Vendor bills & the cost inbox

A vendor bill is what a vendor charges you — a Bill to pay later, an Expense you already paid, or a Receipt from the field. Each bill is a Record. As you approve it and pay it, its amount flows into the actual cost on your Budget.

Create a vendor bill

From Records, click Create Record (the project's Records tab has the same button).
Pick the Project.
Under the Vendor Finances heading, pick the template you want — Bill ("Record a bill from a vendor"), Expense, or Receipt. Those three ship with every organization; add your own under Record templates.
The bill opens in the builder with a number like VF-0001.

Note

If a vendor sent you an invoice for an accepted vendor order, start from that order and convert it instead: open the order and click Vendor Finance in its side panel. You pick which kind of vendor finance to make (Bill, Expense, Receipt…) and the vendor, line items, budget links, scope of work and attachments all carry over. See Vendor orders.

The cost inbox: bills without a project

A bill can exist in the system without a project. However, the web record builder described here is project-scoped: choose the project when creating the record. It does not offer an editable Project field on the document, or a separate cost-inbox screen. A project is required before approval or sending.

Note

There's no camera scan or receipt OCR — bills and receipts are entered by hand (or attached as a file).

Code the bill to the budget

"Coding" a bill means saying which budget lines and cost codes it hits.

Open the bill in the correct project's records, and set the Vendor in the document header.
Add line items with Add items, select the lines and their amounts, and click Apply. Save the record so each imported line and its budget link are persisted.
Set Due in [days] in the draft header; the record stores a fixed Due Date.
Enter tax if it applies — Subtotal, Tax, and Total calculate for you.

The item picker has three controls along its top:

Vendor — who the bill is from. Changing it clears whatever you'd ticked, because a different vendor's committed cost is a different number.
Bill source — Items picks off the project budget; Vendor Orders bases the bill on one of this vendor's accepted vendor agreements instead, carrying the same lines, budget links and coding. (If the vendor has none, the list says so and points you back to Items.)
Cost basis — which cost each line is shown against: Estimated Cost, Approved Cost, or Committed Cost. A bill opens on Committed Cost, since that's what this vendor agreed to charge. Approved Cost renders blank on any line no accepted client agreement names. (It's only offered in Items mode — an order's own lines already carry their price.)

Note

Bill more than the vendor order committed on a line and Foreman warns rather than clamping it — the over-commitment is real, and it's what turns the budget's spend columns red. Line-item descriptions aren't shown in the picker.

Note

You can start from the project's Budget: select the lines, open Selected row actions, click Create a record from these lines, and pick a template under Vendor Finances. The budget saves before the bill opens with those lines. Save the record to keep them.

A bill starts as Draft.

Send it, then approve it

These are two separate acts, and only the second one costs you money.

While the bill is still Draft or Coded, click Send to email the vendor a payment notice. That is delivery, not approval — it does not change the bill's status or budget cost. The Activity list logs it as Sent to vendor. Sending is not available after the bill becomes Payable or Paid.

Click Approve for Payment to commit it. The bill becomes Payable, the Activity list logs Approved for payment, and its cost enters your budget's Vendor Bills and Actual Cost columns. A bill can't be approved without a project, a vendor, and at least one cost-coded line, so fill those in first. You don't have to send a bill to approve it, and approving is not required before recording a payment.

Note

Once a bill leaves Draft or has a recorded payment, its document locks. Removing a payment does not necessarily unlock it: a formerly Paid bill returns to Payable. Do not remove a real payment merely to change the document; resolve financial corrections through your payment-management workflow.

Record payment

Save the bill's line items and any pending changes, then click Record Payment in the side panel. The button is available when there are saved lines and the bill is neither Paid nor Voided, subject to your payment permission. A receipt you already paid can be logged straight from Draft.
Enter the Amount and Payment Date.
Optionally set a Method (Check, Cash, ACH, Zelle, Card, or Other), a Reference such as a check number, and Notes.
Click Record Payment in the payment window.

Pay part of the total and the bill keeps its prior status — a Payable bill remains Payable, while a Draft bill can remain Draft with its document locked. The amount paid is recalculated from the payments themselves. Once payments cover the full total it becomes Paid. Deleting a payment from a fully-paid bill returns it to Payable, because the obligation is still real.

Note

Want the file the vendor sees? Save any pending changes, then click Download PDF in the side panel.

Don’t see this?

Creating and editing bills, approving them, and recording payments use separate vendor-bill permissions. Ask your organization owner for the specific access you need.

Purchase tax

Use Purchase tax near the draft totals to enter an Amount or Percent, and adjust the printed label if needed. Tax applies to taxable lines and is included in job cost. These controls describe supplier tax you do not recover; they do not calculate recoverable tax credits.