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Recording a vendor bill

Every time a distributor ships you product, they send a bill. Every month your landlord, alarm company, and internet provider send bills. Recording these in CloudFFL OS keeps your expense tracking accurate and makes sure nothing falls through the cracks when it's time to pay.

Creating a vendor bill from a purchase order

If you used a purchase order to place the order (which you should for distributor purchases), the fastest way to create the bill is directly from the PO:

  1. Go to Purchase → Orders and open the purchase order.
  2. Once you've received the products, click Create Bill on the purchase order.
  3. CloudFFL OS creates a draft vendor bill with the products, quantities, and prices pre-filled from the PO.
  4. Enter the Bill Date (the date on the distributor's invoice).
  5. Enter the Bill Reference — this is the invoice number from your distributor (e.g., Lipsey's invoice #LIP-2026-03456). This helps you match records later.
  6. Verify the amounts match what the distributor is actually charging you. If they shipped fewer items than ordered or the price changed, adjust the quantities or amounts.
  7. Click Confirm.

Always enter the distributor's invoice number in the Bill Reference field. When you're reconciling bank statements later, you'll see a payment to "Lipsey's" and need to know which invoice it was for. The bill reference makes that match easy.

Creating a standalone vendor bill

For expenses that don't come from a purchase order — rent, utilities, insurance, alarm monitoring, cleaning services:

  1. Go to Accounting → Vendors → Bills.
  2. Click New.
  3. Select the Vendor from the dropdown. If this is a new vendor (say, a new alarm company), type their name and click Create and edit to add them.
  4. Set the Bill Date and Due Date.
  5. Enter the Bill Reference (the vendor's invoice number).
  6. Under Invoice Lines, click Add a line:
    • Select a product if you've set one up (like "Rent" or "Alarm Service")
    • Or type a description manually and fill in the amount
  7. Set the Account for each line — this determines which expense category the cost goes into (e.g., "Rent Expense" or "Utilities"). CloudFFL OS often picks a default based on the product or vendor.
  8. Click Confirm.

Set up recurring vendors as contacts with default accounts. If you pay the same landlord every month, create them as a vendor in Contacts with a default expense account set. Then when you create a bill for them, the account is pre-filled — saving you from picking it every time.

What happens when you confirm a bill

When you confirm a vendor bill:

  • The expense is posted to the appropriate account in your books
  • The amount is added to Accounts Payable — meaning your books now show that you owe this vendor money
  • The bill appears in your list of bills to pay

The bill sits there until you record a payment against it — which is covered in the Paying Vendors chapter.

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