# Introduction - Bills

A bill is what the vendor charged you, and Inventory's question about it is whether it matches what they delivered.

**Video coming soon:** Checking a vendor's bill against the receive, and catching the difference before you pay it.

It is the last document in the inbound chain and the only one that does nothing to your stock. Everything it is useful for comes from comparing it against the two documents in front of it.

![The Bills screen, subtitled Manage vendor bills, track payments and outstanding balances. Columns read Bill Date, Bill Number, Order Number, Vendor, Due Date, Status, Total Amount, Balance Due and Payment. Bill numbers are the vendors' own, such as IVB-0004, against UK suppliers including Trent Valley Electricals, Black Country Tooling and Ludgate Safety Equipment. Statuses read Overdue by 143 days, Overdue by 100 days or Paid, and the Payment column reads Partial, Unpaid or Paid.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/bills/bills-list.png)

*Two columns describe money: Status is how late it is, Payment is how much of it has gone.*

## Three documents that should agree

| Document | What it says | Written by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Purchase order | What you asked for, and at what price | Whoever ordered |
| Purchase receive | What turned up | Somebody standing next to the pallet |
| Bill | What you are charged | The vendor |

When all three agree, there is nothing to do. When they do not, the receive is the one to trust: it is the only one of the three written by somebody who was looking at the goods.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Billed for more than was received is the expensive mismatch**
>
> It is also the quiet one. The stock figure is right, the vendor is paid, and the difference only surfaces as an unexplained margin. Comparing the bill against the receive rather than against the order is what catches it.

## A bill does not move stock

The receive already did. Raising a bill changes what you owe and nothing on any shelf, which is why a bill can arrive weeks after the goods without any count being wrong in the meantime.

![A bill record showing the vendor's own bill number, the order it relates to, the due date, the billed lines and the totals with the balance still due, alongside an activity panel.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/bills/bill-detail.png)

*The bill number is the vendor's, not yours, which is what they will quote when they chase you.*

- **Received, not billed** (normal): The goods are yours and the vendor has not invoiced yet. You owe money that no bill has recorded, which matters at month end.
- **Billed, not received** (worth a look): The vendor has invoiced for goods nobody has counted in. Either a receive was missed or the delivery was.

> **Note:**
>
> **The same bill, two apps**
>
> Inventory shows a bill against the order and the receive it belongs to. Finance shows the same record against the vendor's balance and your payables. One document answering two different questions.