Suppliers and their bills

Billing, Payables is the firm's creditors ledger: every bill a supplier sends, from the day it arrives to the day it is paid. Rent, utilities, couriers, bailiffs, process servers, experts and counsel's fees all go through it, and the ones paid for a client's matter are recharged to that matter.

Suppliers

A supplier is a party on the register with a supplier's terms. Suppliers, Add supplier chooses a party the firm already keeps, or puts somebody new on the register, and sets:

• Days to pay, counted from the invoice date or from the end of the invoice's month. A bill's due date follows from them unless it is typed.
• The currency its bills come in, the account its lines are booked to and the tax it charges, which every new bill starts with.
• Whether its bills are usually recharged to matters, as a bailiff's or a courier's are.
• The class of payment tax is withheld from it under, and any exemption certificate it holds with its last day. On the day after, withholding starts again by itself.

A party's own page also offers Add as a supplier. A supplier no longer used is retired: nothing new is recorded for it, and what it is owed is still paid.

How a supplier is paid

On the supplier's page, How it is paid, Set how it is paid asks for the bank account or the mobile money number, and why. The change waits until somebody other than whoever asked approves it, in the approvals inbox or on the supplier's page, and only then is anything paid there. Until a supplier's details are confirmed it can only be paid by cheque.

Recording a bill

1. Record bill, or Supplier bill in the New menu.
2. Choose the supplier and type their invoice number, the invoice date and the day it was received. Leave Due empty for the supplier's terms to decide it.
3. Add each line: what it was, how many at what price before tax, the tax charged (as the supplier charges, none, or a group of the firm's) and whether the input tax is claimed back. A line is either the firm's own cost, booked to an account, or recharged to a matter, which names the matter and the kind of disbursement and whether it is billed to the client.
4. What it comes to works the bill out as it is typed: before tax, the tax, the total, the tax to be withheld when it is paid and what the supplier will be paid.
5. Choose Record bill. It is numbered from the firm's scheme (SB-2026-00001) and kept as a draft.

On the bill, Attach the scanned bill files the supplier's own copy with it. It opens once the virus scan has cleared it.

Approval

Submit for approval sends the draft on. It waits for somebody holding the right to approve supplier bills who did not record it, change it or submit it; in a firm of one, its one member approves their own.

• At or below the firm's approval threshold, a recorder who may approve approves it as they submit it. The threshold starts at nothing, so every bill waits for a second person until the firm raises it.
• Above the second approver amount, it needs two approvers, the second not the first.
• Return to its recorder sends it back to draft with the reason; they correct it and submit it again.

The last approval posts the bill: its costs and claimable tax are debited and Trade payables (2200) is credited in the supplier's name. Each matter line becomes a disbursement on its matter, which bills to the client as any other does, and the bill's line then shows what became of it. A bill dated in a closed month posts on the day it is approved and says so.

Holding, disputing and cancelling

• Put on hold or Dispute stops a bill being paid, with the reason. Release lets it be paid again; only an approver releases it.
• Cancel ends a draft or a bill waiting for approval. A posted bill nothing has settled is cancelled by an approver: its journal and its disbursements are reversed.
• An approver may Change the tax withheld on a bill not yet settled, with the reason, where the supplier holds a certificate the record does not.

Paying

One bill

Pay on an approved bill chooses the office account it is paid from (in the bill's currency), how it is paid and how much, all of what is owed by default. The payment is a payment voucher: a second person approves it under the bank mandate and somebody pays it, exactly as every other voucher under Client account, Vouchers. Only once the voucher is paid does the bill settle.

A payment run

Payment runs, New payment run pays every approved bill due by a day, from one office account, narrowed to a supplier or a matter where wanted.

1. Choose the account, Due by, the day it is paid and how.
2. Read the bills. Every bill due is listed, ticked; untick one to leave it for a later run. A supplier whose details are not confirmed, or which is on hold, is left out with the reason.
3. Make the payments. Each supplier gets one voucher for all its bills in the run.

Tax withheld

Where a supplier's class of payment withholds tax, the payment keeps it back: the supplier is paid the rest, and the tax is owed to the GRA in Withholding tax payable (2400). The payment's page then offers:

• Open the remittance advice, listing every bill the payment settled, drawn on the letterhead.
• Open the withholding certificate, numbered from the firm's scheme (WHT-2026-00001).
• Send to the supplier, which emails both.
• Record the GRA's number once the certificate is filed on the GRA's portal.

A foreign currency bill posts at the firm's rate on its invoice date; any difference on the day it is paid goes to the exchange gain or loss account.

Credit notes

Credit notes, Record credit note records a supplier's credit note, against one of its bills or on account. It is numbered (SCN-2026-00001) and posted as it is recorded; one against a bill settles it at once. Apply to a bill sets credit on account against a later bill. A credit note none of which has been applied may be voided by an approver.

Recurring bills

Recurring, Add recurring bill keeps a bill that comes each period, such as rent or a subscription: the supplier, how often, the next bill's date, how many days ahead it is drafted and its lines. Each morning the bills due are drafted and their keeper is told; nothing is ever approved by the schedule. Draft the next bill now drafts one early where the supplier's bill has come.

What the firm owes

• Ageing shows what each supplier is owed, not yet due, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days past due, on any day. A figure opens the bills behind it, and Supplier narrows it to one.
• Reports carries Aged creditors, Supplier bills due, Tax withheld from suppliers (by month or supplier, for the GRA's return), Supplier statements, to check against the statement a supplier sends, and Suppliers' costs on matters, billed and still to bill.

The firm's rules

• Settings, Time & billing, Billing settings, General: Supplier bill approval threshold, Second approver above, Duplicate supplier bill window (days), Supplier bills due soon (days) (how far ahead bills count as due soon) and Withholding reckoned on (whether tax is withheld on the value before VAT or on the gross).
• Settings, System, General, Approvals: how many working days a supplier's bill (A supplier's bill: decided within (working days), 3 by default) and a change to how a supplier is paid (Where a supplier is paid: decided within (working days), 2 by default) may wait.
• Settings, Accounting, Tax, Supplier withholding: the classes of payment under the Income Tax Act, 2015 (Act 896), s.116, each with its rate and the amount it starts above. A change in the law is a new rate from the day it takes effect; no rate in force is edited.