How to Use Suppliers, Purchase Bills, and Batch Payments

This guide walks you through the full accounts payable workflow in Awditify — from setting up your suppliers, to entering purchase bills, to paying multiple bills at once with batch payments.

---

What is the Accounts Payable Workflow?

The accounts payable (AP) workflow tracks money your business owes to suppliers. In Awditify, this involves three connected pages:

1. Suppliers — the businesses or individuals you buy from.
2. Purchase Bills — the invoices those suppliers send you.
3. Batch Payments — paying several bills at once in a single bank transaction.

These three pages are linked so you can move seamlessly from managing a supplier to viewing their bills to paying what you owe.

---

Getting to These Pages

1. Open the client you want to work with.
2. In the left sidebar, under Sales & Purchases, you will find:
   • Suppliers — manage your supplier list and their balances.
   • Purchase Bills — view and create bills from suppliers.
   • Batch Payments — pay multiple bills in one go.

You can also reach any of these pages from the toolbar search or the dashboard widgets.

---

Part 1: Suppliers

The Suppliers page is your central directory of every business or person you purchase goods and services from.

The Suppliers Dashboard

Summary stats

At the top, four cards give you an overview of your payables:

Filtering and searching

Use the search bar to find suppliers by name, company name, email, or supplier number. Use the Status dropdown to filter by Active, Inactive, or Suspended suppliers. Click Clear filters to reset both.

The suppliers list

Each supplier row shows:

• Supplier # — a unique system-generated number in orange.
• Name / Company — the supplier name and company name (if provided).
• Contact — email and phone number.
• Location — city and province.
• Terms — the payment terms (e.g. Net 30, Due on Receipt).
• Balance — the current amount owed. Red if positive (you owe them), blue if negative (credit on file).
• Status — Active (green), Inactive (grey), or Suspended (red).
• Actions — a three-dot menu with more options.

Click any supplier row to open their detail page.

✓ Tip: If the list is empty, you have not added any suppliers yet. Use the Add Supplier button to get started.

Adding a new supplier

1. On the Suppliers dashboard, click the orange Add Supplier button. A dropdown gives you two choices: New Supplier (adds a supplier first) or New Purchase Bill (jumps straight to creating a bill).
2. Choose New Supplier. A dialog opens with the following fields:

3. Click Save to create the supplier. A success toast confirms the supplier was added.

Editing a supplier

1. On the suppliers list, click the three-dot Actions menu on the right side of any row.
2. Select Edit Supplier. The same dialog opens, pre-filled with the supplier's information.
3. Make your changes and click Save.

You can also edit a supplier from their detail page by clicking the Edit Supplier button.

Viewing supplier details

Click any supplier row to open their detail page. This page has three sections:

Left column — Supplier Information and Bills

• Supplier Information card — full contact details, address, payment terms, status, and notes.
• Purchase Bills card — every bill associated with this supplier, with columns for Bill #, Vendor Invoice #, Date, Due Date, Original Amount (in the bill's currency), Home Currency equivalent (if multi-currency is enabled), Balance Due, Status, and a Pay button for any bill with an outstanding balance.
• Recurring Bills card (if applicable) — any recurring bill templates tied to this supplier, with the ability to activate or stop each one.
• Journal Entry Transactions card (if applicable) — any manual journal entries that involved this supplier, showing JE #, Date, Type, Description, Debit, Credit, and Status.

Right sidebar — Summary and Quick Actions

• Financial Summary — shows the Current Balance (what you owe), Total Bills, and Unpaid Bills count.
• Quick Actions — buttons to create a New Bill, Export PDF statement, Export Excel statement, or go to Batch Payments.

Exporting supplier statements

From the supplier detail page, use the Export button in the Quick Actions sidebar. You can:

• Export PDF — generates a formatted statement showing all bills and payments for a date range you specify. Opens in a new tab.
• Export Excel — downloads an .xlsx spreadsheet of the supplier's transaction history for a date range you specify.

Both exports let you set a start and end date before generating the file.

Deactivating or reactivating a supplier

• Deactivate: A supplier can only be deactivated if their balance is zero (nothing owed). Use the Deactivate option from the actions menu or the detail page. Deactivated suppliers do not appear in supplier dropdowns when creating new bills.
• Reactivate: A deactivated supplier can be reactivated at any time from the actions menu or detail page.

⚠ Warning: You cannot delete a supplier that has bills attached to them. Deactivate them instead if you no longer do business with them.

Deleting a supplier

From the actions menu, select Delete. You will be asked to confirm. This is permanent.

---

Part 2: Purchase Bills

Purchase bills represent invoices you receive from your suppliers. The Purchase Bills page is part of the larger Invoicing page, which has two tabs: Sales Invoices and Purchase Bills.

Getting to the Purchase Bills page

1. From the left sidebar, under Sales & Purchases, click Purchase Bills.
2. You land on the Invoicing page with the Purchase Bills tab active. The URL is /bookkeeper/clients/{id}/invoicing?view=purchases.

