Bills (Vendor Invoices)

For: People using the software to create and manage bills (vendor invoices)

Purpose: Understand what the Bill module does and how it helps your business

What This Module Does

A bill is what you receive from a vendor for goods or services you have purchased. It lists the items, quantities, rates, taxes, and total amount you owe. You can create a bill from a Purchase Order (direct, when no GRPO exists for those POs), from one or more GRPOs (Goods Received Purchase Orders), or directly (manual entry). Once a bill is Open, you can record payments made and vendor credits against it. The system tracks balance amount, links payments and vendor credits, updates the vendor's branch current balance (what you owe), and can add stock to your warehouse when the bill is created (and reverse that when you cancel or delete it) if your company has "stock add on bill" enabled.

The Bill module lets you:

• Create and edit bills (when the status allows).
• Create bills from Purchase Orders (direct, when no GRPO exists for those POs), from GRPOs, or directly.
• Attach documents.
• See which Purchase Order(s) or GRPO(s) a bill came from.
• Change bill status (e.g. Draft → Open; Open → Paid / Partially Paid / Overdue; or Cancel).
• Record payments made and vendor credits against bills (handled in other modules; this module shows payment history).
• View pending bills (balance > 0) and vendor-wise pending bills for payment entry.
• Export bill lists to Excel.

Main Features (What You Can Do)

1. Create a New Bill

When you create a bill you typically enter:

• Vendor: who you owe (the bill is from this vendor). The vendor must exist and be valid for the selected branch.
• Branch, division, and warehouse: where the bill is raised and (if stock add is on) where stock will be added.
• Shipping address: your company’s address or, if the bill is linked to a customer (e.g. drop-ship), the customer’s main or additional shipping address. The system checks that the address is valid for the company or the selected customer.
• Items: products or services, quantities, rates, amounts, and optional discounts (percentage or amount) per item.
• Bill date, due date, payment terms, subject, customer notes, terms and conditions, and total amount.
• Attachments: you can upload files. These are stored securely and shown with the bill.

Creating from a Purchase Order

• You can create a bill directly from one or more Purchase Orders (without creating a GRPO first). You select the PO(s) and the items/quantities to bill. The system checks that no GRPO already exists for any of those POs; if a GRPO exists for them, you must create the bill from the GRPO instead. The system also checks that the quantities you are billing do not exceed what is still available to bill from those POs (ordered minus already received in GRPOs or billed in other bills).
• Once saved, each PO is linked to this bill (added to the PO’s Converted to and comment history), and each PO’s status is updated (e.g. to Partially Recorded or Converted).

Creating from GRPOs

• You can create a bill from one or more GRPOs. You select GRPO(s) in Recorded status that are not already fully billed. The system checks that none of the selected GRPOs are already linked to a non-cancelled bill.
• Once saved, each GRPO is linked to this bill (added to the GRPO’s Converted to and comment history), and each GRPO’s status is set to Converted.

Creating directly (no PO / no GRPO)

• You can create a bill directly by entering vendor, items, and amounts without linking to a PO or GRPO. The system still validates vendor, branch, shipping address, credit limit, and overdue bills as below.

Credit limit

• If the vendor has a credit limit and bills are included in that limit, the system checks that creating this bill does not exceed the limit. The limit can be overall for the vendor or per branch
• If the limit would be exceeded, you get a clear message with the total limit, current usage, and remaining amount. You cannot save the bill until the total is within limit (or the limit is increased).

Overdue bills

• If your company restricts creating bills when the vendor has overdue bills, the system checks for any overdue bill for that vendor.
• If one exists, you cannot create the bill until the overdue bill is paid or the restriction is changed.

Stock add (inventory)

• If your company has stock add on bill enabled and the bill is not linked to a customer, the system adds the billed quantity to the selected warehouse for each item when you save. It creates or updates batches (batch number, quantity, purchase price). This keeps inventory in sync with what you have been billed for.
• If the bill is linked to a customer (e.g. drop-ship), stock is not added.

What the system does when you save

• It generates a unique bill number (e.g. BILL-001).
• It records who created the bill and when.
• It stores your company’s authorised signature and primary bank details (for display, if configured).
• It adds a note in the bill’s comment history (e.g. "Bill is created from Purchase Order: PO-001", "Bill is created from GRPO: GRPO-001", or "Bill created for ₹X").
• If the bill was created from PO(s) or GRPO(s), it updates those documents’ Converted to, comment history, and (for POs) status as described above.
• It updates the vendor’s branch current balance (outstanding amount) by the bill total for each affected branch so that ageing and payables reports stay correct.

2. View and Search Bills

You can list bills with:

• Date: a single bill date or a date range (from–to).
• Branch and division: filter by one or more branches or divisions.
• Status: e.g. Draft, Open, Partially Paid, Paid, Overdue, Cancelled.
• Search: by bill number, GRPO number, or vendor name (display name or company name). The list shows only bills that match your filters and search.

The list is paginated. For each bill you can see vendor, branch, division, warehouse, who added it, who last updated it, total and balance amount.

