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Introduction

The Bills section is your accounts payable hub for managing vendor invoices. While expenses track employee purchases that need reimbursement, bills represent invoices from vendors and suppliers that your company needs to pay.
Permissions required: You need the BILLS_VIEW permission to access the Bills section. Contact your administrator if you do not see Bills in the sidebar.

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Bills vs. Expenses

Understanding the difference between bills and expenses is important for proper financial management:

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The Bills Dashboard

When you open Bills from the sidebar, you see a list of all vendor bills with key details at a glance.

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Status Filters

Filter bills by their current status using the tabs at the top of the list:
  • All: Every bill regardless of status
  • Pending: Bills awaiting review or approval
  • Approved: Bills that have been approved for payment
  • Paid: Bills that have been paid
  • Overdue: Bills past their due date that have not been paid

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Bill List Columns

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Additional Filters

Beyond status, you can refine the bill list with:
  • Date range: Filter by issue date or due date
  • Vendor: Show bills from a specific vendor
  • Amount range: Focus on bills within a certain value
  • Department: Filter by the responsible department
  • Search: Find bills by invoice number, vendor name, or description

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Bill Detail View

Click on any bill to open its detail panel. The detail view shows:
  • Invoice document: The uploaded PDF or image of the vendor invoice
  • Extracted data: Vendor name, amounts, line items, and dates pulled by OCR
  • Payment terms: Net 30, Net 60, or custom terms
  • Category and department: How the bill is classified
  • Approval status: Where the bill is in the approval workflow
  • Timeline: A history of all actions taken on the bill

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Vendor Management

Bills are linked to vendor profiles. When you upload a bill, Smartbills attempts to match it to an existing vendor in your directory. From the Bills section, you can:
  • View all bills for a specific vendor
  • See total spending per vendor over time
  • Navigate to the vendor profile for contact details and payment information
For more on managing vendors, see the Vendors guide.

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What’s Next?

Upload a Bill

Upload a vendor invoice and let OCR extract the details

Bill Approval

Learn how the bill approval workflow operates

Vendors

Manage your vendor directory

Vault

Access archived bills and documents