You can also get here from the Suppliers page — use the New Purchase Bill option in the Add Supplier dropdown, or the Create Bill action on any supplier row.

The Purchase Bills Dashboard

Summary stats

Four cards at the top summarize your payables:

Search and filter

• Search bar — search by bill number or supplier name.
• Status dropdown — filter by Draft, Partial, Paid, or Overdue.
• Clear filters — removes the search term and resets the status filter.

Creating a new purchase bill

Click the New Bill button to open the purchase bill form.

✓ Tip: You can also use the Create New dropdown at the top of the Invoicing page to choose between a Sales Invoice or a Purchase Bill.

The Purchase Bill Form

The form has several sections, laid out top to bottom:

Cash Purchase toggle

At the top of the form, you can toggle Cash Purchase on if you paid the supplier at the time of purchase (e.g. with a debit card or at a store).

• When enabled, a Pay from Bank Account dropdown appears. Select the bank account the money was withdrawn from.
• Supplier becomes optional for cash purchases — the expense is recorded directly without tracking a supplier balance.

ℹ Info: Cash purchases create both the bill and the payment simultaneously, saving you a step.

Supplier and bill info

Line items

Each line item represents a product or service on the bill:

• Click Add Line Item to add another row.
• Click the trash icon on any row to remove it.
• The subtotal, tax, discount, and total update in real time as you edit.

✓ Tip: If you have the inventory module, selecting an inventory item also shows any pending purchase order items for that product, so you can link the bill to a PO.

Discount

Apply a discount to the entire bill:

• Percentage — e.g. 5% off the subtotal.
• Fixed — e.g. $50 off.

The discount is deducted after tax is calculated on the pre-discount subtotal.

Recurring bill

Toggle Recurring Bill on to create a template that repeats on a schedule:

• Interval — Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly, or Custom (specify number of days).
• The system automatically generates new bills on the scheduled date.

You can manage recurring bills from the supplier detail page — activate or stop them at any time.

Tracking

If tracking locations or classes are enabled for the client, you can assign this bill to:

• Location — which business location or store this bill belongs to.
• Class — which department or segment (per line item).

Notes and attachments

• Notes — appears on the bill and may be visible to the supplier if you share it.
• Internal Notes — visible only to your team.
• Attachments — upload receipts, photos of the supplier's invoice, or any supporting documents. Click the attachment area or drag and drop files.

ℹ Info: If you arrived at this form from a scanned OCR invoice (using the AI document scanner), the form is pre-filled with the detected supplier, dates, line items, and tax codes. A blue banner at the top reminds you to review everything before saving.

Saving the bill

• Save Draft — saves the bill with a Draft status. Draft bills do not affect your general ledger or supplier balances. You can edit draft bills later.
• Save & Post — saves the bill and posts it to your general ledger immediately. The supplier balance is updated. Posted bills appear as Approved.

⚠ Warning: Only draft bills can be edited. Once posted, you cannot change the bill — you would need to void it and create a new one.

Viewing a purchase bill

Click any bill row on the Purchase Bills list to open the bill view page. The view page shows:

• Header — bill number, status badge, currency if foreign.
• Action buttons — Edit (draft only), Void, Post (draft only), Record Payment, Print.
• Bill details — supplier information (clickable to go to supplier detail), bill date, due date, payment terms, vendor invoice number, reference, currency and exchange rate.
• Line items table — description, quantity, unit cost, line total, expense account, tax, and class (if applicable).
• Payments section — a history of payments made against this bill, each with date, amount, bank account, and a delete option.
• Attachments section — any files uploaded with the bill. Click to download.

Recording a payment on a bill

1. On the bill view page, click the Record Payment button (or the Pay button on the supplier detail bills list).
2. A dialog opens with:

3. Click Record Payment. The bill's balance is reduced and the supplier's balance is updated.

⚠ Warning: You cannot record a payment for more than the balance due. If you need to record a prepayment or overpayment, use a journal entry instead.

Posting a draft bill

If a bill was saved as a draft, click the Post Bill button on the view page. This moves it from Draft to Approved status and updates the general ledger and supplier balance.

Voiding a bill

Click Void Bill to cancel a bill. Voided bills remain in the system for audit purposes but are excluded from balances and reports. The supplier balance is adjusted accordingly.

Printing a bill

Click Print to open the browser's print dialog with a formatted view of the bill.

Bulk actions on the Purchase Bills list

Select bills using the checkboxes on the left side of the table. A bulk action bar appears with:

• Void — voids all selected bills.
• Delete — permanently deletes all selected bills.
• Clear — deselects everything.

Use the checkbox in the table header to select or deselect all bills on the current page.

Duplicating a bill

From the actions menu on any bill row, select Duplicate. A new draft bill is created with the same supplier, line items, and settings. You are taken to the edit form to make changes before saving.

