Manage vendor bills

Estimated reading: 3 minutes 11 views

Introduction

Managing vendor bills is a key part of tracking your company expenses and ensuring timely payments to suppliers. In Odoo 18, the vendor bill workflow integrates seamlessly with your purchasing and accounting processes, giving you full control from receipt to payment.

This guide will walk you through how to create, manage, and automate vendor bills using Odoo’s Purchase and Accounting apps.

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Set Your Bill Control Policy

Go to: Purchase App ➔ Configuration ➔ Settings ➔ Invoicing section.

Choose between:

  • Ordered quantities: Bills are created when a Purchase Order (PO) is confirmed.
  • Received quantities: Bills are created only after the products have been received.

Tip: You can override the default control policy per product on the product form under the Purchase tab.

  1. Enable 3-Way Matching (Optional)

Enable this to ensure bills are only paid when goods are received:

Go to: Purchase App ➔ Configuration ➔ Settings ➔ Invoicing section ➔ Tick 3-way matching.

 Important: This works only with the Received quantities policy.

  1. Create a Vendor Bill from a Purchase Order

For Ordered Quantities:

  1. Go to Purchase App ➔ Click New.
  2. Add a Vendor, then click Add a line to select products and quantities.
  3. Click Confirm Order to turn the RFQ into a PO.
  4. Click Create Bill to generate a draft vendor bill.
  5. Add a Bill Date and click Confirm.
  6. Once paid, click Register Payment, fill the details, and click Create Payment.

 

For Received Quantities:

  1. Create and confirm a PO as above.
  2. Click the Receipt smart button.
  3. Click Validate to confirm received products.
  4. Return to the PO and click Create Bill.
  5. Complete the bill and register the payment as in the steps above.

 Note: Trying to bill before receipt with this policy will show an error.

  1. Create a Vendor Bill Directly from Accounting
  2. Go to Accounting App ➔ Vendors ➔ Bills.
  3. Click New.
  4. Add a Vendor, Bill Date, and products in the Invoice Lines
  5. Click Confirm.
  6. View Journal Items, add any Reference Numbers, or Credit Notes if needed.
  7. Click Register Payment and then Create Payment.

 

Tip: Use the Auto-Complete dropdown to pull details from a related PO into the bill.

  1. Process Bills in Batches
  2. Go to Accounting App ➔ Vendors ➔ Bills.
  3. Use the checkboxes to select multiple bills.
  4. Click Register Payment.
  5. In the pop-up, choose your Journal, Payment Date, and Payment Method.
  6. Enable Group Payments to combine into one payment (if batch payments are enabled).
  7. Click Create Payment.

Tips for Managing Vendor Bills

  • Always match your bill with the PO and receipt when using 3-way matching.
  • Use the product-level Control Policy if you need different workflows for specific items.
  • Use batch payments to save time processing multiple bills.
  • Draft bills can be edited until confirmed; double-check quantities and prices.

Related Articles

Overview - Previous Configure reordering rules Next - Overview Requests for Quotation

Recently Viewed articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn how we helped 100 top brands gain success