A bill is what you owe a vendor. Opening it posts the liability; paying it clears it.
#The Bills list
Status tabs All · Unpaid · Overdue · Paid · Drafts, filters for vendor and bill date, a footer with total billed and open balance, and the usual column chooser, export and board view.
#Creating a bill
- Purchases → Bills → New bill.
- Optional — Scan receipt to prefill. Upload a photo or PDF of the vendor's invoice; LedgersLab reads the date, due date, reference and line amounts it can find and suggests the vendor. You still confirm the vendor and accounts.
- Header:
- Vendor *, Bill no. (auto when blank, or the vendor's invoice number), Bill date *, Due date, Expected (when you expect to pay), Terms (sets the due date), Reference.
- Currency and, if it differs from the base currency, the exchange rate.
- The Draft / Open switch in the status slot — leave it on Draft to save without posting; set it to Open to post the bill on save.
- Lines are split into two sections:
- Category details — cost lines charged straight to an expense or other account (Office rent, Software subscriptions): Category (the account), Description, Amount, Tax, Dimensions.
- Item details — stocked or purchasable items: Item, Description, Qty, UoM, Rate, Discount %, Tax, Amount. Optional columns behind the gear: Dimensions and Freight.
- Add lines adds a row; Clear all lines empties the section.
- More on a line: Billable to a customer — pick the customer to re-bill; the line then appears in Add billable bill items on that customer's next invoice.
- A line charged to a fixed-asset account becomes a pending asset in Fixed Assets when the bill is opened (Asset linked); a line that wasn't linked shows → Create Asset. Editing or voiding the bill moves its assets with it. A line on a work-in-progress account (Work in progress) collects cost for an asset being built instead (Chapter 12). To buy assets without leaving Fixed Assets, use New asset → Bought.
- Mark a freight, duty or handling line as Freight to make it a landed-cost source (section 6.5).
- Totals: Subtotal, Discount, Tax, Adjustment (e.g. Rounding), Total.
- Memo — an internal note, not shown to the vendor.
- More bill details opens a drawer for tax-compliance fields — Tax treatment, GST treatment, GST / VAT number, HSN / SAC, Place / Source / Destination of supply, Reverse charge (self-assessed VAT) — and the bill's custom fields.
- Attach the vendor's invoice and click Create bill.
Lots. An item tracked by batch or serial shows a Lots cell on its line: name the batch that arrived (with its expiry) and the quantity per lot, or one serial per unit — the cell turns red until they add up to the line quantity. Items with generated batch numbers need nothing. See 10.11 Batches, serials and expiry.
#Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved but not posted; freely editable. |
| Open | Posted; affects the books and can be paid. |
| Partial | A payment or credit has been applied; a balance remains. |
| Overdue | Open and past the due date. |
| Paid | Fully settled. |
| Voided | Cancelled, kept as an audit record. |
#The bill page
Header: vendor, bill number, dates, reference, payment terms, tax treatment, source PO, and the Summary (Subtotal, Paid, Due Amount). Tabs: Overview, Journal Entries, Payment transactions, Approvals, plus Landed costs and Generated Assets panels where relevant.
Buttons: Mark as open (draft; if an approval rule matches this bill it is sent for approval instead of posting), Edit bill, Make Payment (open, with a balance), Send Mail, PDF, Delete (draft). ⋯ menu: Submit for approval, Send Mail, Add landed cost, Void bill, Download PDF, Edit bill.
#Paying one bill
- On an open bill click Make Payment.
- Amount Paid (defaults to the balance), Payment Date, Pay from * (the bank or cash account), Payment No., Reference, Statement.
- Save payment. The balance updates and the payment appears under Payment transactions and in Payments Made.
Paying more than the bill's due keeps the rest as credit with the vendor (the dialog says how much), to apply to a later bill or have refunded (section 6.8).
#Withholding tax (TDS) on a bill
Where the law makes you deduct tax from what you pay a vendor — rent, contract work, professional fees — give the vendor a withholding category (Settings → Purchases → Withholding Tax; the vendor drawer's Tax section). Every bill for that vendor then shows a Withholding tax row under its totals and a Net payable: a 100,000 rent bill at 10 % is owed 90,000, and 10,000 sits in Withholding Tax Payable until you remit it. The bill's total stays what the vendor invoiced; the balance due is the net. Override the category on one bill under More details → Tax & compliance.
Categories that deduct on payment instead (dividends, US backup withholding) leave the bill gross and withhold on each payment: the payment form shows the estimate and the vendor receives the net. Thresholds are honoured — a single-bill minimum, or a fiscal-year cumulative one where the bill that crosses it withholds on everything to date. An exempt vendor (with a certificate and an end date) is skipped while the exemption is valid.
See 6.9 Purchases reports for the remittance and the certificate.