Create a Bill

Learn how to create a bill in AroFlo Office

Updated on September 19th, 2024

Bills are created from:

From a Purchase or Work Order that's marked as In Progress, click Approve & Create Bill, to approve the order and create a bill.

Purchase Orders: Using Supplier Invoice Imports?

If using supplier invoice imports, your import from the supplier will automatically generate a Bill and link it to the purchase order.

 
 

Want to keep your order In Progress?

If you want to create a bill and approve the order at a later stage, click (three dots icon) next to Approve & Create Bill and click Create Bill.

 
 

Can't see Create Bill?

Only Managers and those with permission will be able to create a bill.

Custom Permission Groups

Site Administrators can enable Bills for custom permission groups by going into:

  • Permission Groups > [Select permission group] > Bills > Enable at least List, View, and Create.
  • Permission Groups > [Select permission group] > Purchase Orders > Fields > Bills > View and Add (set to ticked)
  • Permission Groups > [Select permission group] > Work Orders > Enable at least List and View > Fields > Bills > Ensure View and Add are set to ticked.
 
 
 

 

Bill Line Item Options

When creating a bill, you'll have to make a choice as to what information you want to transfer across to the bill, except for when you've entered quantities on a purchase order for items that are yet to be billed.

Scenarios

  • You haven't entered quantities for your items received
  • You're creating a subsequent bill for remaining items not yet billed.
 
 
Option
Description
Create Bill for items ordered that have not been billed yet

This will create a bill and include only the line items on the order which haven't already had a bill created for them (i.e. quantity ordered - quantity billed).

Quantity billed

In this example, creating a bill for items ordered that are yet to be billed will create a bill for 10x the second item on the order (20 ordered - 10 already billed = 10 not yet billed)
 
 

For bills created from purchase orders, you'll need to record the quantities received on the bill.

For bills created from work orders, your quantities will transfer to the bill. Edit these if necessary.

If this is the first bill you're creating for a work order, this option and Create Bill for all items ordered will act in the same way.

 
Create Bill for all items ordered

This will create a bill and include all line items on the order, regardless of whether they've been received or not. You may need to check/edit your quantities on the bill for these items.

This is helpful if you want to quickly mark all of your items as being received, e.g. for subsequent purchase orders where you know the items received are an exact match with what was ordered.

 
Create Bill with no line items A bill will be created with no line items. You can still manually add the purchase or work order items if necessary.

 

Dates and Invoice Number

The information towards the top of the bill worksheet relates to the order the bill was created from. For Purchase Orders, See Record Supplier Invoice Details. For Work Orders, see Enter order details.

If you filled out this information on the Purchase/Work Order (where applicable), this will be displayed here; otherwise, check your supplier/contractor invoice to update these fields as necessary.

Purchase Orders: Using Supplier Invoice Imports?

If using Supplier Invoice Imports, these fields will be updated with details from the Supplier Invoice upon import.

 
Field
Description
Supplier/Contractor Invoice number

Record the Supplier Invoice number.

Duplicate Supplier Invoice Number

If manually entering a Supplier/Contractor Invoice Number which already exists for the same supplier/contractor, you'll receive a warning:

 
 
Date Invoiced

Record the date on the supplier/contractor invoice.

This will default to the date the bill was created for Purchase Orders where the Date Invoiced was left blank, as well as Work Orders.

 
Date Received When the items were received from the supplier/contractor.
Due Date

When the Invoice payment is due.

This field will auto-populate based on the Date Invoiced and the terms set in the Supplier card. 

If the supplier has no payment terms, the default will be the same as Date Invoiced.

 

Return to the order

To go back to the order this bill relates to:

  • Click < Purchase/Work Order at the top left,
  • or click View at the top right > Linked Purchase / Work Order,
  • or click the Purchase/Work Order number.
 

 

Task information

If your bill was created from an order with items assigned to tasks, the task information will be available within the following:

  • the bill header.
  • the line item area, on top of the assigned items, just as it does in Purchase and Work Orders.

Click the task hyperlink to open the related task.

This purchase order has items assigned to stock and a task

Move items on orders

If you need to move items between tasks on a purchase or work order, see Moving Purchase Order Items or Moving Work Order Items.

 

 

Other tabs on the Bill

Notes

Enter any relevant notes for this bill, e.g. information on items waiting to be delivered, anything that might be out of stock, or items requiring a back order.

 
 

Documents & Photos

If you have Documents & Photos included in your AroFlo subscription, this could be a good place to upload a copy of your supplier's invoice for this bill, so it's accessible in the future.

Supplier invoice imports

If using supplier invoice imports, your supplier invoice will automatically be uploaded to the Documents & Photos tab.

 
 
 

All Bills

This will give you a list of all bills which originated from the same order.

The yellow strip indicates the bill you're currently on.

 
 
 

 

Check Items

Checking your items involves checking to see that your quantities are matching up and also checking that your costings are as expected.

Purchase Orders: Set quantities

If you created your bill manually and set quantities received, the line items from your purchase order will flow through to the bill.

 

 

Check Quantities

Purchase Orders: Supplier invoice imports

If using supplier invoice imports, you won't need to do this step as your line items as well as their quantities received will automatically import across from the Supplier Invoice.

 
In this example, quantities have been entered on the purchase order prior to creating a bill

Edit your quantities received and billed if necessary. See the table below for an explanation of each column.

