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Supplier Invoices: Reading, Checking, CIS, Purchase Orders and Ready to Pay

This is the same guide SiteBot reads. Inside the app you can ask it any of this in your own words, and it answers from this page.

Supplier and subcontractor invoices go on a job’s Cost Tracker, in the browser, for the job’s admins only. You can type one in, have it read for you, or drop a week’s worth in at once and check each one before it counts. An owner or admin of the company can drop a week of invoices for every job into Invoices to sort, or forward them to the company’s own address, and send each to its job. Subcontractor invoices carry their CIS deduction, so the amount to pay is right. A purchase order locks a supplier’s agreed price to the job, and the invoices you put against it are checked against what is left of it. The ones you have checked go to QuickBooks or Xero as a bill file. The rest of the Cost Tracker (the quote, costs, payments and change orders) has its own help page.

Adding one invoice:

  1. Open the project, and in the sidebar under Admin, click Cost Tracker
  2. In Costs, click Add invoice
  3. Drop the invoice onto the box at the top, or click Choose: a PDF, or a photograph of it. It is shown beside the form and kept, in a Supplier invoices folder in Files that only the job’s admins can open
  4. To save typing, click Read the invoice. In a few seconds it fills in who it is from, the invoice number, the dates, the net, the VAT and any CIS, as printed on the document. It fills only empty boxes, so nothing you typed is changed. A figure it is not sure of, or worked out from others, says Check this one. under it. Always check every figure against the document
  5. From: pick the supplier from your company’s contacts, or type a name that is not in them
  6. Type or check the Invoice number, the Invoice date and, if it says one, the Due date
  7. Type or check the Net figure (before VAT) and the VAT. 20% fills in the VAT at the standard rate. The form says what goes on the tracker: the net on a job kept excluding VAT, the net plus the VAT on one kept including it
  8. Choose the Cost code (type to search) and Category, say what it was for, and click Add invoice

Dropping several in at once:

  1. In Costs, click Add several invoices
  2. Drop all the invoices onto the box, or choose them: PDFs or photographs, as many as you have
  3. Each one is kept in the Supplier invoices folder and read, three at a time, each line saying how it is going. Keep the page open until they are all read. A PDF over 4.5 MB, or a photograph too large to send, is not added: add it with Add invoice and type it in
  4. When it finishes it says how many are waiting to be checked. Close it

If the same document has been added before, on this job or another job you run the costs of, its line says where. It is still added: check it is not the same invoice twice.

A week of invoices for every job, in one place (Invoices to sort): For the company’s owners and admins. When the week’s invoices are for many jobs, you do not have to sort them into piles first.

  1. Open All projects and click Invoices
  2. Drop all the invoices onto the box, whichever jobs they are for. Each is kept for the company and read. Keep the page open until they are all read
  3. Each line shows who it is from, the number, the date and the amount to pay, and the Job it looks to be for, with the reason underneath, such as The site postcode NR12 8AB is printed on it. The job is worked out from what is printed: one of your purchase order numbers, the job’s code, the quote reference on its Cost Tracker, the site postcode, the site address or the job’s name. When nothing printed names a job, or it could be more than one, the line says Choose a job
  4. Check each line’s job and change it if it is wrong. Preview under a name shows the invoice with its Job and Send to the job; sending opens the next one
  5. Click Send on a line, or Send the matched ones to send every line with a job chosen

A sent invoice moves to its job, into the Supplier invoices folder, and waits there under Invoices to check. Nothing counts on a job until somebody marks it ready to pay there. An invoice that could not be read can still be sent: type it in on the job. If the same document is in the list twice, or already on a job, its line says so. Discard deletes one you do not want. Reading here counts towards the same two hundred a day as reading on a job; when the day’s reading runs out, the rest are kept unread, and Read the unread ones reads them later.

Forwarding invoices by email: Under the box on Invoices, the company has its own address, starting invoices-. Click Copy, then forward supplier invoices to it, or give it to suppliers to send their invoices to. Each PDF or photograph attached lands in Invoices to sort, marked Emailed by whoever sent it, and waits there unread: click Read the unread ones to have them read. Anything else in an email (a Word file, a logo in the signature) is left out, and an email with something not added is listed under Emails with something not added, with the reason. Up to 20 documents are taken from one email, and 200 a day for the company. If the address has reached the wrong people, Make a new address: the old one stops working at once.

Nothing you drop in counts on the job yet. Each invoice waits under Invoices to check, at the top of the Cost Tracker, with its supplier, number, date and the amount to pay. Every admin of the job sees it, so one can drop them in and another check them.

Checking an invoice and marking it ready to pay:

  1. Under Invoices to check, click Check beside one. It opens beside its document, every box filled from what was read
  2. Check every figure against it, especially any marked Check this one. + makes small print bigger
  3. Choose the cost code and the category, and correct anything that is wrong
  4. Click Ready to pay. The invoice goes on the Cost Tracker, and the next one to check opens

If the same supplier’s invoice number is already on the tracker, or waiting to be checked, the form says so: check it is not the same invoice twice. If somebody else marked it ready to pay meanwhile, it is not added again, and the form says so.

An invoice that could not be read (not an invoice, too blurred, or a scanned PDF with no text) still waits, with its document, saying Could not be read. Check it and type the figures in. To get rid of one you do not want, such as a duplicate, click Discard: the draft and its document are deleted.

Purchase orders: A purchase order is one supplier, one job and one agreed price before VAT, with their quotation attached. Once it is approved, the invoices put against it cannot take more than was agreed. Purchase orders are numbered across your company (PO-0001, PO-0002), so a supplier working on several of your jobs can put the number on their invoice.