---

Part 3: Batch Payments

Batch payments let you pay multiple outstanding bills in a single bank transaction — useful when you write one cheque or send one bank transfer to cover several bills from the same or different suppliers.

Getting to Batch Payments

From the left sidebar, under Sales & Purchases, click Batch Payments.

The Batch Payments Dashboard

Payment History

The main table shows every batch payment you have created:

The list is paginated — use the Previous and Next buttons at the bottom if you have more than 50 batch payments.

Creating a new batch payment

1. On the Batch Payments dashboard, click New Batch Payment.
2. A full-screen dialog opens with the following sections:

Payment details

Outstanding Bills

Below the payment details, the dialog lists every unpaid bill across all suppliers:

Use the Select All and Deselect All buttons above the table to quickly check or uncheck every bill.

Selected rows are highlighted in blue. Overdue bills show their due date in red.

Total and notes

At the bottom of the dialog:

• A grey summary bar shows how many bills are selected and the total payment amount in bold.
• An optional Notes field for any internal notes about this batch.

Completing the batch payment

3. Review your selections and the total.
4. Click the Pay $X.XX button. The batch payment is processed — all selected bills are marked as paid (or partially paid) and the bank account is debited.

⚠ Warning: Batch payments cannot be undone through the UI. If you make a mistake, you would need to manually adjust the affected bills and create a correcting journal entry.

Viewing a batch payment

Click View on any row in the Payment History table. A dialog opens showing:

• Batch number and total in the header.
• Details — bank account, payment method, reference, and status.
• Bills paid table — each bill number, supplier name, and the amount paid.
• Total — repeated at the bottom.

---

How These Pages Fit Together

The three pages form a complete AP workflow:

1. Suppliers — add who you buy from.
2. Purchase Bills — record what you bought and how much you owe.
3. Batch Payments — pay what you owe, one bill at a time or several at once.

From any of these pages, you can quickly jump to the others:

• From the Suppliers list, use the actions menu to create a bill for that supplier.
• From a Supplier detail page, see all their bills, record a payment on any unpaid bill, or jump to Batch Payments.
• From the Purchase Bills list, click a supplier name to go to their detail page.
• From the Batch Payments form, filter by supplier to focus on one vendor's outstanding bills.

---

Understanding Bill Statuses

---

Understanding Payment Terms

---

Tips for a Smooth AP Workflow

• Add suppliers before creating bills. This keeps your payable records organized by vendor.
• Use the Vendor Invoice # field on bills to cross-reference with the supplier's actual invoice number — this makes it easy to find bills later.
• Save bills as Draft if you are waiting for approval or missing information. You can return and post them anytime.
• Use Batch Payments when you pay multiple bills from the same bank account on the same day — this keeps your bank reconciliation clean with one withdrawal instead of many.
• Reconcile your bank account after making batch payments to ensure the withdrawal appears on your bank statement.
• If a supplier gives you a credit or refund, record it as a negative bill or use a journal entry — the supplier's balance will update accordingly.
• Use the Export feature on the supplier detail page to send statements to your suppliers showing what you have paid and what is still owing.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a purchase bill and an expense?

A purchase bill is a formal record of an amount you owe to a supplier. It tracks the supplier, due date, and payment status. An expense is what you record in your general ledger — the purchase bill creates the expense entry automatically when posted.

Can I create a bill without a supplier?

Yes. Toggle Cash Purchase on in the bill form. This lets you record an expense directly from a bank account without linking it to a supplier. Supplier is optional for cash purchases.

How do I handle a supplier credit or refund?

If a supplier owes you money (e.g. a refund or overpayment), the supplier's balance will show as a negative (blue) amount. You can use a journal entry to record the credit, or record a negative-amount bill.

What happens to the general ledger when I post a bill?

A posted purchase bill debits the expense accounts on each line item and credits the accounts payable account. When you record a payment, the AP account is debited and the bank account is credited.

Can I change a bill after it has been posted?

No. Posted bills are locked. If you need to make a correction, void the bill and create a new one. Voided bills remain in the system with a Void status.

Does recording a payment on one bill affect other bills?

No. Each payment is tied to a specific bill. However, if you use Batch Payments, one bank transaction can pay multiple bills at once.

Can I pay a bill in a foreign currency?

Yes. If multi-currency is enabled in your invoicing settings, you can create bills in foreign currencies and record payments in the same currency. The system tracks exchange rates and calculates home currency equivalents for your general ledger.

What happens if I deactivate a supplier with unpaid bills?

You cannot deactivate a supplier that has a non-zero balance. All bills must be paid (or voided) before deactivation is allowed.

Can I set up a bill to repeat automatically?

Yes. Toggle Recurring Bill on when creating a bill. Choose the interval (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). The system generates a new bill on each scheduled date. You can manage recurring bills from the supplier detail page.

How do batch payments appear in bank reconciliation?

Each batch payment creates a single withdrawal transaction in your bank account for the total amount. When you reconcile that bank account, you will see one transaction to check off rather than many individual payments.