Create and manage supplier bills

A supplier bill records what a supplier has invoiced you for a purchase order. You create bills from the purchase order, adjust them while they are still in draft, then authorize them so they can be paid and, if you use a connected accounting integration, synced to it.

This article covers creating a bill, editing a draft bill, authorizing and reopening (unauthorizing) a bill, deleting a bill, and raising a supplier refund directly from a bill. Recording and allocating payments and deposits against a bill is covered in Record payments and supplier deposits.

When you can bill a purchase order

You can create bills once the purchase order has been approved (it is no longer a draft). The Bills menu appears in the purchase order toolbar and offers:

• Bill selected: create a bill from the line items you have selected on the order.
• Bill All: create a bill from everything on the order that has not been billed yet.
• Add Deposit (under Deposits): record a supplier deposit against the order.

Each bill you create is listed in the Bills panel on the right side of the purchase order, showing its number and a Draft or Authorized status.

Create a bill

1. Open a purchase order that has been approved.
2. To bill specific items, tick the line items you want on the order, open the Bills menu, and choose Bill selected. To bill everything outstanding, open the Bills menu and choose Bill All.
3. Qoblex creates the bill and opens it.
4. Review the product lines and any landed-cost lines, and adjust quantities if needed (see Edit a draft bill).
5. Select Save to keep your changes.
6. Select Authorize when the bill is ready.

If you choose Bill selected without selecting any line items, Qoblex asks you to select one or more items first. A purchase order can carry more than one bill, so you can bill deliveries in stages as the supplier invoices them.

The bill screen

Header fields

The top of the bill shows:

• The bill number (labelled Bill N°), which you can edit in the Number field.
• A Draft or Authorized status badge.
• Create At: the bill date.
• Due On: the date the bill is due.
• A link to open the bill in your connected accounting integration, shown only once the bill has an external reference.

Product columns

The product table lists each billed item with these columns:

• Product
• Unit
• Sku
• Supplier Sku
• Quantity
• Price (the bill purchase price, shown excluding discounts)
• Discount (%)
• Tax (%)
• Total

Additional (landed) cost columns

Below the products, a second table lists any Additional Costs (landed costs) carried onto the bill:

• Additional Costs (the cost name)
• Quantity (shown as billed Out of the ordered quantity)
• Price
• Discount (%)
• Tax (%)
• Total

Totals

The summary on the right shows the Subtotal, Discount (only when there is one), Total tax, Total, a Paid Amount row for each payment, the Amount Due, and the Units Count. There is also a free-text Comments box for notes about the bill.

Edit a draft bill

While a bill is still in draft, you can adjust it and then save. The controls that can be changed on a draft are:

• Product line quantity: the Quantity field on each product line.
• Landed-cost lines: the Quantity, Price, and Discount fields on each additional-cost line.
• Header fields: the bill Number, the Create At date, and the Due On date.
• Comments: the notes box.
• Removing a line: use the red X at the end of a product or landed-cost row to remove that line from the bill.

To save your edits, select Save in the bill toolbar. Qoblex persists the changes to the bill.

On product lines, only Quantity is editable on the bill; the price, discount, and tax shown there come from the purchase order line. Adjust a product’s price, discount, or tax on the purchase order itself before billing. On additional-cost (landed-cost) lines you can edit the quantity, price, and discount directly on the bill.

A bill must keep at least one line. If you try to remove the last remaining product or landed-cost line, Qoblex blocks it and tells you to delete the bill instead.

Authorize a bill

Select Authorize to finalize the bill. Qoblex saves the bill first, then authorizes it.

After authorization the bill can be paid, and it may sync to your connected accounting integration depending on your integration settings.

If authorization cannot proceed, Qoblex shows the returned message at the top of the bill and leaves it open for correction. Authorization is refused when the bill is already authorized, or when one or more of its items have already been billed on another authorized bill.

Once a bill is authorized, its lines are locked: the quantity, price, and discount fields become read-only and the per-line remove (X) controls disappear. To change an authorized bill you must reopen it first (see below).

Edit an authorized bill (reopen it first)

You cannot edit an authorized bill directly. To change it:

1. Open the authorized bill.
2. Select Edit in the bill toolbar. This reopens (unauthorizes) the bill and returns it to Draft.
3. Make your changes as described in Edit a draft bill.
4. Select Save.
5. Select Authorize again to finalize the corrected bill.

The Edit button on an authorized bill is the reopen (unauthorize) action; it only appears while the bill is authorized. Qoblex saves the bill before reopening it, and shows any returned messages at the top of the bill if it cannot reopen.

A bill cannot be reopened while it still has payments or refunds attached. Remove the payments first (and any supplier refunds raised from the bill) before selecting Edit. Qoblex reports the reason if it cannot reopen.

Delete a bill

You can delete a bill only while it is in draft. Select Delete in the bill footer. Qoblex asks you to confirm and warns that the operation cannot be reverted.

When the delete succeeds, Qoblex removes the bill from the purchase order, refreshes the order, and returns you to the purchase order. If it fails, the returned message is shown at the top of the bill.

Create a supplier refund from a bill

From an authorized bill you can raise a supplier refund for items you were billed for:

1. Open the authorized bill.
2. Tick the product lines and/or additional-cost lines you want to refund.
3. Select Refund.

Qoblex saves the bill, creates the refund, and opens it. If you select Refund without ticking any lines, Qoblex shows Please select one or more line items to return. and does not create a refund.

See Supplier returns and supplier refunds for how the refund is authorized and how it reverses cost.