Invoice Entry: the guide

• Businesses that enter supplier bills into Xero by hand
• Bookkeepers and production accountants coding bills to jobs or projects
• Accountants who need a client's creditors at each period end

Typing supplier invoices into Xero is slow, and a wrong GST figure, a duplicate or a changed bank account costs real money.

• Every invoice read and checked before anyone types a thing
• The invoice beside what was read, each field marked green, orange or red with the reason a hover away
• Catches duplicates, GST that doesn't add up, and a bank account or GST number that isn't the one Xero has
• Codes each line to your accounts and job codes, and learns each supplier's usual coding
• Nothing goes into Xero until a person enters it, as a draft or approved, and each person only does what you allow
• Supplier statements ticked off against Xero line by line, and the creditors journal ready to import

Takes invoices in two ways

Drop PDFs or photos on the Invoices screen, several at once, or have suppliers email your own address. It can email you about new ones each morning.

Reads and checks every one

The arithmetic, GST at 15% (10% in Australia), the GST and ABN numbers, dates, duplicates and bank accounts are all checked in code.

Codes it

Accounts, tax rates and your job code as a Xero tracking category, from what it learned about the supplier.

Enters the bill in Xero

Enter as draft, or Enter and approve, creates the contact if needed and the bill with the PDF attached. A draft can be approved later, here or in Xero.

Who does what

Give each person in your business review only, enter as draft, or enter and approve, so bills can be got ready by one person and approved by another.

Customers and purchase orders

If you pass costs on, choose a customer on a line and it becomes a billable expense in Xero. If you use purchase orders, each invoice is matched to its open order, checked against it, and the order marked billed.

Creditors from statements

Checks each supplier's statement against the bills in Xero, accrues only what's missing (or the whole balance, if you've stopped entering bills), and makes the journal for Xero, with GST on each line for invoice basis and its reversal if you want it, once a person signs the period off.

Reports

What came in, what was entered, hours saved, what the checks found and which suppliers need the most fixing.

1. 1

   An invoice arrives

   By email or dropped on the screen. The original is kept in Sydney and the same file twice is set aside.

2. 2

   It is read

   Only invoice pages are read, twice, and any field where the two readings differ is marked.

3. 3

   It is checked

   Each field is marked green, orange or red with the reason behind an eye; the bank account and GST number are compared with the Xero contact's.

4. 4

   A person reviews it

   The invoice beside the bill, across the whole screen. Every edit is saved and checked again, and a tick confirms the bank account and GST number.

5. 5

   Enter as draft, or enter and approve

   The bill is made in Xero with the PDF attached, in the person's name: a draft for someone to approve, or approved and waiting for payment.

6. 6

   It learns

   The same correction twice becomes the supplier's usual coding for next time.

1. 1

   Connect Xero

   Sign in to Xero and choose the organisation.

2. 2

   Jobs and customers

   The Xero tracking category your job codes live in and what one looks like, whether you pass costs on to customers, and whether you send purchase orders from Xero.

3. 3

   How bills go in

   Line by line or one line, GST when an invoice shows none, the due date rule, the bank account tick, the account and tax rate when nothing fits, and who reviews, enters and approves bills.

4. 4

   Invoice email

   The address suppliers send invoices to, picked up automatically; who it accepts them from, and when to email you about new ones.

5. 5

   Try it

   Drop in an invoice or several; the first opens beside what was read.

6. 6

   Go live

   Live and taking in invoices: everything emailed or dropped in is read and waits for you.

Every Buildloop assistant works off your AI control centre, which holds your company details, knowledge and settings, trains each assistant and passes what one learns to the others. The more it knows about your business the more accurate every assistant is, and each one you add makes the others stronger.

Your AI control centre keeps what it knows about your business in Content Sections you can open, check and add to, with what's missing shown. Each says whether it's for customers, staff or both. You start with About the business, Products and services, Pricing, Payments, Opening hours, Contact details, Locations and service areas, Booking and ordering, Delivery and collection, Returns, refunds and warranty, Terms and policies, Common questions, Staff knowledge, Other, and can add, rename or remove them; the AI suggests sections from what it reads. How we talk, Rules and Suppliers are kept beside them.

Xero

Needed. Your accounts, tax rates, tracking categories and contacts, the bills it creates and approves, billable expenses and purchase orders, what you owe suppliers, and your Documents inbox.

Email

Optional. Your own invoices address that suppliers send to.

Your bank, through the AI control centre

Optional. Payments that leave your account, matched to the bill they pay so you can mark it paid in Xero with one press.

• Every bill is entered only when a person presses Enter as draft or Enter and approve, and each person only does what their rights allow
• Bills go into Xero as drafts, and are approved only by someone with the right to approve bills
• A cost is passed on to a customer, and a purchase order marked billed, only with the bill a person entered
• A bill is removed from Xero only by a person, and only while it's a draft
• A period's creditors are signed off by an owner or admin before the journal downloads

NZ$79 a month, including 150 invoices a month, then NZ$0.40 for each invoice after that. Cancel any time. Plus a one-off set-up and configuration fee, agreed after a short call about your business. Every account also has the AI control centre, NZ$49 a month, once for all its assistants.

• Credit notes are set aside, not entered, for now
• The creditors journal is downloaded and imported into Xero by a person, never posted by the assistant
• The Xero Documents inbox is read when someone presses Check the Xero inbox
• Files dropped on the screen can be up to 4 MB; emailed ones up to 25 MB
• Words on a scan or photo can't be marked on the page yet
• One Xero organisation per business

• Your invoices are stored in Sydney, Australia, and only people in your business can open them
• Invoices are read by the AI model and are never used to train it
• Emailed invoices arrive through our email provider, Resend