Recording a bill is what you owe. Paying it is a separate step: you allocate a disbursement across one or more open bills. Seedflow does not put a supplier-payments list in the sidebar. Payment numbers seed as PV-00001 (Settings → Purchases → General).
There is no Payments item under Purchases. You pay from Bills.
How to open it
| Step | Click |
|---|---|
| 1 | Purchases → Bills |
| 2 | Row Post Payment, View Payments → Add Payment, or Pay Bills |
The bill’s paid amount, balance, and payment status update even if auto-post is off. If auto-post is off, enter a disbursement journal yourself if you need the cash on the books.
What the disbursement journal books
| Accounting method | Journal |
|---|---|
| Accrual | Debit Accounts Payable, credit Payment Account. The expense already hit when you finalized the bill |
| Cash | Credit Payment Account, debit inventory or expense and Input VAT (from the bill lines, in proportion to what you paid). The bill itself did not journal |
The bill must be finalized and still have a balance. Draft, void, cancelled, and fully paid bills cannot receive a payment.
What you can pay
| Bill | Can you post a payment? |
|---|---|
| Finalized, unpaid or partially paid | Yes. Post Payment is on the row |
| Draft | No. Finalize first |
| Paid (balance is zero) | No |
| Void or cancelled | No |
All of these create the same kind of payment. There is no Payments item under Purchases.
Entry points on Purchases → Bills
| Start here | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Bill row → Post Payment | One bill. Amount defaults to the remaining balance. You can type a smaller amount for a partial payment. This always posts |
| Bill row → View Payments → Add Payment | Same as Post Payment, after you have checked what is already allocated |
| Bills list → Pay Bills | One supplier, several open bills. Enter a paid amount on each line; the payment total follows the sum. Always posts |
Payment date is required. Method defaults to Bank transfer (cash, check, credit card, and other are also available). You cannot allocate more than a bill’s remaining balance. For a posted payment, the amounts on the bills must equal the payment total — there is no leftover unallocated cash.
How allocation works
| You enter | What Seedflow does |
|---|---|
| The full remaining balance | That bill becomes Paid |
| Less than the balance | That bill becomes Partially paid. You can post another payment later |
| Amounts on several bills (Pay Bills) | One disbursement covers all of them. Each bill can appear only once on the same payment |
Reference number and notes are optional. They appear on the payment PDF.
Post Payment, Add Payment, and Pay Bills all post. A draft does not change bill balances and does not journal. Updating a draft does not post it — use Post Payment when the cash has left the bank.
Payment status
| Status | What it does |
|---|---|
| Draft | Does not change bill balances. No journal. You can edit or cancel. Cancelled and draft payments can be deleted |
| Posted | Allocations applied. Bill paid/balance/payment status update. Auto-post can create the disbursement journal. Not editable. You can Void |
| Voided | Allocations reversed. Bill balances go back. If a disbursement journal existed, Seedflow posts a reversing general journal. Cannot be undone |
| Cancelled | A draft you stopped. Closed. Does not touch bills or journals |
Document status (draft / finalized) stays the same. Payment status is separate.
Payment status on the bill
| Payment status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Unpaid | Balance still equals the total |
| Partially paid | Some payments allocated; balance remains |
| Paid | Balance is zero. The list also has an Overdue filter from the due date — that is not a payment status |
View Payments shows every disbursement on that bill (number, date, method, amount, status).
The payment can still succeed on the bill. Check Settings → Accounting → General (Auto-Post Transactions) and Settings → Purchases → Disbursements (Payment Account). Accrual also needs Accounts Payable on Purchase Journal. Cash needs the bill’s purchase/expense and Input VAT accounts (product Configure or Purchase Journal defaults).
Void from View Payments on the bill. Only Posted payments can be voided. That puts the allocated amounts back on the bills. If auto-post had created a disbursement journal, Seedflow also posts a reversing general journal. If there was no payment journal, voiding only reverses the allocations.
You must void related supplier payments before you can void the bill. See Record a bill.
Other guides in Purchases