Manage vendor bills¶

A vendor bill is an invoice received for products and/or services purchased by a company from a vendor. Vendor bills record payables as they arrive from vendors, and can include amounts owed for the goods and/or services purchased, sales taxes, freight and delivery charges, and more.

In Odoo, a vendor bill can be created at different points in the purchasing process, depending on the bill control policy chosen in the Purchase app’s settings.

Bill control policies¶

To configure the default bill control policy, navigate to Purchase app ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, and scroll to the Invoicing section.

The Bill Control feature lists two policy options: Ordered quantities and Received quantities.

The policy selected acts as the default for any new product created. Each policy acts as follows:

Ordered quantities: creates a vendor bill as soon as a purchase order is confirmed. The products and quantities in the purchase order are used to generate a draft bill.
Received quantities: a bill is only created after all (or part) of the total order has been received. The products and quantities received are used to generate a draft bill.

screenshot: purchase-manage-configuration-settings

menu: Purchase ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings
shows: Settings page scrolled to the "Invoicing" section, with the "Bill Control" field set to "Ordered quantities".
highlight: The "Bill Control" setting (red frame).
data: Demo company "YourCompany".
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width, crop to the setting block.

Once a policy is selected, click Save to save the changes.

Tip

If a product needs a different control policy than the one set in the Purchase app settings, that product’s control policy can be overridden by going to the Purchase tab on a product form, and selecting the desired policy in the Control Policy field.

screenshot: purchase-manage-product-form-control-policy

menu: Purchase ‣ Products ‣ Products ‣ (open a product) ‣ Purchase
shows: The Purchase tab of a product form, with the "Control Policy" field set to "Received quantities".
highlight: The "Control Policy" field (red frame).
data: Demo company "YourCompany"; product "Office Chair Black".
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width, crop to the field.

Create and manage vendor bills on receipts¶

When products are received into a company’s warehouse, receipts are created. Once the company processes the received quantities, they can choose to create a vendor bill directly from the warehouse receipt form.

Depending on the bill control policy chosen in the settings, vendor bill creation is completed at different steps of the procurement process.

Ordered quantities¶

To create and manage vendor bills for receipts with the Bill Control policy set to Ordered Quantities, first navigate to the Purchase app, and click New from the Requests for Quotation dashboard.

Doing so opens a new Request for Quotation (RfQ) form. On the blank RfQ form, add a Vendor, and click Add a line under the Product tab to add products to the order.

On the product line, select a product from the drop-down menu in the Product field, and enter the quantity to order in the Quantity field.

Once ready, click Confirm Order to confirm the RfQ into a PO.

Then, click Create Bill to create a vendor bill. This opens a Vendor Bill form in the Draft state. From here, add a billing date in the Bill Date field.

Once ready, confirm the bill by clicking Confirm on the Vendor Bill page.

Tip

Since the bill control policy is set to Ordered quantities, the draft bill can be confirmed as soon as it is created, before any products have been received.

Once a payment has been received, click Register Payment at the top of the bill to record it.

Doing so causes a Register Payment pop-up window to appear, wherein a payment Journal can be chosen, and a Payment Method selected.

Additionally, the bill Amount, Payment Date, and Memo (Reference Number) can be edited from this pop-up window, if necessary.

Once ready, click Create Payment to finish creating the Vendor Bill. Doing so displays a green Paid banner on the RfQ form.

screenshot: purchase-manage-draft-vendor-bill

menu: Purchase ‣ Orders ‣ Purchase Orders ‣ (open a PO) ‣ Create Bill
shows: A draft Vendor Bill form created from a PO with the "Ordered quantities" bill control policy, with the Bill Date field filled in.
highlight: The Bill Date field and the Confirm button.
data: Demo company "YourCompany"; vendor bill for PO00012.
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Received quantities¶

To create and manage vendor bills for receipts with the bill control policy set to Received quantities, first navigate to the Purchase app, and click New.

Doing so opens a new RfQ form. On the blank RfQ form, add a Vendor, and click Add a line under the Product tab to add products to the order.

On the product line, select a product from the drop-down menu in the Product field, and enter the quantity to order in the Quantity field.

Once ready, click Confirm Order to confirm the RfQ into a PO.

