Vendor Bills Built
A Vendor Bill is the record of a Vendor's purchase invoice — what AIR owes that supplier. It is the fourth piece of the Purchasing area of the console, and it is the financial counterpart to the physical receiving recorded on a Goods Receipt.
What a vendor bill is
A Purchase Order commits AIR to buy something, and a Goods Receipt records goods physically arriving and posts stock. Neither of those creates a financial liability. A Vendor Bill is entered from the vendor's actual invoice paperwork and is what establishes the amount owed — it can optionally reference the PO and/or GRN it relates to, purely for traceability.
Where to find it & who can see it
Open Purchasing › Vendor Bills in the left navigation, after Goods Receipts.
Creating a bill
Enter a bill from the vendor's actual invoice — select New vendor bill from the list.
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
vendor_id | Select | Yes | Searchable dropdown over Vendors. |
company | Select | Yes | Which AIR company entity the bill belongs to. |
purchase_order_id | Select | No | Optional reference link to a Purchase Order, for traceability only. |
goods_receipt_id | Select | No | Optional reference link to a Goods Receipt, for traceability only. |
vendor_invoice_number | Text | No | The vendor's own invoice number, as printed on their paperwork. |
bill_date | Date | Yes | Defaults to today. |
due_date | Date | No | If left blank, auto-fills as the bill date plus the vendor's payment terms (days), when the vendor has payment terms configured. |
cgst_amount / sgst_amount / igst_amount | Number | No | Entered as printed on the vendor's invoice — not calculated by the console. Default 0 each. |
notes | Textarea | No | Free text, full width. |
On save, the console assigns a bill_number automatically in the form VBILL-YYYY-##### (e.g. VBILL-2026-00001) and the bill starts life in the Draft state.
Lines
Open the bill and switch to its Lines tab to add what's being billed.
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
product_id | Select | No | Searchable dropdown over Products. Leave blank for a charge that isn't a stocked product. |
description | Text | No | Free-text description — this is where a non-product charge such as freight or packing is named. |
quantity | Number | Yes | Minimum 0.01. Defaults to 1. |
rate | Number | Yes | Minimum 0. |
Each line's Taxable amount is quantity × rate, computed automatically. The bill's own Taxable total is the sum of its lines' taxable amounts, and the overall Total is taxable + CGST + SGST + IGST — both recompute automatically as lines change. Lines can only be added, edited or removed while the bill is a Draft.
Unlike a Sale Order, a vendor bill's CGST / SGST / IGST amounts are typed in exactly as printed on the vendor's invoice, at the bill level — they are not derived from the lines.
Draft → Post
Review the draft — header and lines — then use the Post row action once it's ready. Posting requires at least one line, and finalises the bill from Draft to Posted.
Posting can also write an accounting journal entry — debiting Purchases (the taxable amount) and Input GST (CGST + SGST + IGST combined), and crediting the Vendor Payable (the total amount) — but only when an administrator has configured it in System Config, under the Accounting group:
| Config key | Purpose |
|---|---|
purchase.create_journal_entry | Boolean switch — must be on for posting to attempt a journal entry at all. |
purchase.purchases_account | Debit account code for the taxable amount. |
purchase.input_gst_account | Debit account code for the combined CGST + SGST + IGST. |
purchase.payables_account | Credit account code for the vendor payable (the total amount). |
If the switch is off, or any of the three account codes is left blank, posting still finalises the bill as normal — it simply writes no journal entry. A bill can be Cancelled only while it is still a Draft.
Balance & paid
Every bill shows Amount paid and a computed Balance (Total − Amount paid) on both its list row and its own page. Recording payments against a vendor bill — reducing that balance — is the next phase.
Lifecycle
A vendor bill moves through a small state machine, shown as a coloured badge on the list and on the bill's own page:
| State | Badge colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Gray | Being built — header and lines are both still editable; nothing has posted financially yet. |
| Posted | Success (green) | Finalised. Lines are locked, and — if configured — a balanced journal entry has been recorded. |
| Cancelled | Danger (red) | Abandoned while still a Draft — no financial effect. |
Vendor Bills are step four of Purchasing. The final phase is Vendor Payments — paying vendors and allocating each payment against one or more open bills.
Related pages
See Purchase Orders and Goods Receipts for the earlier Purchasing steps a bill can reference, Vendors for the supplier master and payment terms, Vendor Payments for settling a posted bill, Accounting — Journal & GST for how the journal entry posts, and System Configuration for the accounting keys that control it.