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Manage bills

View and create bills using Codat's sync Bill Pay solution

Invoices or bills?

We distinguish between invoices where the company owes money and those where the company is owed money. If the company receives an invoice and owes money as a result, we call this a bill.

Overview​

In Codat, a bill represents an accounts payable invoice issued to an SMB by their supplier. With synchronous Bill Pay, you can:

  • Retrieve your customer's existing bills.
  • Create new bills in your system and reflect them in your customer's accounting software.

We have highlighted this alternative sequence of steps in our detailed process diagram below.

Detailed process diagram

Retrieve bills​

Filter the bill list

Bill endpoints of the sync Bill Pay solution only return open or partially paid bills from the accounting platform. You can use query parameters to change the scope of results.

Call our List bills endpoint to retrieve the full list of a company's existing bills.

You can also Download bill attachments associated with a given bill, such as a PDF copy of the accounts payable invoice issued by the supplier.

const billsResponse = await payablesClient.bills.list({
    companyId: companyId,
    query: 'supplierRef.supplierName=acme'
  });

Create bill​

Reference data

Bills should always correspond to a supplier that issued them. Ensure the relevant supplier exists before creating a new bill.

You must also associate the bill's line items with a specific account or tax rate. Use the Get bill mapping options endpoint to view available accounts and tax rates.

Use the Create bills endpoint to create a new bill in your SMB customer's accounting software that represents the outstanding payment for goods or services purchased from a supplier.

const billCreateResponse = await payablesClient.bills.create({
    bill: {
      supplierRef: {
        id: supplierCreateResponse.supplier.id,
        supplierName: supplierCreateResponse.supplier.supplierName
      },
      issueDate: "2023-04-23T00:00:00",
      dueDate: "2023-10-23T00:00:00",
      lineItems: [
        {
          "description": "Half day training - Microsoft Paint",
          "unitAmount": 1000.00,
          "quantity": 1,
          "totalAmount": 1000.00,
        }
      ],
      status: BillStatus.Open,
      subTotal: 1000.00,
      taxAmount: 200.00,
      totalAmount: 1200.00,
      amountDue: 1200.00
    },
    companyId: companyId,
    connectionId: connectionId,
  });

Upload attachment​

When creating a new bill, your SMB customer may want to save a copy of the PDF invoice issued by their supplier against the bill in their accounting software. Use the Upload bill attachment endpoint to support this action.

Different accounting software supports different file formats and sizes. View the Attachment schema for integration-specific guidance or check the software's own documentation.

const fileName = 'bill-receipt.pdf';
var fs = require('fs');
var fileBuffer = fs.readFileSync(fileName, null).buffer;
var fileArray = new Uint16Array( fileBuffer.slice(266,(sizeofArray*sizeOfArrayElement));

const attachmentUploadResponse = await payablesClient.bills.uploadAttachment({
    attachmentUpload: {
      file: {
        content: fileArray,
        fileName: fileName,
      },
    },
    billId: billId,
    companyId: companyId,
    connectionId: connectionId,
  });
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