Important

When using the Received quantities control policy, clicking Create Bill before any products are received causes an Invalid Operation pop-up window to appear.

Odoo requires at least partial quantities of the items included in the PO to be received in order to create a vendor bill.

screenshot: purchase-manage-user-error-popup

menu: Purchase ‣ Orders ‣ Purchase Orders ‣ (open a PO) ‣ Create Bill
shows: The "Invalid Operation" error pop-up shown when clicking Create Bill on a PO with the "Received quantities" policy before any product has been received.
highlight: The error message text.
data: Demo company "YourCompany"; a PO with 0 received quantities.
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

On the PO, click the Receipt smart button to view the warehouse receipt form.

From here, click Validate to register the Done (received) quantities.

Then, navigate back to the PO, via the breadcrumb, and click Create Bill.

This opens a Vendor Bill form in the Draft state. From here, add a billing date in the Bill Date field. Once ready, confirm the bill by clicking Confirm at the top of the draft.

Once a payment has been received, click Register Payment at the top of the bill to record it.

Doing so causes a Register Payment pop-up window to appear, wherein a payment Journal can be chosen, and a Payment Method selected.

Additionally, the bill Amount, Payment Date, and Memo (Reference Number) can be edited from this pop-up window, if necessary.

Once ready, click Create Payment to finish creating the Vendor Bill. Doing so displays a green Paid banner on the RfQ form.

Manage vendor bills in Accounting¶

Vendor bills can also be created directly from the Accounting app, without having to create a purchase order first.

Navigate to Accounting app ‣ Vendors ‣ Bills, and click New. Doing so reveals a blank Vendor Bill form.

Add a vendor in the Vendor field. Then, in the Invoice Lines tab, click Add a line to add products.

Select a product from the drop-down menu in the Product field, and enter the quantity to order in the Quantity field.

Select a Bill Date, and configure any other necessary information. Finally, click Confirm to confirm the bill.

Once confirmed, click the Journal Items tab to view the Account journals. These journals are populated based on the configuration on the corresponding Vendor and Product forms.

If necessary, click Credit Note to add a credit note to the bill. Additionally, a Bill Reference number can be added.

Once ready, click Register Payment, followed by Create Payment, to complete the Vendor Bill.

Tip

To link a draft bill to an existing purchase order, click the drop-down menu next to Auto-Complete before clicking Confirm, and select a PO from the menu.

The bill auto-populates with the information from the chosen PO.

screenshot: purchase-manage-auto-complete

menu: Accounting ‣ Vendors ‣ Bills ‣ New
shows: A draft Vendor Bill form with the "Auto-Complete" drop-down open, listing existing purchase orders.
highlight: The "Auto-Complete" field (red frame).
data: Demo company "YourCompany"; POs PO00010, PO00011 listed.
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Batch billing¶

Vendor bills can be processed and managed in batches in the Accounting app.

Navigate to Accounting app ‣ Vendors ‣ Bills. Then, click the checkbox in the top-left corner, beside the Number column, under the New button.

This selects all existing vendor bills with a Status of Posted or Draft.

Click the Print button to print the selected invoices or bills.

Click Register Payment to create and process payments for multiple vendor bills at once.

Note

Only payments with their Status listed as Posted can be billed in batches. Payments in the Draft stage must be posted before they can be included in a batch billing.

Clicking Register Payment opens a Register Payment pop-up window. From the pop-up window, select the Journal the bills should post to, choose a Payment Date, and select a Payment Method.

There is also the option to Group Payments together from this pop-up window, as well. If this checkbox is ticked, only one payment is created, instead of one per bill. This option only appears if the Batch Payments feature is enabled in the settings of the Accounting app.

Once ready, click the Create Payment button. This creates a list of journal entries on a separate page. The journal entries on this list are all tied to their corresponding vendor bills.

screenshot: purchase-manage-batch-billing

menu: Accounting ‣ Vendors ‣ Bills ‣ (select several) ‣ Register Payment
shows: The Register Payment pop-up window for several selected vendor bills, with the Journal, Payment Date, and Group Payments fields visible.
highlight: The "Group Payments" checkbox (red frame).
data: Demo company "YourCompany"; three selected vendor bills.
module: purchase
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.