Record a Supplier Bill (Invoice), With or Without a Purchase Order
Record a bill captures the supplier, their invoice number, lines, VAT and withholding tax; it starts as a Draft until a different person approves it.
For School administrators, Accountants. Updated 2026-10-09.
Overview
On Procurement > Supplier bills select Record a bill. Choose the Supplier, the Supplier's invoice no. and the Invoice date. If the supplier has Approved, Partially received or Received purchase orders a "For purchase order (optional)" dropdown appears; choosing one pre-fills lines with the quantity received but not yet billed at the ordered price.
Otherwise add lines manually: Item, Qty, Unit price and Charge to (an account). Enter VAT on the invoice and Withholding tax to deduct when paying. The due date is the invoice date plus the supplier's payment terms. The bill is saved as BILL-0001 and so on with status Draft, and the toast reads "Bill recorded.
Someone else approves it before it is posted." Nothing hits the ledger until approval.
Validation: duplicate supplier invoice numbers for the same supplier are refused ("<supplier> invoice <ref> is already recorded as BILL-000x."); withholding tax cannot exceed the bill total ("Withholding tax cannot be more than the bill."); a PO must belong to the same supplier ("That order is not for this supplier.").
Statuses are Draft, Approved, Partially paid, Paid and Void. Overdue bills show red "N days overdue" under the Due column.
Before you start
- The “add procurement” permission
- The supplier exists
- For three-way matching, an Approved purchase order that has received goods
Steps
- Open Procurement > Supplier bills
- Select Record a bill
- Choose the supplier, enter the invoice number and date
- Optionally pick the purchase order to pre-fill received items
- Check lines, VAT and withholding tax, then select Save bill
- Ask an approver to approve the draft
Common problems
Invoice is already recorded
The same supplier invoice number was captured before. Search the Supplier bills list; if it was recorded in error, void the earlier bill first.
The purchase order is not offered in the dropdown
Only orders for the chosen supplier that are Approved, Partially received or Received are listed. Pick the supplier first.
Withholding tax cannot be more than the bill
Lower the withholding amount so it does not exceed the bill total (subtotal plus VAT).