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- Small Business Accounting
- Features
- Supplier bills and payments
Supplier bills and payments
Review supplier bills and payment instructions before releasing money. A supplier invoice can contain several expense classifications while remaining one payable document. Capture its original invoice number and supplier identity before entry. A duplicate check should compare the same supplier’s reference and amount rather than treating every similar document title as a new bill ready for payment.
OverviewBills Awaiting Approval×
Small Business Accounting · Supplier bills and payments
New
Bills Awaiting Approval
Approval waits for the controller / CFO
| Bill number | Vendor | Bill date | Due date | Total amount | Prepared by | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLL-71316 | Willowbrook Cleaning Co. | 21 Oct | 27 Oct | 770 | Amara Diallo | |
| BLL-57568 | Blue Heron Printworks | 20 Oct | 23 Oct | 910 | Mina Sato | |
| BLL-14368 | Blue Heron Printworks | 17 Oct | 21 Oct | 460 | Amara Diallo | |
| BLL-90104 | Juniper Lane Bakery | 12 Oct | 20 Oct | 730 | Sara Nguyen | |
| BLL-47216 | Northbank Office Supply | 19 Oct | 27 Oct | 190 | Idris Hassan |
6 of 6 records
Willowbrook Cleaning Co.Bills · BLL-71316
Pending approvalBill date21 Oct
Due date27 Oct
Total amount770
Prepared byAmara Diallo
What you can do
Keep the business context together
Capture the supplier invoice number, bill date, due date, expense account and tax treatment together. Compare new submissions with existing supplier documents to identify duplicates. The purchase order reference is supporting context; this product does not claim a full purchasing or three-way matching engine.
The controller reviews the actual bill revision and supporting document. If the AP Clerk changes the amount or payee after that decision, the changed proposal needs review again. Technical administration cannot replace this financial approval, and a controller who prepared the bill needs another authorized reviewer for an independent decision.
Give each decision a clear owner
AP Clerk prepares the bill and payment proposal. Controller / CFO approves according to the configured authority and independently reviews work they did not prepare. Approved bills may enter a payment schedule, but scheduling and bank submission do not establish that the bank cleared the payment.
Approved bills become candidates for payment according to due date, remaining amount and configured payment method. Preparing a payment schedule helps plan cash requirements but does not prove that funds left the bank. Keep the payment instruction, its bank reference and any confirmed settlement separately identifiable in the bill history.
Handle exceptions with the original record
Keep the supplier’s payment destination in a separately reviewed vendor payees record. AP Clerk prepares it; an independent Controller / CFO approves the exact version. Recheck that version, supplier, currency and effective date before release. A changed destination needs review again, even if the bill was already approved. An uncertain bank response remains unresolved until reconciled using the original instruction identity. Retrying a request cannot send another payment. Voids, bounced payments and corrections retain their links to the original bill and journal.
An uncertain bank result needs investigation before another instruction is released. Retrying with a fresh payment identity could pay the supplier twice. Use the original instruction reference to confirm success or failure. A scheduled or released instruction reserves the bill balance while its outcome is unresolved, so another payment cannot consume the same amount. Clearance turns that reservation into the settled payment; confirmed failure releases it.
Find the work that needs attention
A returned payment restores the payable position through its linked correction. The original bill, failed payment and related ledger entries explain why the supplier is still owed money. A user should not need to delete a posted bill or recreate the supplier account to handle this ordinary exception.
Configure it around your business
Configure approved supplier identities, expense accounts, tax treatment and protected payment details before importing open payables. Review a duplicate supplier invoice, a partial payment and a bank rejection during setup. This accounting product retains purchase-order references for context; purchasing authorization and a full receipt-matching process belong to the configured purchasing system.
Pay-run grouping keeps separate payment records traceable to their individual supplier bills and bank outcomes.
What your team sees
- Bills Awaiting Approval — Review the work and supporting records for this module.
What it keeps track of
Data model- Contacts
- Unified directory of customers and vendors.
Type = Bothhandles a counterparty on both sides. - Vendor payees
- Independently reviewed supplier payment destination. Contacts own counterparty identity; this record owns the versioned destination used by a vendor payment.
- Bills
- Vendor bills.
- Bill items
- AP lines with expense account and optional tax.
- Payments made
- One vendor-bill payment or one approved employee-claim reimbursement. Pay run ID groups separate payment records; it does not make one payment belong to several bills or mixed payees.
- Payment methods
- Named methods for receiving and making payments. Points at the bank account that clears the payment.
Who uses it
Permissions- AP Clerk
- AP Clerk works within the record, field and action scope below.
- Controller / CFO
- Controller / CFO works within the record, field and action scope below.
Set up Small Business Accounting your way.
Start free, then use Proto to change fields, steps and approvals before your team goes live.