How to create a bill in ApprovalMax

Make sure you're allowed to raise bills. The Bill workflow has a creation step, Create in ApprovalMax, and only the Requesters added to that step can open a bill there. The workflow itself also has to be active.

Have the supplier's invoice in front of you, ideally as a file, since you can attach the original to the bill. You'll copy the supplier, the date and the line items across from it. Which account each line goes to, and the rest of each line's details, are yours to complete: check with your accountant which account to use.

Typing the bill into ApprovalMax is one route among several. A bill entered in Xero, by hand or with Xero's Email-to-Bill, can be pulled into ApprovalMax for approval when its status is Awaiting Approval. An approved purchase order can also be copied into a bill. This page covers creating the bill directly in ApprovalMax.

1. In the left-hand navigation panel, click the + icon next to the Bill request type to go straight to the creation form.
2. Or click + New request in the top-right corner of ApprovalMax, select Bill in your organisation and click CREATE A REQUEST.
3. Choose the supplier and enter the bill's date.
4. Look at the Due Date, which ApprovalMax fills in from the contact's payment terms.
5. Add the line items as the invoice shows them, completing the account and other details for each line with your accountant's guidance where needed.
6. Attach the original invoice as a file.
7. Complete any other details the form asks for, then click Submit for approval.

Once submitted, the bill runs through each step of the Bill workflow. When the last approval arrives, ApprovalMax pushes the bill to Xero with the status Awaiting Payment. It goes with a detailed audit trail of the whole workflow and the documents you attached, so the invoice copy sits with the bill in Xero.

Before that final approval the bill can still be edited, and who may edit it turns on their role. As its Requester you can edit bills you created. A Reviewer can edit if the review step gives them that permission, and an Approver can if editing permissions were granted when the workflow was set up. An edit that's resubmitted for approval sends the bill back through the workflow from the beginning and clears the approvals it had collected.

After the final approval the bill is closed to changes in ApprovalMax, and corrections are made in Xero.

If Bill isn't offered in the New request pop-up, check that the Bill workflow is active and that you're one of its Requesters, since the pop-up shows the active workflows and request types open to you.

Expected a CREATE NEW REQUEST button inside the Bill folder? It only appears before the first request of that type has been created. After that the folder lists earlier requests instead, so use the + icon or + New request.