instead.

A draft bill cannot be deleted or voided; it stays in the list as Draft.

Copy a bill

On an open bill, click Clone to start a new draft with the same vendor and lines, which is quicker for a charge that comes every month, such as rent.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
A bill with this vendor document number already exists for this vendor.	The invoice has been entered already. Find it in the list by its Vendor doc # before entering it again.
The accounting period is closed.	The Date falls in a closed period. Use a date in an open period, or reopen the period in Finance.
No exchange rate from USD to SAR for 2026-03-12.	Record the rate for that date in Currencies, then save again.
A movement states the warehouse the stock moves in.	The bill holds stocked items but no Warehouse. Pick one and post again.
A stocked line is billed through the goods receipt that brought it in, not straight from the order.	Receive the goods first, then use Bill from PO.
A line draws on goods that were not received against the named order, so it has no agreed price.	Remove the line, or enter that charge on a bill of its own.
The warehouse that received these goods names no posting profile, so the accrual cannot be cleared.	Give the receiving warehouse a posting profile in Inventory, then post again.
Payments are still allocated to this document; void them before voiding it.	Void the payments that paid this bill, or debit it instead.
This document is applied to another; unapply it before voiding it.	A debit note has been posted against this bill. Void that debit note first.