AWRA Help Center

Open Procurement → Purchase Orders and choose Supplier bills in the row of links at the top of the page (the purchasing and payables group: purchase orders, reorder, supplier bills, payment runs, and returns & debit notes). The bills list shows three figures across the top — Owed to suppliers, Overdue and Waiting for review — and can be filtered by status, supplier, an overdue-only switch, or a search on the bill number or the supplier’s own invoice number.

Two Kinds Of Bill

• Against a purchase order. For goods that came through receiving. The payable was already booked when the check-in was approved, so approving the bill posts nothing for the goods — it is the document you pay and the third leg of the three-way match. If the bill carries VAT, approval books that part: Input tax against Accounts payable.
• Without an order. Rent, electricity, a consultant, a courier. Nothing was received into stock, so the bill is where the cost first reaches the books. Each line can carry its own expense account; a line without one uses the bill’s expense account, then Operating expenses. These bills can also be tagged with a department, branch and project for the income statement.

Capturing A Bill

1. Press Capture a bill on the bills list.
2. Choose the supplier. For a bill against an order, pick the purchase order and press Prefill from the order: each order line arrives with the quantity actually received (what the supplier should be charging for) and the order price. For a bill with no order, fill in the lines yourself.
3. Enter the supplier’s own invoice number, the bill date and, if it differs, the due date. With no due date the bill is due 30 days after its date.
4. Add the VAT rate on each line, attach the supplier’s invoice file, and check the withholding rate (the supplier’s default carries across; you can change it or choose none on this bill).
5. Press Save bill. It is saved as a draft.

The Rules That Protect You

• One supplier invoice, one bill. A supplier’s invoice number can be captured once per supplier. Keying it again is refused and the message names the bill it was already captured as.
• The order ceiling. Approved bills against one purchase order may not add up to more than the order total (plus any price tolerance set for your workspace, which is zero unless support has set one). A bill that would push past it is refused at approval.
• Right supplier, right order. A purchase order with a different supplier, or a line that is not on the chosen order, is refused.
• The payment match gate. A bill against an order is paid only if the order passes the same match check every supplier payment screen uses. If it is blocked, the message says why.
• Approved means fixed. Only a draft, submitted or rejected bill can be edited. To change an approved one, cancel it and capture it again.

Approve, Reject Or Cancel

1. Open the bill. For a bill against an order, the page shows the three-way match for that order — matched, discrepancy, or awaiting receipt.
2. Press Approve for payment. An expense bill posts its journal now: each line’s net to its expense account, VAT to Input tax, the total to Accounts payable. For an order bill the match is re-run and stored on the order.
3. Or Reject bill with a reason. Once corrected it goes back for review — as a draft if your team captured it, as submitted if the supplier did.

Cancel bill works only while nothing has been paid or credited against it; reverse those first. Cancelling an approved expense bill reverses its journal, line for line, including its department, branch and project tags.

Paying A Bill

On an approved bill, Record a payment records money that has already left by bank transfer, cheque or cash: enter the amount (part payments are fine), the method, the account it was paid from and a reference. To pay several bills together, or to pay by M-Pesa or Paystack, use a payment run.

The balance on a bill is never typed. It is recomputed from the confirmed payments and the debit notes applied to it, net of any withholding, and the bill moves to Partly paid and then Paid on its own. Every confirmed payment posts Dr Accounts payable, Cr the account the money left from — once, however it was paid. Open credit from the same supplier is listed on the bill under Credit available from this supplier.

Bills From The Vendor Portal

A supplier signed in to the vendor portal can open one of their purchase orders and use Submit an invoice: their invoice number, invoice date, an optional due date, the quantity, unit price and VAT rate per order line, and their invoice file (PDF or photo), which is required. They can bill only lines on that order.

• The bill arrives in your list as Submitted by supplier, and everyone who can approve bills gets a notification.
• Nothing is payable until someone on your side approves it — the same checks apply as for a bill your team keyed.
• On the order page the supplier sees each invoice they submitted with its status and amount paid. A rejection shows them your reason.

Permissions

• View supplier bills — see the list, a bill, and the supplier’s attached invoice (served only to people with this permission).
• Manage supplier bills — capture, edit and cancel.
• Approve supplier bills — approve, reject and record a payment. Holders are the people notified when a supplier submits from the portal.

Common Mistakes

• Leaving the supplier’s invoice number blank. The duplicate check runs on that number, so a bill without it is not protected against being keyed twice.
• Capturing an order bill before receiving. Prefill uses the received quantity; bill after the check-in is approved, or the match shows awaiting receipt.
• Recording a payment that has not left yet. The bill-page payment is for money already paid. Use a payment run when the payment still has to be made or approved.

Related

• Payment Runs — pay a batch of approved bills with a second approver.
• Supplier Returns & Debit Notes — credits that reduce what a bill owes.
• Withholding Tax — the deduction a bill can carry.
• Purchase Orders — the order and receipt a bill is matched to.
• Supplier bills & payables — the feature page, with a worked month.