How it works
When a supplier sends an invoice, the buyer records it as a bill: vendor, bill date, due date, line items with expense or item accounts, tax and the total. The bill creates a liability in accounts payable. It may be matched to a purchase order, routed for approval and then paid, after which a bill payment clears the liability.
Example
An AP automation product reads a PDF invoice from a cleaning company, creates a $640 bill in the customer's QuickBooks Online file against the Facilities account, and later records the payment when it clears.
In integrations
Bills are the core object for AP and spend products. The Unify Accounting API and ERP API are designed to read and write bills and bill payments, including attachments where the platform supports them and approval states in ERPs. Write status is shown per platform and only where write-back is confirmed. Bills look simple but vary widely: line-level tax, multiple currencies, attachments, approval states and partial payments all differ by platform. Test with real customer data early, not just sandbox companies.