How to check, record and pay supplier bills

Buying › Bills holds every bill your suppliers send, checked against what actually arrived. It is the last step of What are suppliers and purchase orders?: the goods are in, and now the money has to match them.

The page is headed "What each vendor has billed, checked against what actually arrived." Every row is something to check, pay or send on.

Before you start

• The Purchase orders module has to be on. See How to switch parts of Tideswell on and off.
• Seeing the page needs View bills. Recording a bill or a payment, and sending a bill to QuickBooks, need Edit bills. Both start at lead; see How to set who can do what.
• Settings › Bill reasons and Settings › QuickBooks are admin screens.

How does a bill get into Tideswell?

Most bills arrive with a delivery. When you press Receive shipment on a purchase order, the dialog ends with a Vendor invoice section, folded shut and marked optional. Open it with the supplier's paperwork in front of you and type what it says.

• Invoice number, Invoice date and Invoice total go together: fill in all three, or leave the whole section empty.
• Terms starts with the supplier's own terms. Due follows terms written like "Net 30" and stops moving once you pick a date yourself.
• Tax is whatever tax the invoice adds.

A delivery with no paperwork still goes into stock, and it waits on the Awaiting paperwork tab. The rest of receiving is on How to receive a delivery.

Each delivery carries one bill. Tideswell also refuses an invoice number already recorded for the same supplier, so the same bill cannot be entered, and paid, twice.

How does Tideswell check a bill?

It adds up what the bill should be and compares it with the total the supplier printed. The expected figure is the goods at the unit costs booked in at receiving, plus the freight and duty entered there, plus the bill's tax.

The Check column then reads one of three things:

• Matches, when the two agree to the cent.
• An amount over or under, in red, with the expected figure beside it.
• Not comparable, with the reason, such as a bill that never became stock, a delivery that was voided, or a delivery whose costs were not recorded when it arrived.

Say Kaimen Knitwear bills $4,860.00 for a delivery Tideswell expected at $4,740.00. The row reads "$120.00 over · expected $4,740.00". Before you query it with Kaimen, check whether the freight on their invoice was typed in at receiving.

What does each tab show?

The tabs run Inbox, This week, Due, Aging, Flagged and Awaiting paperwork. The page opens on This week, and each tab carries a count.

• Inbox: invoices forwarded in by email, covered below.
• This week: bills with an invoice date in the last seven days.
• Due: every bill with a due date, soonest first. An overdue one is red and says Overdue.
• Aging: what you owe each supplier, one row per supplier and currency. Columns run from Current and No terms agreed through the overdue ages to Outstanding. Its count is suppliers, not bills.
• Flagged: bills whose total does not match what arrived.
• Awaiting paperwork: deliveries from the last 90 days with no bill recorded, showing Vendor, Order, Received and Goods. Use it as the list of invoices to chase.

The bill tabs share one table: Vendor, Invoice (number and date), Order or reason, Due, Total, Check and QuickBooks. Order or reason links to the purchase order, or names the reason for a bill with no delivery.

How do you record a bill that never became stock?

Press Record a bill at the top of the page. It is for bills with no delivery behind them, such as a repair, a special order or a staff purchase.

1. Choose Why this bill exists. There is no default, because the reason decides where the bill belongs in your accounts.
2. Type the Invoice number, Invoice date, Terms and Due.
3. Add any Tax and the Invoice total.
4. Press Record bill.

The toast reads "Bill recorded." The row shows the reason under Order or reason, and Check reads Not comparable, because nothing arrived to compare it with.

If the dialog says there are no bill reasons set up yet, an admin adds them first.

How do you set up bill reasons?

Open Settings › Bill reasons. These are your workspace's own words for why a bill exists without a delivery, so Tideswell starts the list empty.

1. Press Add reason.
2. Type the reason (for example "Repair") and, beside it, the Account it posts to in your books.
3. Use the arrows to put the list in order, then press Save.

Removing a reason keeps every bill already filed under it. Removed reasons move to a Removed list; press Restore, then Save, to bring one back. Changing the list needs Define Objects.

How do you record a payment?

Press Record payment at the end of the row. It shows while money is still owed.

1. Check the supplier, invoice and amount outstanding at the top of Record a payment.
2. Type the Amount, or press Pay the balance to fill in everything owed.
3. Set Paid on and add a Reference, such as the wire or cheque number.
4. Press Record payment.

The toast reads "Payment recorded." The Total cell then shows what is left, or Paid. This records money you have already paid from the bank; Tideswell moves no money itself. Record a part payment the same way, each time one goes out.

How do you send a bill to QuickBooks?

Press Send in the bill's QuickBooks column. The toast reads "Sent to QuickBooks." and the cell changes to Sent with the bill's QuickBooks number.

Nothing is sent automatically. Each bill goes across when somebody presses Send, so nothing appears in your books that a person did not put there.

Check the bill before you press Send, because a sent bill cannot be taken back from Tideswell. To reverse one, void it in QuickBooks.

Send bills whose Check reads Matches. When something in your set-up stops a bill going across, a message names it, for example "This supplier isn't matched to a QuickBooks vendor yet." or "No account is set for freight." If QuickBooks itself turns a bill down, its reason stays in red under Send until the bill goes across.

How do you set QuickBooks up for bills?

An admin connects QuickBooks once, then tells Tideswell where bills post.

1. In Settings › Integrations, press Connect QuickBooks and approve on Intuit's screen. See How to manage integrations, your workspace name and the audit log.
2. Open Settings › QuickBooks. Under The three lines on every bill, choose an account for Goods, Freight and Purchase discounts, then press Save accounts. All three are needed before a bill can be sent.
3. Under Which QuickBooks vendor each supplier is, pick the QuickBooks vendor for each of your suppliers. Match every supplier whose bills you send; the rest can stay on Not matched.

Tideswell never creates a vendor in your books. Add a missing vendor in QuickBooks first, then match it here.

A sent bill carries the supplier's invoice number, invoice date and due date. Its goods go on the Goods line, and freight and duty share the Freight line.

How do forwarded invoices reach the Inbox?

When invoice forwarding is on for your workspace, the Inbox tab shows Forward invoices to with a private address and Copy. Have your accounts mailbox forward supplier invoices to it.

Each email that arrives is listed with From, Subject, Arrived and Status, and stays Waiting until somebody says what it was:

• This is… matches it to a bill you have recorded. A Suggested match card may say "Looks like Portside Mills, PO-1042"; Review match narrows the list to those bills.
• Not an invoice asks Why not?, then Save.

Record the bill first, at receiving or with Record a bill, then match the email to it. A row dealt with by mistake has Undo, which puts it back in the inbox.