Field
Description
Total Qty Ord

Total Quantity Ordered. This is the quantity of items ordered from the supplier (from the purchase order). This field is read-only and cannot be edited from the bill.

Total Qty Rec

Total Quantity Received across all bills. This field is read-only and cannot be edited from the bill. This field is color-coded:

  • Green indicates that the quantity received matches or is more than the quantity that was ordered
  • Blue indicates that the quantity received is less than the quantity that was ordered.
Qty Rec

Quantity Received for this bill.

Add all

Tick the checkbox at the top of the field if the quantities for all line items are an exact match with the Total Qty Ord field. This will save you from typing the same figure for each item.

Show this

 
 
 

Stock levels

Marking your stock as received will update your stock levels once the bill is saved. Stock levels increase for the stock holder listed in the Inv. To column.

 
Qty Billed

Quantity Billed. This is the quantity of received items from a supplier which are being billed for on this bill. Enter a value here/edit this value if necessary.

Add all

Tick the checkbox at the top of the field to input the same quantities as the Qty Rec to save you from typing the same figure for each item.

Show this

 
 
 
Inv. To

Inventory To. defines the inventory stock holder that will change based on the quantity received. You can change the stock holder by clicking the field and selecting a different stock holder.

Purchase Orders: Quantities

Entering the quantities on the purchase order first is useful for the following scenarios:

  • Your supplier sends you a monthly invoice but you want to raise a bill for each shipment received within the month
  • Partial delivery scenarios, i.e. you can have one purchase order but raise a bill once each item is received, thus having multiple bills on the one purchase order.
 

 

Add or remove line items

You still have the option to add line items, if necessary, using the available options. This is useful if entering something that was not listed on the order.

Supplier Catalogues

The Supplier Catalogues option is only applicable to Bills created from a Purchase Order.

 

For more information on using these options, see Add line items (for Purchase Orders) or Add labor and materials (for Work Orders).

See Delete a Bill for information on deleting bill line items.

 

 

Manage Purchase/Work Order Items

Use the Manage Purchase/Work Order Items dropdown to add items from your order or remove items that are not received or not billed:

Option Description
Add Items from Purchase/Work Order

Select the items from the order and add your quantities received, and the quantity you're billing for on this bill.

Select all

Tick the tick box at the top to select all items.

Show me

 
 
 
Remove Items Not Billed Removes all items that haven't been billed (i.e. Qty Billed is 0).
Remove Items Not Received Removes all items that haven't been received (i.e. Tot Qty Rec is 0).
 

Once your quantities are all matching, proceed to check your items' costings.

For bills created from a purchase order, if your quantities are not matching, you'll get a warning in the form of a banner after saving, and you'll have the option to create a back order for the remaining items not received.

You can also raise a back order from the purchase order and then raise a bill on each purchase order.

 
 

 

Check Costs

Check that your costs entered on the original order match those on the bill.

What if the cost is different?

If the supplier charge does not match a line item, you can update inventory costs. For more information, see Update Inventory Pricing from Bill.

If using Preferred Suppliers, changes to the item cost will automatically update the listed supplier's price on the inventory card.

 
 

Updating inventory pricing for ad hoc items

As part of the check items process, you might like to add any ad hoc items into your inventory or match them against existing inventory items.

Purchase Orders: Supplier Invoice Imports

If you're using supplier invoice imports and an imported item doesn't match on the part number and/or description, the line item will display as an ad hoc item.

 
 

The Options button next to ad hoc items gives you options in terms of updating your inventory pricing:

Option
Description
Insert into Category This will save the item into your inventory. Make a selection and enter the unit of measure, if applicable.
Map to Inventory Item (Inventory Cost, Markup & Sell) Maps this item to an already existing inventory item and uses that inventory item's cost price.
Map to Inventory Item (Bill Cost, Task Markup & Sell) Maps this item to an already existing inventory item and uses the bill's cost price.
Remove Selection Cancel your selection.

In Inv.

Once the bill has been saved, the item will display a tick () in the In Inv. column, indicating that the item is an inventory item.

 

Once you're happy with your costings, save and mark the bill as approved.

When the cost or part number of an item is modified on the bill, AroFlo will let you know of the discrepancy. See Bill Discrepancies.

 

 

Imported items

Purchase Orders

If using supplier invoice imports and an item is imported onto the bill from the supplier invoice, the original purchase order will reflect this and show an imported icon (arrow pointing left) next to the part number.

 
 

Work Orders

If a contractor adds an item to an invoice and sends you the invoice via AroConnect, creating a bill for you, the original work order will reflect this and show an imported icon (arrow pointing left) next to the part number.

 
 

If there are discrepancies between what's on your purchase/work order and what's on your bill, AroFlo will let you know. See Bill Discrepancies.

If you need to update your inventory items as a result, see Updating inventory pricing for ad hoc items above.

In this example, AroFlo is indicating the pipe has been imported from a supplier invoice.
In this example, AroFlo is indicating the pipe has been imported from a supplier invoice.
 

 

Bill Summary

Similar to Invoices, Purchase Orders, and Work Orders, the bottom right of a bill contains a summary of the current bill as well as a summary of all bills.

Current Bill

 
 

All Bills

 
 

Current Bill

 
 

All Bills

 
 
 

 

Record a payment for a Bill

If you need to record the payment to the supplier/contractor for this bill, see Record a Supplier Payment.

Accounting Integration Link

If you have an integration link between AroFlo and your accounting package, bills marked as ‘Approved’ will be available for you to send to your accounting package via the integration link.