Supplier bills: where the automatic draft comes from, and what approval does

You approved a goods receipt and found a new supplier bill in draft that you did not create. That is deliberate: the system turns what you received into a ready claim so you never re-enter the lines.

The automatic draft

Approving a goods receipt creates a draft supplier bill at the receipt's value, linked to the purchase order and the receipt, with a note reading "Auto generated from goods receipt: …".

You complete it before approving:

1. Open Purchasing → Supplier Bills and pick the draft — image 1.
2. Enter the supplier invoice number — the number on the paper they sent you, not our document number.
3. Enter the due date.
4. Check the quantities and prices, and add tax and any discount.
5. Press Approve.

A standalone bill with no purchase order

A purchase order is not required. Open Supplier Bills, press + Create and enter the supplier and lines directly — the right path for ad-hoc purchases and small expenses.

What approval does

• It posts the journal entry: the supplier payable and the tax.
• It increases the billed quantity on the linked purchase order lines, converting any alternate unit to the base unit automatically.
• The bill becomes payable — a payment cannot be allocated to a draft or cancelled bill.

Notes

• The total is calculated as (subtotal − discount) + tax on the net.
• A bill can only be approved from draft.
• A bill with payments cannot be cancelled; the message is plain: "Cannot cancel a bill that has payments recorded. Reverse all payments first."
• Each goods receipt has exactly one bill; a second attempt is refused.
• Always enter the supplier invoice number — it is what stops the same invoice being booked twice, as the next article explains.