Managing Bills

Accounts Payable tracks what you owe suppliers. Raise a purchase order, send it for approval, then record the payment when it goes out.

A note on wording

AxiomBlue calls these records bills in some places and purchase orders in others. They are the same record. The list sits behind the Purchase Orders tab, the button reads New P/O, and the editor is titled Purchase Order.

View what you owe

Go to Banking & Expenses > Accounts Payable. Four figures sit across the top: Total Outstanding, Overdue, Pending Approval and Drafts.

Below them, the Purchase Orders tab lists every bill with its supplier, reference, issue date, due date, status and amount due. An authorised bill past its due date carries an OVERDUE marker beside the status.

Select Filters to narrow the list by Overdue Only, Status, Supplier, or a Due Date From and Due Date To range. Options > Export Bills downloads the list. Searching needs at least three characters.

Raise a purchase order

Select New P/O.

1. Supplier — required.
2. Supplier PO # — required. Enter the supplier's own PO or invoice number, so you can match the paperwork later.
3. Reference — your own reference, such as a project code.
4. Issue Date and Due Date — both required.
5. Add a line for each item or service, with a description, quantity, unit price and tax code.
6. Internal Notes — anything your team needs to know about this bill.
7. Select Save Draft.

Send it for approval

Select Submit on a draft and confirm. The bill moves to Submitted and appears in the Pending Approval count.

Someone holding the approve permission then opens the bill and selects Approve, which moves it to Authorised, or Reject. Both buttons only appear while the bill is awaiting a decision.

To pull a submitted bill back for editing, open it and choose Return to Draft from the Options menu.

Record a payment

Open an authorised bill and select Record Payment. You can also use the Mark Paid row action from the list.

1. Payment Date — required.
2. Payment Method — required. The list follows what your business accepts under Settings > Payments.
3. Amount — required, and it defaults to the amount due.
4. Bank Account — the account the money left.
5. Reference — a bank reference or cheque number.
6. Select Record Payment.

Paying the full amount moves the bill to Paid. A part payment leaves a balance you can pay off later.

Bill statuses

• Draft — still yours to edit, and the only status you can delete.
• Submitted — waiting on an approver.
• Authorised — approved, and ready to pay.
• Paid — settled in full.
• Voided — cancelled, and kept for the record.
• Deleted — removed from the working list.

The status filter also offers Pending, Partial and Overdue. Those are older values that survive on bills created before the status list changed, so you will only meet them on historical records.

Other actions

• Download — a PDF of the purchase order, from the row menu or from Options inside the editor.
• Duplicate Bill — copies the supplier, reference, notes and lines into a new draft.
• Delete — drafts only.

Aged payables

The Aged Report tab groups outstanding bills by how long they have been owed. The same figures are available as a standalone report under Reports > Aged Payables.