# Your first vendor bill

Record a bill from a vendor, check its reference, date and line, confirm it, then pay it in full from the bill itself and see it marked paid.

A vendor bill records what the company owes a supplier: the translation office, the court-filing agent, the landlord, the shop that sold the office mats. This walk-through records one bill, confirms it and pays it in full, with the demo vendor **Ready Mat**. Nothing here needs the accounting configuration: the purchase journal, the expense account and the bank journal are already in place.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- You need the **Invoicing** access right on **Accounting**. Bills, refunds and payments are open to it; the configuration is not.
- The vendor must exist as a contact. A new one can be created from the **Vendor** field itself with **Create and edit...**.

## Step 1: open the bills {#bills}

Open **Accounting/Vendors/Bills**. The list shows each bill with its **Number**, **Vendor**, **Bill Date**, **Due Date**, **Reference**, amounts and **Status**; the search starts with the **Bills** and **Receipt** filters ticked, so the refunds have a menu of their own.

**Upload**, next to **New**, turns a file into a draft bill: an electronic invoice file fills in the vendor and the lines by itself, while any other PDF is attached to an empty draft that you complete by hand. Here, click **New**.

![The bills of the company; New opens an empty bill.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10494-1adfac1e/vendor-bills-first-bill-bills_list-en.png)

## Step 2: the vendor and their reference {#vendor}

Type the first letters of the vendor in **Vendor** and pick **Ready Mat**; its address appears under the name. In **Bill Reference**, type the number printed on the vendor's own bill. That number is how the vendor will recognise your payment: it is proposed as the memo of the payment later on.

![The vendor and the number printed on the vendor's own bill.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10498-906fdf70/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_vendor-en.png)

## Step 3: the dates {#dates}

**Bill Date** is the date printed on the vendor's bill, and it is required: a bill cannot be confirmed without it. **Accounting Date** follows it unless you change it; it decides the period the bill is booked in.

The due date comes from the vendor. **Ready Mat** has the payment terms **30 Days**, so the form shows **Payment terms** and computes the due date from the bill date. For a vendor without terms, the form shows **Due Date** with **or** next to a payment terms field: fill one or the other.

![The bill date; the vendor's payment terms set when it falls due.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10502-cc7fc640/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_date-en.png)

## Step 4: the line {#line}

In the **Invoice Lines** tab, click **Add a line**, type what was bought in **Label**, and the amount in **Price**. The **Account** is filled from the purchase journal (an expense account), **Quantity** starts at 1.00, and **Taxes** takes the purchase taxes set on that account, if it has any; a line with a product takes the product's purchase taxes instead. Add as many lines as the vendor's bill has; the totals under the lines follow.

![One line with its label and price; Add a line adds the next one.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10506-118f4937/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_line-en.png)

Taxes, accounts and journals belong to the accounting setup: see [Set the default taxes](/docs/accounting-start-here/set-the-default-taxes). The **Total Discount** fields under the lines are explained with the customer invoices, in [Customer invoices](/docs/customer-invoices).

## Step 5: confirm {#confirm}

Open **Actions** and choose **Confirm**. The bill gets its number (**BILL/** followed by the year, the month and a sequence) and moves from **Draft** to **Posted**: its entry is now in the purchase journal, and it counts in the amount the company owes the vendor.

![The confirmed bill has its number and is posted.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10510-9b6754b7/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_posted-en.png)

The blue banner at the top appears only when the vendor already owes the company something: here **Ready Mat** has an open refund, listed under the totals. [Record a vendor refund](record-a-vendor-refund) shows how to use it.

## Step 6: pay {#pay}

Open **Actions** again and choose **Pay**. The dialog proposes:

- **Journal**: the bank journal the money leaves from (**Bank**); choose a cash journal for a cash payment.
- **Payment Method**: **Manual Payment**, a transfer or a payment made outside the platform.
- **Amount**: the amount still due, in full.
- **Payment Date**: today.
- **Memo**: the **Bill Reference** typed in step 2.

Click **Create Payment**.

![The payment proposes the bank journal, the full amount and today's date.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10514-b5009db2/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_pay_dialog-en.png)

## Step 7: the bill is paid {#paid}

The bill now carries a green **Paid** ribbon, and a **Payments** button at the top opens the payment. The vendor's balance is back to what it was before the bill.

![The bill is paid; the Payments button opens the payment.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10518-0bb5377d/vendor-bills-first-bill-bill_paid-en.png)

The payment is matched later with its bank statement line, in [Banks, cash and currencies](/docs/banks-and-cash); the bill reads **Paid** from the moment the payment is created, matched or not.

## What you have seen {#what-you-have-seen}

A bill goes from **Draft** to **Posted** when you confirm it, and from not paid to **Paid** when a payment covers it. The user guide goes further: [Pay vendor bills](pay-vendor-bills) pays several bills at once, [Record a vendor refund](record-a-vendor-refund) handles what a vendor gives back, and [Submit an expense](submit-an-expense) starts the other half of this app, the money employees spend for the firm. [How bills and expenses fit together](how-bills-and-expenses-fit-together) explains the whole picture.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/vendor-bills/first-vendor-bill
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- Version: Vendor bills and expenses 19.0.2.1
- Verified: 2026-10-23