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.

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.

The bill copies each product price when it is created, so a later price change on the order does not reach an existing bill. If you billed at the wrong prices, see Purchasing troubleshooting under I billed a purchase order and the prices are wrong.

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.

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.

Qoblex will not reopen a bill while any of these remain, so clear them before selecting Edit:

• Payments recorded on the bill.
• Supplier refunds that cover lines on the bill.
• Supplier deposits on the purchase order.
• If the bill synced to Xero or QuickBooks, payments or credit notes against it in that system.

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.

If the bill had synced to your accounting system, check it there:

• In Xero, Qoblex deletes the bill too, or voids it if it was already approved in Xero. Qoblex shows “Bill number deleted from Xero.”
• In QuickBooks, the bill is not removed. Delete or void it in QuickBooks yourself. Otherwise, billing the order again leaves two bills there.

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.