Record a Bill and Its Payments

This guide walks through recording money your firm owes — from entering a bill to paying it off.

Before you start: Bills require financial access. If you can’t see the Bills area under Finance in the sidebar, your role doesn’t include this permission. See Roles and access.

Create the bill

1. In the sidebar, open Bills under Finance, then click New.
2. Choose the project the cost belongs to, or leave it blank if the bill is a firm-level cost like rent or software rather than a project expense.
3. Pick the payee — a consultant, vendor, or contractor from your directories.
4. Enter a bill number, the bill date, and, if you use them, a due date.

Add line items

1. Add a line item for each charge on the bill.
2. For each line, enter a description and an amount.
3. Add per-line tax if it applies, and pick a cost code (phase) if you track cost by phase.
4. Mark a line reimbursable if it’s a pass-through expense.
5. If you’re holding money back, enter a retainage amount. The bill shows the subtotal, retainage, tax, and total as you go.

Attach the bill document

1. Under Bill Document, upload the invoice you received from the payee — a PDF or a scanned or photographed image.
2. This is optional. If the paperwork hasn’t arrived yet, save the bill now and edit it later to attach the document.
3. After saving, the bill’s details page shows the document with a link to open or download it.

Approve the bill

1. Save the bill — it starts as Pending.
2. When it’s ready to be paid, use the Approve button at the top.
3. If you need to change an approved bill, use Rescind to pull it back to pending, edit it, then approve it again.

Record payments

If the bill says the payee has available credit, apply that credit first. See Record and apply a vendor credit.

1. Open the bill and add a payment for each disbursement.
2. Enter the amount, the date paid, the method (check, card, wire, and so on), and an optional reference.
3. The bill updates the paid and outstanding totals and moves itself to Partial or Paid automatically.

Void a bill

If a bill shouldn’t have been entered and hasn’t been paid or credited, use the Void button to cancel it.

Related pages

• Bills
• Record and apply a vendor credit
• Create and send an invoice
• Projects
• Consultants
• Vendors
• Contractors