  1. On the Cost Tracker, under Purchase orders, click New purchase order
  2. Choose the Supplier from your company’s contacts. A supplier not in your contacts has to be added first: an owner or admin of your company adds them under People, Add a contact
  3. Say what it is for, add the scope if you like, and type the Agreed price (£, before VAT)
  4. Choose a cost code if you use them, and drop in the supplier’s quotation. It is kept in a Purchase order quotes folder in Files that only the job’s admins can open
  5. Click Approve if you have agreed the price, or Save as draft to come back to it. No invoice can be put against a draft

Sending a purchase order to the supplier to approve: Instead of approving it yourself, you can send it to the supplier, so you know they have seen it and agreed to it.

  1. On a draft purchase order, click Send to supplier
  2. Check Who at the supplier and Their email. They start from the supplier’s contact, or from whoever you sent it to last time
  3. Click Send. They get an email with the purchase order and a link. They do not need an account

On the link they read it (the number, what it is for, the scope, the agreed price before VAT and the job’s address), then either tick that they agree to supply it for that price and approve it, or decline it and say why if they like. The purchase order then shows who approved or declined it and when, with their reason. The email asks them to put the number on every invoice for the work.

While it is with the supplier it says With the supplier, no invoice can be put against it yet, and what it is for and its price cannot change. From its … menu you can Send again (the link in the last email stops working), Approve it yourself if you agree the price another way, or Take back to change it, which stops the link and makes it a draft again. A declined one can be taken back to change it and send it again, or cancelled.

If the email could not be sent, its link still works: the Cost Tracker gives it to you to send another way.

Once approved, a purchase order’s supplier, what it is for, its price and its scope are fixed. Its cost code and quotation can still change. If the supplier needs more money, agree it first, then choose Raise a variation from the purchase order’s … menu: a new purchase order for the extra, for the same supplier, marked as adding to the first. From the same menu, Close it when the work is finished, so no more invoices can go against it (Reopen undoes that). Cancel is for one nothing has been drawn from, and only a draft can be deleted.

Putting an invoice against a purchase order:

  1. On the invoice (adding it, or checking one under Invoices to check), choose it under Purchase order. Only approved ones are listed, the supplier’s own first, each saying what is left. If From is empty it is filled in with the purchase order’s supplier
  2. Put on PO-0001 starts at the invoice’s net. If the invoice is for more than is left, the form says so and offers Put £X on it: the rest of that invoice then stands outside the purchase order, as a separate item on it would
  3. Click Add invoice or Ready to pay

An invoice cannot take a purchase order past its agreed price, or go against another supplier’s, another job’s, or a draft, closed or cancelled one: the Cost Tracker refuses it and says what is left. Day-rate labour needs no purchase order: leave Purchase order on No purchase order.

When Read the invoice finds your PO number printed on it, an approved purchase order of this job from that supplier is chosen by itself, and the form says so. Otherwise it says why, with Use PO-0012 where it could be used.

If the purchase order you need does not exist yet, click Raise one in a new tab and approve it there: back on the invoice it is in the list, and nothing you typed is lost.

Where an invoice stands:

CIS (Construction Industry Scheme): On a subcontractor’s invoice, tick CIS subcontractor invoice. Then:

When an invoice is read, the CIS is read too: the labour, the materials, the CIS taken off and the amount payable. If the CIS is not 20%, 30% or nothing of the labour, or the figures do not add up to the amount payable, it is marked Check this one. It never guesses a rate: check the subcontractor’s rate with HMRC as you always would.

CIS does not change what the job cost. The deduction is still part of the subcontractor’s price, paid to HMRC instead of to them, so the Cost Tracker carries the invoice in full.

Reverse charge: if the subcontractor charged no VAT because the domestic reverse charge applies, tick Reverse charge: the supplier charged no VAT. The VAT is set to nothing, and the bill file uses your reverse charge tax code for it.

Your supplier book, for what their invoices do not print: Payment terms, CIS and VAT are mostly not on the invoice. Tell BuildersAI once and every invoice read for your company uses them. An owner or admin of the company opens Organisation settings, then Supplier terms, clicks Edit and sets:

An invoice is matched by the VAT number printed on it, then by the name (Ltd, Limited and the like set aside). A name that is only close is never used by itself: the form asks Is this Travis Perkins? and you click Use it. Once matched:

Picking a supplier on Add invoice by hand fills the same empty boxes. A job’s admins have the book used for them; only the company’s owners and admins change it. When one of them types a due date or a CIS deduction the book does not know, the form offers Remember for that supplier.

Getting invoices to QuickBooks or Xero: An owner or admin of the company opens All projects, Time, then Export, and chooses QuickBooks bill or Xero bill. At the top, choose Supplier invoices (or hours and supplier invoices together). Only invoices that are ready to pay and have not gone before are in the file: one bill each, against its supplier, under the supplier’s invoice number, with its due date, in the account its cost code is mapped to, against the job. Import the file into your accounts as bills. The document itself does not travel in the file: it stays on the job in BuildersAI. An invoice that has already gone is left out of the next file, and the export says how many. If an exported invoice needs correcting, a job admin can still change it, and the form says your accounts already hold it, so correct it there too.

With supplier invoices in the file, two more boxes appear beside Tax code, and are remembered for next time:

QuickBooks does not work CIS out on bills it imports from a file, so choose whichever way your bookkeeper works.

Reading an invoice, the limits: a PDF from accounting software or a photograph of the paper both read well. Each person can have two hundred invoices read in any 24 hours. Reading never chooses the cost code or the category. A credit note is not read: correct the invoice it credits instead.