How do I pay supplier bills from receipts?¶

For a business that uses accrual accounting, a posted business receipt becomes a bill you owe the supplier. You can see what's owed on the receipt, mark it paid, or pay several bills at once with an ABA payment file from the To pay list on the Business page.

Which receipts become bills¶

A posted receipt is recorded as owed to the supplier (in Accounts Payable) only when both are true:

the business's accounting method is Accrual (Non-Cash), and
the receipt is posted at 100% business use.

For a business on Cash, or a receipt posted at less than 100% business use, the receipt posts as a plain expense. It shows no payment status and has no Mark as paid button.

The business needs an Accounts Payable account in its chart of accounts. If it has none, posting stops with: "This business has no Accounts Payable account, so the receipt can't be posted. Add one in Chart of Accounts (Liability, sub-type Accounts Payable)."

See what's owed¶

Posted bills show a payment badge on the history row and on the receipt, with the due date beside it. The due date turns red once it has passed.

What you see	What it means
Unpaid	Nothing has been paid yet.
Part-paid ($… owed)	Some has been paid. The amount still owed is shown.
Paid	Paid in full.
Paid · $… credit	More than the bill was paid. The extra is held as a credit with the supplier.

On the receipt, the green box also shows Owed and how it was paid: "Paid from a bank line." with View bank accounts, or "Paid from" and the account you chose.

Mark a receipt as paid¶

Use this when you paid the bill outside a bank feed, for example by credit card or from the owner's own money.

Step 1. Open the posted receipt and select Mark as paid.

Step 2. The Amount is what's still owed. It is paid in full.

Step 3. Under Paid from, choose the account the money came from. Any asset, liability or equity account can be used except Accounts Payable.

Step 4. Set Date paid. It starts at today and can't be before the receipt's date.

Step 5. Select Mark as paid.

Tip

If the account you choose has a bank feed, the dialog warns you. When the payment line arrives, categorise it as Bill paid to link it. It replaces the manual payment rather than adding a second one. See How do I categorise bank transactions?

To undo a manual payment, select Mark as unpaid, then Mark as unpaid again to confirm. Only the manual payment is removed. A payment matched from a bank line is undone from the bank line instead.

While a payment is recorded, Save & re-post and Unpost are greyed out with Undo the payment first.

Pay several bills with an ABA file¶

The To pay list is on the Business page, not in Workflows. It lists every bill you owe suppliers that has been posted to Accounts Payable, including posted receipts.

Step 1. Go to Business and open the Expenses tab.

Step 2. Select To pay in the All / To pay switch. A red number on To pay shows how many bills are overdue.

Step 3. Check the cards at the top: Owed to suppliers, Overdue and Due in the next 7 days.

Step 4. Narrow the list with the Due buttons: Overdue, This week, Next 14 days, Any time or Pick dates…. Only Any time includes bills with no due date. The page's period selector does not apply here.

Step 5. Tick the bills to pay. Bills are grouped under Overdue, Due in the next 7 days, Due later and No due date, and each group has a tick box to select all of its bills.

Step 6. Select Download ABA file, check the payments, then select Download file.

Step 7. Upload the file in your internet banking under batch or bulk payments.

Which bills can go in the file¶

Only bills paid by bank transfer can be ticked. The Pay by column shows how each bill is paid. Hover over a greyed-out tick box to see why.

What you see in Pay by	What to do
Bank transfer	Tick it to include it in the file.
BPAY	Pay it in your internet banking using the biller code and reference shown.
PayID	Pay it in your internet banking.
No bank details	Select Add bank details to add them to the supplier's contact.
No supplier	Select Open the receipt and choose the supplier.

Check the payment file¶

The Download ABA payment file window shows:

Pay from: your business bank details, the same ones your pay runs use. If any are missing, a link takes you to the business settings to add them.
Payment date: the day your bank sends the payments. It starts at the next weekday and can't be in the past.
Each payment, with the amount still owed, and the Total.
Not in this file: any bills in the list that can't go in the file. Pay these separately.

Note

Downloading the file does not mark anything paid. A bill moves to Paid when the payment shows in your bank feed and matches it.

If a bill changed after you opened the window, the download is refused and the window explains why. Check the list and try again.

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