The Bills list shows every bill you have entered for the period you choose, newest first, with whether it is paid and whether its goods have been received. From here you open a bill to check or change it, send goods back against it, and find the bill a vendor is asking about.
Opening the list
- Vendors ▸ Bills (under Transactions).
- SeroBooks opens it after you save a bill.
The window is titled Bills; the list inside is headed Purchase Invoices, with a count of the bills shown.
Finding a bill
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search ref / supplier… | Finds bills by their number or the vendor's name. |
| Period bar | The period the bills are dated in. It opens on the period you chose last time here. |
| All, Due, Partial, Paid | Every bill, or only bills that are unpaid, part-paid or fully paid. |
| Refresh | Reloads the list. |
| New Purchase | Opens Enter Bills for a new bill. |
The list shows up to 100 bills at a time. Narrow the period or search to find older ones. Once there are eight or more rows the list also has Search this list…, Filters, Columns, and the Email and Export buttons (CSV, Excel or PDF of exactly what is on screen). Click a column heading to sort.
The columns
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Ref | The vendor's invoice number, or the number SeroBooks gave the bill. |
| Date | The bill date. |
| Supplier | The vendor. |
| Items | How many lines the bill has. |
| Total | The bill total, tax included. |
| Payment | Paid, Partial or Due. |
| Status | Received (the goods are in stock and the bill is in your books), or Pending for a bill saved that way by an earlier version (goods not yet received; nothing in your books until it is marked Received). |
| Return | Sends goods on this bill back to the vendor. Available on received bills. |
The footer reminds you: Received bills put stock IN · pending bills move no stock.
Open a bill
Double-click a bill, or select it and press Enter. It opens in the Enter Bills form, ready to change, with the EDITING band across the top. From there you can:
- change anything and save — stock and the vendor's balance follow what you save;
- Duplicate it (a new bill with the same vendor and lines, dated today; the original is unchanged);
- Memorize it;
- Pay what it still owes;
- add Freight & duty, Print labels, attach the vendor's invoice, or Delete bill....
See Enter Bills.
A bill opens read-only instead when it came from receiving a purchase order (its quantities belong to the receipt), or when your role may not edit bills. The read-only bill shows the lines, any EXPENSES, NOTES and RETURNED TO VENDOR, and the BILL BALANCE, with these buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pay $… | Pays what the bill still owes. See Pay Bills. |
| Apply credit to this bill | Shown when the vendor has an unused credit. Choose a debit note, vendor credit, journal credit or overpaid bill from Apply a credit note, and it is set against this bill. |
| Record their refund | Shown when the bill has been paid for more than it now totals: records the vendor paying the difference back. |
| Print / Send | Print, save as PDF, email or WhatsApp the bill. |
| Print labels | Barcode labels for the items on the bill. |
| Freight & duty | Landed costs. See Bill lines. |
| Void bill… | See Void a bill. |
| Delete bill… | See Delete a bill. |
Return goods against a bill
Return on a received bill opens Return to supplier — bill number. For each line going back:
- Type the quantity in Return. It cannot be more than is still returnable on the line (Only … of this line is still returnable.).
- Choose the Reason: Damaged in transit, Defective / quality, Wrong item sent, Over-supplied, Short-dated or expired, Not ordered, Price dispute or Other. It is required: the vendor reads it.
- Add a Note — pallet, driver, docket (optional).
The summary underneath says what will happen: N line(s) go back · stock leaves this location · $… claimed from the supplier. Tick what to do with the debit note under On save, also, then save.
The return is a debit note: the goods leave stock, and the vendor's balance goes down by the value at the price you paid, tax included. It appears in Vendor Credits and is set against the vendor's bills in Pay Bills.
Void a bill
Voiding keeps the bill with its number but makes it zero, marked VOID, as QuickBooks does. Stock it brought in is taken back out and its entry leaves your books. Void bill… is on the read-only bill; SeroBooks asks Are you sure you want to void this bill?
SeroBooks refuses to void a bill that has payments applied (Void or delete the bill payment first, then void the bill.), a bill whose batches have been sold, or one dated in a closed period.
Delete a bill
Delete bill... removes a bill entered by mistake. SeroBooks asks Delete bill …?: the stock the bill booked in is taken back out, and the amount owed to the vendor is removed along with its journal entries. It cannot be undone.
SeroBooks refuses, with the reason, when:
- a return has been raised against the bill (Return exist for the Transaction, edit the return instead.);
- some batches from the bill have already been sold;
- the bill is dated in a closed period.
To remove a bill that came from receiving a purchase order, delete the GRN instead; see Receive Items.
What happens in the books
Editing a bill re-posts it with the new figures. Voiding or deleting it removes its entry from the ledger and its stock from inventory. A bill that was paid and then made smaller leaves the difference as a credit on the vendor's account, offered in Pay Bills.
Permissions
| Right | What it allows |
|---|---|
| Edit Supplier Bill | Opening bills in the form to change them. Without it they open read-only. |
| Delete Supplier Bill | Deleting and voiding bills. |
| Return to Supplier | The Return button. |
Common problems
Return is greyed out. The bill is Pending (saved that way by an earlier version): nothing is in stock to send back. Mark it received first, or change the pending bill instead.
The bill I want to change opens read-only. It came from receiving goods against a purchase order, or your role lacks Edit Supplier Bill. Correct a receipt with a return.
Delete is refused because a return exists. Delete or change the return first (in Vendor Credits), then the bill.