Overview
A bill moves through several statuses as your team reviews it, reconciles it, and pays it. The status of a bill tells you where it is in its lifecycle and what you can do with it next. This article defines each status in one place.
Who uses this feature
Administrators, office employees, managers, accountants, and bookkeepers
Applies to all business types
Applies to all trades
Feature configuration
Account configuration is required to use this feature. Please contact Technical Support for details.
The Purchasing Module is required to use this feature.
The Payables permissions are required to use this feature. Please contact the account administrator on your team.
Things to know
Set up Accounts Payable before you start working with bills. For more, see Set up Accounts Payable.
A bill carries a bill status that tracks reconciliation, and a payment status that tracks payment to your vendor.
Not all bills pass through every status. The path depends on how you reconcile and pay each bill.
You reconcile a bill before you pay it. A reconciled bill cannot be edited.
Bill statuses
A bill can be in one of the following statuses. You can see bills grouped by status when you go to Accounting, then click Bills in the side panel. For details, see View bills by status.
These statuses are available to all accounts:
Unreconciled: Bills that need to be reviewed and reconciled.
Discrepancies Identified: Reviewed bills that have manually been marked as discrepancy identified. You can update the status to Reconciled after you resolve or accept the discrepancy.
Reconciled: Reviewed bills.
Canceled: Bills that were canceled.
With 3-way matching enabled:
Needs Review: Bills that have discrepancies identified by 3-way matching as having a discrepancy with the receipt and/or PO.
With Approval Workflows enabled:
Pending Approval: Bills that are awaiting approval.
With the Ramp bill pay integration enabled:
Unpaid: Bills that have been reconciled and are not ready for payment.
Paid: Bills that are reconciled and paid.
Note: A discrepancy is a difference between a bill and its purchase order or receipt, such as a difference in quantity, cost, tax, or shipping.
Payment statuses
After you reconcile a bill, create a payment to your vendor. The payment carries its own status. You can see payments grouped by status when you go to Accounting, then click Payments in the side panel. For details, see View payments by status.
Which statuses you see depends on your payment integration.
With the legacy Repay integration enabled:
Unpaid: Reconciled bills and credits with available balances that need a payment.
Ready for Approval: Payments you created that are ready to approve before processing.
Initiated: Approved payments that you submitted for processing.
Processing: Payments that are being prepared for the payee.
In Transit: Processed payments that you sent that have not yet reached the payee.
Paid: Payments received by the payee, with funds drawn from settlement accounts.
Canceled: Payments you canceled before processing.
With the Ramp integration enabled:
Scheduled: Payments that are scheduled but have not yet been initiated. Payments can be scheduled in advance or scheduled for the same day.
Processing: Payments that initiated and being sent to the vendor.
Paid: Payments received by the payee, with funds drawn from settlement accounts.
With neither the Repay nor the Ramp integration enabled:
Unpaid: Reconciled bills and credits with available balances that need a payment.
Ready for Approval: Payments requiring approval before processing.
Paid: Payments marked as paid via your accounting software.
Canceled: Payments you canceled before processing.
Note: Not all payments pass through every status. For example, if you pay your vendor through your accounting software and select that option when you create the payment, the payment moves straight to the Paid status.
The bill lifecycle
The status of a bill tells you which stage of the AP workflow it is in. A bill moves from reconciliation through payment.
A bill starts as Unreconciled or Needs Review when it is created or received.
If review finds a difference against the purchase order or receipt, the bill moves to Discrepancies Identified. With 3-way matching enabled, the bill is automatically marked as discrepancy identified.
After you resolve any differences (if needed) and confirm the bill is accurate, it becomes Reconciled.
The reconciled bill is then ready for payment. How the payment progresses depends on your payment integration:
With the legacy Repay integration: The bill appears as Unpaid in the Payments list, ready for you to create a payment. The payment then moves through Ready for Approval, Initiated, Processing, and In Transit, and ends at Paid.
With the Ramp integration: The payment moves through Scheduled and Processing, and ends at Paid.
With neither integration: The bill appears as Unpaid, ready for you to create a payment. The payment moves through Ready for Approval and ends at Paid once marked paid via your accounting software.
FAQ
What do the bill statuses mean?
A bill moves through reconciliation and payment statuses as your team reviews and pays it. For the definitions, see the Bill statuses and Payment statuses sections above.
Why is a reconciled bill not showing a payment?
A reconciled bill appears as Unpaid in the Payments list until you create a payment for it.