3. Open a Bill (Full Details)

When you open one bill, the system shows:

• Header: bill number, vendor, branch, division, warehouse, bill date, due date, status, total, paid amount, balance amount.
• Vendor: name, code, phone, company name, and address details.
• Purchase Orders: if the bill was created from PO(s), the PO number(s), date(s), status, and total.
• GRPO(s): if the bill was created from GRPO(s), the GRPO number(s), date(s), status, and total.
• Items: each line with item name, quantity, rate, amount, discount (if any), and batch details (if stock add was used).
• Shipping address: the address used for this bill.
• Bank details: primary bank information (if set for your company).
• Comment history: who did what and when (e.g. "Bill created", "Status changed to Open", "Bill updated").
• Attachments: list of attached files.
• Module tree: how this bill links to Purchase Orders, GRPOs, and payments (PO → GRPO → Bill → Payment Made, or PO → Bill → Payment Made, or direct Bill → Payment Made).

4. Edit a Bill

You can edit a bill only when its status is Draft or Open. Once the bill is Paid, Partially Paid, Overdue, or Cancelled, the system does not allow editing (so the record stays as it was when you closed it).

When you edit a Draft or Open bill:

• You can change vendor, branch, division, warehouse, shipping address, items (add, remove, or change quantities/rates/discounts), total, and attachments.
• The system checks again that the vendor is valid for the branch (and adds the branch to the vendor if your settings allow) and that the shipping address is valid.
• Credit limit is checked for the change in amount (new total minus previous total); you cannot exceed the remaining limit.
• If stock add is enabled and the bill is not linked to a customer, the system adjusts inventory: it removes stock (and batches) for items or quantities you remove, adds stock (and batches) for items or quantities you add, and updates batches when you change quantity or price/discount on a line. If you turn off stock add on edit, the system reverts the stock that was added by this bill.
• The vendor’s branch current balance is adjusted by the difference between the new total and the old total.
• Linked Purchase Order and GRPO statuses are recalculated based on remaining billed quantities from other bills.
• A comment is added to the bill history (e.g. "Bill updated" or "Amount changed from ₹X to ₹Y").

5. Change Bill Status

You can change the status of a bill only in allowed ways. The system uses these rules:

• Draft → you can move to Open or Cancelled.
• Open → you can move to Paid, Partially Paid, Overdue, or Cancelled.
• Partially Paid → you can move to Paid or Cancelled.
• Paid → no further status change (terminal).
• Overdue → you can move to Paid, Partially Paid, or Cancelled.
• Cancelled → no further status change.

When you cancel a bill:

• The system checks that no payment made and no vendor credit has been created from or applied to this bill. If any exist, you cannot cancel until those are reversed or the links are removed.
• If stock add was used, the system reverses the addition (stock is deducted from the warehouse) for the bill.
• The vendor’s branch current balance is reduced by the bill total for each affected branch (outstanding is reduced as if the bill no longer exists).
• If the bill was created from Purchase Order(s), the system recalculates each PO’s status (e.g. back to Accepted or Partially Recorded based on remaining billed quantities from other bills), removes this bill from each PO’s Converted to list, and adds a comment on each PO (e.g. "Bill No BILL-001 cancelled successfully").
• If the bill was created from GRPO(s), each GRPO’s status is set back to Recorded, this bill is removed from each GRPO’s Converted to list, and a comment is added (e.g. "Bill No BILL-001 cancelled successfully").
• A comment is added to the bill (e.g. "Bill cancelled successfully").

6. Delete a Bill

You can delete a bill only when:

• No payment made has been created from or applied to this bill.
• No vendor credit** has been created from or applied to this bill.

If any of these exist, the system blocks deletion and tells you which document(s) are blocking it. You must handle those documents first (e.g. cancel or unlink them) before you can delete the bill.

• When you delete a bill:
  • If stock add was used, the system reverses the stock addition for all items on the bill.
  • The vendor’s branch current balance is reduced by the bill total for each affected branch.
  • If the bill was created from Purchase Order(s) or GRPO(s), the system updates those documents (status, Converted to, comment history) in the same way as when you cancel a bill. A comment is added on each PO or GRPO (e.g. "Bill No BILL-001 deleted successfully").
  • The bill record(s) are permanently removed.

7. Pending Bills (For Payments)

The system can show pending bills (bills with a balance amount greater than zero and status Open, Partially Paid, or Overdue).

• This list is used when you record a payment made or apply a vendor credit so you can choose which bills to allocate the payment or credit to.
• You can also see vendor-wise pending bills (e.g. when creating a payment for a specific vendor), with the option to include or exclude Paid bills depending on the screen.
• Results can be sorted by due date (e.g. earliest first) to help you prioritise payments.

8. Export Bills to Excel

You can export the current list of bills (after applying your filters and search) to an Excel file.

• The export uses the same filters you used on the screen (date range, branch, division, status, search).
• The file typically includes bill number, vendor (customer name in export columns), division, branch, warehouse, status, bill date, due date, payment terms, amounts (basic, total, paid, balance), reference, subject, created/updated dates.
• Status values are shown in readable form (e.g. Draft, Open, Paid, Cancelled).

9. Payment and Vendor Credit History for a Bill

For any bill you can see:

• Payments made: list of payment made documents that include this bill, with payment date, amount paid, and the amount allocated to this bill.
• Vendor credits applied: list of vendor credits that have been applied against this bill, with vendor credit number, date, total, available balance, and the amount applied to this bill.

This helps you see how much has been paid or adjusted and what balance remains.

Summary of Rules (Quick Reference)