Supplier Bills and Payments
What Is a Supplier Invoice
A supplier invoice, or supplier bill, itemizes a purchase between a buyer and seller. The bill usually specifies supplier payment terms and provides payment method options. Supplying vendors issue supplier bills to customers, who are responsible for paying them on an agreed-upon timeline.
Add Supplier Bills to Your Purchase Orders With Finale Inventory
When purchasing inventory from suppliers, you often receive invoices you need to log as bills against the purchase order. Tracking bills in your company's inventory management software provides you with a complete picture of your business financials. Finale Inventory can manage your supplier bills and payments.
The benefits to tracking your supplier bills and payments in Finale include:
- Streamlined workflow
- Timely payments
- Reduced data entry mistakes and labor costs
Supplier Invoice vs. Purchase Invoice
You may encounter different types of payment documents while working with a supplier. Purchase orders and supplier invoices often include similar information, such as prices, vendor details and shipping data, but they have different purposes at different stages of the order process.
Before making any purchases or receiving a supplier invoice, you'll make a purchase invoice, or purchase order. Buyers give purchase orders to sellers before any transactions to outline the products and services they intend to buy and the potential quantities.
Then, after the sellers have fulfilled the orders, they give buyers supplier invoices with the final terms of the agreement, including costs and outstanding bills.
Why Use Supplier Invoices?
Supplier invoicing provides many benefits for your company, such as:
- Payment reminders: Invoices usually include payment due dates, giving you a clear idea of when you need to send in your payments. When you pay on time, you establish an upstanding relationship with your supplier.
- Easy record-keeping: Supplier bills are great records to have on hand for any potential audits or other information discrepancy cases.
Invoice Automation Benefits
When implementing supplier invoices, one way to improve your business's processes is through automation. Today's technology lets businesses communicate with each other and store and share their payment information effortlessly. You can search for certain invoices and sort specific transactions to stay on top of your inventory data.
Automation helps your business:
- Minimize errors: Manually creating invoices can be inefficient and runs the risk of errors. Incorrect, lost or misfiled payment information can cost your business time and money. Invoice software helps your company avoid many manual mistakes by letting digital solutions take charge.
- Pay bills on time: Disorganization can cause late payments and disorderly schedules. Solidify positive supplier relationships and overall reputation with digital invoice tracking and clear due date visibility.
- Generate reports: When your company needs to prepare for an audit or find payment information for any other reason, invoicing software helps you create and find reports at any time so you can streamline the audit process. Some automated solutions will even point out potential errors for you to review.
- Reduce costs: Labor costs account for much of the money your company spends per invoice. Leave the invoice receiving, correcting, sending and filing steps to automation. You'll spend less money on invoices and free up employees to work on other crucial projects for your company.
