Accounts Payable

Once a Purchase Order is accepted by a Vendor, the Line Items will need to be fulfilled and shipped to the designated location on the Purchase Order. After the Items are shipped or fulfilled, the Vendor can create a Bill from which your Company will have to pay for the goods or services you’ve received.

Unlike a Purchase Order, which is an agreement to purchase goods or services from a Vendor, a Bill is a transaction from which your Company will have to pay the Vendor for those goods or services. Bills can be created by the Vendor Contact in the Vendor Portal or by internal users by choosing Bill under the Vendors tab. You will have the ability to choose a default Bill format under A/P Settings with the option to select from a list of saved formats for all Bills. If a default is set, it will show in the Bill format section of the Bill Info page. The Bill Info page will have a drop-down menu for you to select a Bill format if multiple formats are available. You will also have the option to email Bills to both Vendor Contacts and Employees to allow for a smoother, automated process. Below is a screenshot representing how adding a Bill appears and details on what can be accomplished there.

Just like with the Purchase Order formats, Bill formats will allow a PDF printable version of the Bill to be sent to the Vendor. If Vendor Contacts are using the Portal, they will be able to view and print out Bills so they have a hard copy for their records. There is a default Bill format in Striven for ease of use, but a new format can also be created by using the Add button on the Bill Formats List.

When creating a new printable format, there are three main sections available for you to configure to suit your Company’s needs, including Content, Items, and Totals. Bill format merge fields are available and include account-level Custom Fields to provide different options, as well as many columns for you to choose from, including expense and Item columns, for a more detailed Bill format. Let’s discuss each section and explore what’s available in Striven to help you configure your Bill printable formats. Below is a screenshot displaying how the Bill Formats List appears. You can find the Bill format settings by navigating to:

Company → Settings → Accounting → AP → Bills → Bill Formats

Items: This section will allow you to configure how the Items appear on the printable format. To configure the Items section header, you can choose a column header background color along with the font size and color. You can determine the table width for the display of the Items on the Bill, as well as set the Barcode Type. Within the Items, you can also choose what to include and exclude in the section from a list of available columns. The columns can also be renamed and rearranged to fit your needs. The example shown illustrates how the Items section appears.

As discussed above, Bills are transactions from which you will have to pay Vendors for goods or services you’ve purchased. However, sometimes you will receive goods or services you’ve ordered without receiving a Bill from the Vendor. To replicate this workflow you can use the Received Items (Bill Pending) checkbox when creating a Bill (shown by the blue arrow in the screenshot below). This checkbox will hide fields that appear on the Bill page as your Company is not responsible to pay until you receive a Bill from the Vendor. Once a Bill is received, you can simply uncheck the Received Items (Bill Pending) checkbox which will create a Bill automatically. You can also create Received Items using the Receive Items and Create Bills for Received Items options using the Create Bills for Received Items under the Vendors tab. Below is a screenshot demonstrating how Received Items (Bill Pending) appears.

Apart from creating Bills in Striven, Vendor Contacts can also create Bills for Purchase Orders in the Vendor Portal. Vendor Contacts can create Bills in the Portal by using the Vendor Info tab and choosing Create Bill or from the Purchase Order using the PO Actions Menu and clicking Create Bill. Vendor Contacts can then choose what PO they would like to create a Bill for and when the Bill will be due. After the Bill is created from the Portal, it will go into the Review Bills Queue to be reviewed by an internal user to either be Approved or Denied. Below is a screenshot displaying how the Review Bills Queue appears and details on what can be accomplished there.

To view the Review Bills Queue, follow these steps:

Vendors → Purchasing → Approve Bills

After the Bill is created in Striven, your Company is responsible to submit payment to the Vendor. You can pay Bills by using the Actions menu from the Bill and choosing Pay Bill or by choosing Pay Bills under the Vendor menu. Either method will bring you to the Pay Bills List from which you can choose the Bill(s) you wish to pay. After choosing the Bill(s) to pay, you can click the Pay Bills button to initiate a popup in which you can choose how you’ll pay the Vendor. Below is a screenshot exhibiting how the Pay Bills List appears and details on what can be accomplished there.

To view the Pay Bills List, use the following steps:

Vendors → Financial → Pay Bills

Once you have selected the Bills you want to pay, the Pay Bills popup will display. Below is an example of a Pay Bills popup and a list detailing what you can accomplish there.

Bill Credits are transactions that represent credits received from Vendors for goods or services that have been ordered or purchased. Bill Credits can be used to refund your Company for damaged goods you’ve received or unused services that you’ve ordered from the Vendor. You can create Bill Credits using the Actions menu on a Bill or by using Create Credits under the Vendors tab. Bill Credits can be applied to Bills once created to decrease the amount your Company owes the Vendor. Below is a screenshot featuring how adding a Bill Credit appears and details on what can be accomplished there.

Striven has several imports available to allow you to import transactions en masse. Imports are available for A/P transactions including Bills and Journal Entries. Though the mapping for each import is different, the import setup functionality is much the same across the board for Striven importing. For more information about all imports, view our Import Management Guide.

Transaction imports can be accessed by clicking the Import button found on the Transactions List and choosing what type of transaction you would like to import into Striven. Each Import page appears the same with two sections which are described further below with a screenshot illustrating how the Bills Import page appears.

The Purchasing by Vendor Report will list out each Vendor in order of how much has been purchased within a given start and end period. By default, the list is sorted by which Vendor your Company has purchased the most from within the selected time period. Below is an example of the Purchasing by Vendor Report and what configurations can be conducted.

1. Available Search Filters: There are many useful search filters available for this report in order to see the list of Vendors that mean the most to you. Filtering based on Assignment can be a useful way to quickly see your Vendors versus the overall list.
2. Vendor: Lists the Vendor’s name as a hyperlink. Clicking on the name will navigate you to their Dashboard for additional information.
3. Purchasing Amount: Sums the total amount purchased that has been entered related to the Vendor. The date range filter will determine which transactions are to be included within this calculated column.
4. Purchasing %: Displays how much your Company has purchased from the Vendor compared to the rest of the list. Knowing which Customers you have purchased the most with will give you insight into your Company’s Vendor relations.

A tool you can utilize when keeping track of what your Company owes Vendors for purchased goods or services is the A/P Aging Report. The A/P Aging Report lists all the Vendors to whom you owe money and how late your Company is paying the open Bills. This report can help you see all open transactions per Vendor, view Vendor information, and view the total owed to each Vendor. Below is a screenshot illustrating how the A/P Aging Report appears and details on what can be accomplished there.

To view the A/P Aging Report, navigate to:

Reports → Purchases & Payables → AP Aging

1. Date as of: The date which you’re reporting from. A date can be selected using the Calendar icon.
2. Intervals: Represent a duration of days that you choose to report on and default to a 30-day interval. You can change intervals by entering a new number in this field.
3. Buckets: Represent the max number of days you wish to report on based on the chosen intervals and default to 90 days. You can change the bucket by entering a new number in this field.
4. Vendor (Filter): Allows you to choose a Vendor for which you can narrow-down results to only display that Vendor’s open balance.
5. Vendor (Name): Lists all the Vendors who currently have an open balance. Vendor Names are hyperlinks, which when clicked will populate the Vendor’s Dashboard in a new browser tab.
6. Total: Displays the overall open balance for each Customer and is a hyperlink, which when clicked will populate the Vendor’s A/P Aging Detail Report. The A/P Aging Detail will show all transactions with an open balance that make up the Vendor’s Total.