Bill
In accounting, bill means a claim against us.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Components
- 5
- Nearby
- 1
Authority
This definition follows ASC 405.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
Bill, in use
Quoted from the 7 documents that use the word — what it does to an interface, in the spec's own sentence.
The complete payables stack: requisition → PO → receipt → bill → approval → payment → reconciliation.
Nouns are many and specific — Invoice, Bill, Purchase, SalesReceipt, CreditMemo, VendorCredit, Deposit, Transfer are all separate types for what Xero models as two invoice types and a bank transaction.
Lopifi APIs: Xero, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite — The mental model of each
Source document attachment is required; a bill without one cannot be approved.
For founders
The same idea written for a founder: what it costs a startup that ignores it, and what to do in a real month.
- Accounts payable process for startups: intake to paymentHow a bill moves from inbox to paid: intake, coding, approval, scheduling and recording, plus AP aging and who approves what at a 10-person startup.
- Accrued expenses vs accounts payable: the differenceAP is a bill you’ve received; an accrued expense is a cost incurred before the bill arrives. When to accrue, and how reversing entries work, by example.
- Vendor payment terms and early-pay discounts, explainedWhat Net 30 and 2/10 net 30 really mean, the annualized cost of skipping an early-pay discount, and how to schedule payment runs around your cash.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- invoice (that's what we issue)
Components that render this
The concept is not documentation-only. These are the components that name it in their specification, grouped and stated exactly as the catalog states them.
2Cards
Family specNearby in the catalog
Components in this part of the system that no term names outright. A weaker claim than the list above, and stated as one — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Also in Payables
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
- Duplicate paymentsSame vendor, same amount, close in time — plus the same reference whatever the date.Tool
- VAT / sales taxGross to net is a division, not a multiplication. The three figures always add back up.Tool
- Vendor billsWhere does supplier spend actually live in each ledger?API
- TaxWho computes the tax, and can you override it?API
- Journal entry for accounts payableWhen an approved vendor bill is entered, debit the expense or asset it bought and credit Accounts payable. When it is paid, debit Accounts payable and credit Cash.Entry
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.