Introduction to Bills

Bills are generated from a purchase order (PO) to initiate payments to vendors. Bills are generated, after receiving the ordered items.

Bills are records that specify the payments made to the vendor on a particular PO.

Feature Availability and Limits

List View in Bills

List View sorts and lists all bills based on the last modified bill. Let us learn more about the List View in the Bills module.

• Columns in List View 

The columns that are visible by default in the List View are :

1. Name -  Displays the name of the Bill.

2. Bill Date - Displays the date on which the bill was generated.

3. Status - Displays the status of the bill.

4. Purchase Order - Displays the PO related to the bill.

5. Bill No - Displays the bill number.
    

• List actions

You can perform many quick actions such as Edit, Delete, Email, Follow, etc. on the Bill records displayed in the List View. 
To learn more about List View actions in Vtiger CRM, click here.

Ways of Viewing a Bill 

• Summary View

Summary View is the view that appears when you click a particular record from the List View. The Summary View displays the key information for a record.
The Summary View can be divided into four sections. Each section has a particular functionality.

• Summary View actions

  • Follow: You can follow any bill record to get updates on all the activities performed on that record.

  • Tags: You can add tag names to the record to identify the record easily.

  • Print: You can print the bill or save it as a PDF for future references.

  • Duplicate: You can duplicate the current record and have all the details reflected into a new record.

  • Delete: You can delete a record by clicking this button.

• Bill document

  Generated bills are displayed here.

• Do button

  When you click on the Do button on the right-hand top corner of the Summary View, you will see the following:

  • Reach out now -You can get in touch with the contact via Email, Call, or SMS at the moment.

  • Reach out later - You can schedule an email, event, or a task with a contact.

  • Add or Create - You can add or create other modules related to the bill.

  • Share - You can share the bill as a link or as an attachment.

• Widgets

  • One View - All the modules related to a bill are displayed here. 

  • Tasks -All the tasks related to a bill are displayed here. You can also add a new task from here by clicking the + button.

  • Events - All the events related to a bill are displayed here. You can also add a new event from here by clicking the + button.

  • Activity -All the activities made on a bill are displayed here. You can also add comments related to a bill in this section.

  • Analytics -You can view all the metrics related to a bill in the form of charts, mini-lists, etc. You can also create new ones here.

  • Payments -You can create a new payment or add an existing payment to a bill. All the payment-related details are displayed here.

  • Documents - You can create a new document or add an existing document to the bill using this widget. All the document-related details are displayed here.

  • Settings - You can change the template of a bill here.

• Deep Dive View

You can view and edit all the information for a bill record by clicking the Deep Dive button in the Summary View of the record.

Important Fields in Bills

How to Create a Bill

Listed below are the ways using which you can create a bill. 

1. From Bills’ List View 

You can use the +Add Bill button to create a new bill. You can find it on the top right corner in the Bills’ List View.
Follow the steps below to create a bill:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Click the +Add Bill button.

5. Fill in all the mandatory details.

6. Click Save.

2. From Purchase Orders

You can create a bill through a PO with the Do button.
Follow these steps:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Purchase Orders module.

4. Open any particular PO.

5. In the Summary View, click the Do button on the right-hand side top corner of the screen.

6. Click the Add or Create button.

7. Click on Bills.

8. Enter all the details and click Save.

This newly created bill is linked to the PO.

Configurations in Bills

You can configure Taxes, Tax regions, Shipping Charges (if any), and Terms and Conditions from the Settings > Inventory Management section. 

Refer to the Tax management article to learn how to set up taxes and other configurations.

1. Tax regions: Taxes can be set based on a region. Regions are set up in the Tax Settings screen.

2. Currency: It is the same as the currency defined in the Deal. Bill Line item currency is the same as the record level currency. 

3. Tax mode:

1. Group Taxes: If there are multiple products/services in the inventory, group taxes help in populating tax rates according to specific tax calculations.

2. Individual Taxes: You can enable this option while creating a Bill. You can apply taxes for individual items in a bill by clicking the Configure button on the bill.

4. Discounts

   1. Group Discounts: Similar to Group Taxes, Group Discounts are applied to products (or) services on the bill level.

2. Individual Discounts: Contrary to group discounts, Vtiger CRM provides an option to apply discounts on an individual item based on its List Price. 

5. Shipping Charges: Shipping  Charges is the additional amount charged by the company’s sales team for shipping the product to a customer.

6. Adjustments: This option allows you to round off the total amount to the next value or the previous value based on the decimal number.

Relationships Between Bills and Other Modules

• With Purchase Orders

When a bill record is created, it is linked to a PO. Hence, bills are highly dependent on the PO. Before you edit products or services in a bill record, please read below:

• You must add a product or a service related to the PO. This PO must be linked to the bill record.

• The quantity of a product or a service defined in the PO is the final number. You cannot exceed its quantity in the bill record. 

• If you wish to make changes to the product or the service, you must first edit the related PO.

To know more about Purchase Orders, click here.

• With Payments

A bill is cleared only when payments are done. Hence, changes in the payments record will affect the bill. Here are a few instances that show the dependency of bills on payments:

• When a payment is done, the Paid and Balance fields are updated in the bill record.

• If the status of a payment record is changed to paid, then the status of the bill is also changed to paid.

