Handling supplier bills for a bookkeeping client
How a firm processes a client's supplier bills in Achekam, from capture and approval to recording payment, and the gaps between intake, bills and the bank.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Accountants & audit firms in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Supplier invoices reach a bookkeeping client from every direction: e-mailed PDFs, paper slips in the delivery van, photos on a phone, statements that arrive before the invoices they list. Somewhere between arrival and payment, each one must be recorded once, approved by someone who knows the goods arrived, and paid to the right bank account. When a firm keeps the client's books, most of that path runs through the firm's hands, and each step can go wrong in a way that costs the client money.
This article follows a supplier invoice through Achekam for a client whose books the firm keeps, and points out where the routes divide and where the firm has to make a choice.
Capturing bills line by line
In Achekam, a supplier bill is recorded line by line, with VAT on each line. Line-level capture matters for more than tidiness. A builder's merchant invoice that mixes materials for a job, a new power tool and a delivery charge belongs in three different places: cost of sales, fixed assets and transport. One line for the total would put it all in one.
Capture from the tax invoice, not from a delivery note or a statement, and check that it carries what the client needs to claim input VAT in its country. Where the supplier's invoice number is missing or unclear, ask for a proper invoice before capturing.
Approval for bills without a purchase order
A bill that has no purchase order behind it waits for approval before it posts. That is the right control: nobody has yet confirmed the client ordered or received what is being billed.
Decide with the client who approves. For a small owner-managed business, it is usually the owner. The firm should capture, and the client should approve, so that the person who records the bill is not the person who decides it is owed. A firm that both captures and approves its client's bills has taken over a management decision and removed the client's main check against false invoices.
For clients that use purchase orders in Achekam, the route is different. A supplier invoice recorded against an order is matched with what was ordered and what arrived, and if price or quantity differ, it is held until someone writes a resolution note. Posting a matched supplier invoice puts it in the ledger as expense, input VAT and trade payables, and the supplier's invoice number stops it being posted twice.
ICAEW's article on how to identify and deal with fake invoices explains the warning signs, such as invoices that do not match purchase orders or delivery notes, and preventive controls like segregation of duties and verifying changes to suppliers' bank details. It is worth sharing with clients who think approval is a formality.
Uploaded invoices become suggestions, not bills
Many clients send invoices as uploads, and Achekam's Financial Intake reads supplier invoices and receipts into suggested postings. AI can suggest the coding, but only a person approves and posts the result.
The important detail is what that suggestion is. An uploaded supplier invoice becomes a journal suggestion, not a bill on the Bills list to pay. Approving it records the expense in the ledger, but it will not appear among the client's bills awaiting payment.
That creates a choice the firm should make once per client, and write down:
| Route | Suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Capture as a bill | Credit suppliers paid later, where the client needs to see what it owes and when | Uploads of the same invoice must not also be posted from intake |
| Post the intake suggestion | Receipts and invoices already paid, such as card purchases and petty cash | The invoice will not appear on the Bills list for payment |
The risk is an invoice recorded both ways: once as a bill and once from an upload. Agree which documents go which way, and have one person check for duplicates before the month closes. Setting up invoice reading is covered in reading invoices: OCR set-up.
Paying in full or in parts
A bill can be paid in full or in parts from a bank account the firm chooses. Part payments are common with suppliers on payment plans or where part of an invoice is disputed, and recording them against the bill keeps the amount still owed visible.
Pay against the bill, not the statement. A supplier's statement is useful for reconciling the account, but paying a statement total invites paying invoices twice, or paying ones the client never approved.
No supplier payment file
Paying a supplier in Achekam only records the payment. No bank payment file is produced for suppliers, so the money itself moves through the client's online banking, by whoever holds the banking access.
That leaves two records of the same payment, and they must agree. The payment recorded in Achekam says what was meant to happen; the bank statement says what did. The monthly bank reconciliation is where a payment made to the wrong account, made twice or never made at all comes to light.
Bank details deserve particular care. When a supplier writes to say its bank account has changed, confirm the change by phoning the supplier on a number already on file, not the one in the letter, before anyone loads it in the bank. Changed banking details are among the most common routes for invoice fraud.
A worked example
A small construction company e-mails the firm a batch of documents. The bookkeeper captures the credit suppliers' invoices as bills, line by line, and posts the intake suggestions for fuel and hardware receipts paid by card. One bill has no purchase order and waits for the owner's approval, which he gives after confirming the goods arrived on site. A week later the owner pays two suppliers in full and one in part through online banking. The bookkeeper records the three payments against the bills, and the month-end bank reconciliation confirms each one.
Clients who want the firm to run the whole payments process under a formal mandate, with approvals and release steps, are covered in running a client's finance office under mandate.
Agree the rules once
For each bookkeeping client, write a one-page payables procedure: which documents become bills and which become intake postings, who approves bills without a purchase order, who pays in the bank, and how bank detail changes are verified. Most supplier-bill problems come from those four questions being answered differently on different days.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