To know more about Payments, click here.

Adding Line Item Records

You can add new Line Item records like a new product/service or a new section in the existing bill by editing the Item Details block.

Follow the steps mentioned below to add line item records:

• How to add a new product or service

  Follow these steps to add a product/service:

  • Click the Menu icon.

  • Go to the Inventory tab.

  • Select the Bills module.

  • Click +Add Bill and fill all the necessary details.

  • Open the newly created bill and click Edit.

  • Go to the Item Details block.

  • Click  Add row.

  • Select Products or Services.

  • Select an item from the list of all items related to the linked PO.

  • Click Add Selected.

Refer to the Bill configuration section in this document to understand Tax management, etc.

• How to add a new section

  Follow these steps to add a section:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Select any particular bill. 

5. Click Edit.

6. Go to the Item Details block.

7. Click Add Section.

Actions Possible on a Bill

You can perform the following actions on the bill:

• Share a bill

You can share a bill with a customer by sending a link to the bill or by sending the bill itself as an attachment.

1. As link

   Follow these steps to share the bill as a link:

   1. Click the Menu icon.

   2. Go to the Inventory tab.

   3. Select the Bills module.

   4. Open any bill.

   5. Click the Do button in the Summary View.

   6. Select Share.

   7. Click Share as link.

   8. A mail compose window opens with Bill's link.

   9. Enter the recipient's details and click Send.

2. As attachment

   Follow these steps to share the bill as an attachment:

   1. Click the Menu icon.

   2. Go to the Inventory tab.

   3. Select the Bills module.

   4. Open any bill.

   5. Click the Do button in the Summary View.

   6. Select Share.

   7. Click Share as attachment.

   8. A mail compose window opens with the bill attached to it.

   9. Enter the recipient's details and click Send.

• Generate related documents

1. Add a document

   Use Vtiger’s Documents module to solve the problems of organizing and sharing! It acts as a repository for all the documents that you have created or those shared with you by your customers or the sales team. 
   Follow these steps to add a document:

   1. Click the Menu icon.

   2. Go to the Inventory tab.

   3. Select the Bills module.

   4. Open any bill.

   5. Click the Do button in the Summary View.

   6. Click Add or Create button.

   7. Select Documents.

   8. Here, you see two options on your screen:

      1. Select Documents

         1. If you want to add an existing document, select this option.

         2. Hover over a record in the list of all existing documents to display the radio buttons.

         3. Click the radio button on the left side of the record to select the record.

         4. Click Add Selected button present below of the list.

      2. Create Documents

         1. If you want to add a new document, select this option.

         2. Fill all the necessary details.

         3. Click Save.

The linked document will be seen in the Documents widget in the Summary View of the bill.

2. Generate a payment

Payments module enables you to accept payments for the goods sold to your customers. Your customers can pay you online through a secure gateway thereby ensuring that the payments are faster and safer.  
Follow these steps to generate a payment:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Open any Bill record.

5. Click the Do button in the Summary View.

6. Click Add or Create button.

7. Select Payments.

8. Enter all the necessary details.

9. Click Save to create the payment record.

   • Click Save and Continue to fill in more information.

The newly created payment record will be available in the Payments widget on the Summary View of the bill.

• Export

  Follow these steps to export a bill:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. In the List View, hover over any bill record to display the radio button on the left side.

5. Click the radio button.

6. Click the Export button.

7. Select any one of the following options:

   1. Export Selected Records - This option will export only the selected record.

   2. Export data in current page - This option will export the records on the current page.

   3. Export all data - This option will export all the data in all the pages of the bill module.

The exported record will be saved on your local system. 

• Print

  Follow these steps to print a Bill:

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Open any bill.

5. Click the More button.

6. Click the Print button.

7. You can perform any of the below options:

   • Edit & Export - You can edit the bill and export it to your local system.

   • Email with PDF - You can email the bill record as a PDF to the contact.

   • Print - You can print the bill and keep a hard copy.

   • Save as PDF - You can save the bill as a PDF on your local system.

How to change the template of a bill 

There are two ways from which you can change the template of a bill.

1. Follow these steps to change the template of a bill from the Print Bill screen:

This is a temporary change only until the bill is printed.

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Open any bill.

5. Click the More button.

6. Click the Print button.

7. Select the template you want from the list of all templates.

8. You can choose any of the below options:

   1. Edit & Export - You can edit the bill and export it to your local system.

   2. Email with PDF - You can email the bill record as a PDF to the contact.

   3. Print - You can print the bill and keep a hard copy.

   4. Save as PDF - You can save the bill as a PDF on your local system.

2. Follow these steps to change the template of the bill from the Settings widget:

This is a permanent change and will be applied to the bill immediately.

1. Click the Menu icon.

2. Go to the Inventory tab.

3. Select the Bills module.

4. Open any bill.

5. Go to the Settings Widget.

6. Click the Template applied drop-down.

7. Select the template of your choice.

The template will be applied to the bill instantly.

One View in Bills

One View widget is a one-stop destination to view all the important modules related to a bill.
One view widget in the Bill module will show the following details:

• Related Purchase Orders 

• Related Vendor details generated from this Bill

• Related Payments details

• Related Document details attached to the Bill.

To learn more about One View in Vtiger CRM, click here.