Entering an invoice a sub emailed you
Drop the PDF in and it fills the form - including which budget line it lands on. You check the amount and save.
Bills from subs lives on the project, under Finance. If you cannot see the tab, check the job is not still in Planning - invoices, pay apps, payments and change orders are all hidden until a job goes Active, because none of them can happen before then.
This tab is money going OUT - what your subs and suppliers are billing you. What the client owes YOU is somewhere else entirely: Pay Apps on a job set to AIA billing, or Billing the client on a job set to simple invoicing. The two never mix, so a sub's bill can never turn up as client billing.
- 1Open Bills from subs on the project and click "Scan an invoice" - or drag the file straight onto that button. A PDF, a photo, or a screenshot all work.
- 2It reads the document and opens the form already filled in: who is billing, the amount, the date, and what the work was. The file is attached at the same time.
- 3It also tries to match the invoice to a subcontract on this job and to a line on that sub's payment schedule. Check that it picked the right sub.
- 4Fix anything wrong, then save. Nothing is created until you do.
Always check the amount before saving. A clean PDF reads accurately; a photo of a crumpled page is a different matter. When the scan is unsure it says so at the top of the form - believe it.
IF THE SUBCONTRACTOR DROPDOWN IS EMPTY. It should list every sub on the job, plus anyone in your Directory who is not on it yet. If it holds nothing but "Select subcontractor...", the page could not load - it will say so in red above the field, with a Try again. That is not the same as a job with no subs on it, and the page no longer lets the two look alike.
The genuinely useful part is not reading the number, it is comparing it. If the invoice is for more than the payment schedule line it matches, the form says so in red before you save - which is the moment to ask about it, rather than after it has been paid.
THE BREAKDOWN. Every invoice keeps what it is charging for, not just the total: each line with its quantity and rate where the vendor printed one, then the lines total, tax, retainage withheld, and the invoice total. Scanning reads all of it off the PDF. Typing an invoice by hand gets the same thing - use "+ Add a line" on the form.
It checks that the lines add up to the total and says so, either "Adds up to the total" or exactly how far out it is. That matters because a breakdown that looks like detail but does not reconcile is worse than none - it invites you to trust it, and the difference is where a quiet extra sits. A line with no amount on it is called out too, since it makes the sum incomplete rather than wrong.
DOES IT MATCH THEIR QUOTE? When the sub's contract has priced lines on it - from an awarded quote or a bid you accepted - the scan checks the invoice against them and says either "Matches their quote" or exactly what does not. Three things get flagged: a line billed for more than it was quoted (with both figures), a line that is not on the quote at all, and an invoice that takes the running total past the contract.
The contract total is the check most people already do in their head. The two that cost money are the other ones - a rate nobody agreed to, and work that was never quoted and has no change order behind it. Both look completely ordinary on an invoice whose total is under the contract, which is exactly why they get paid.
It never blocks the invoice. A sub being owed money for genuine extra work is normal, and a hard rule would just push it off the system. The point is that you see it before you approve, not after.
If the read fails entirely - a bad fax, a photo at an angle - the document is still uploaded and attached. You fill in the rest by hand and are no worse off than before.
You can still create an invoice from scratch: "Create Invoice", pick the subcontractor, and bill against a payment schedule item, a percent of the contract, or a flat amount. Picking a schedule item fills the amount in for you, so there is nothing to type.
WHICH BUDGET LINE IT GOES AGAINST. As soon as you pick the sub - or the scan picks one for you - the form says where the money lands: the line, what is budgeted on it, what has already been billed against it, and what is left. Every invoice card shows the same thing, so you can see which line each one hit without opening the Budget tab.
An invoice does not carry a budget line of its own. It lands wherever its SUBCONTRACT is pointed, which is why there is no per-invoice override - two invoices from one sub hitting two different lines is how a contract total quietly stops adding up. To send them somewhere else, re-point the subcontract on the Budget tab and every invoice on it moves together.
If the sub has no budget line at all, the invoice says "This won't show up on the budget" - and it means it. The invoice would save, the money would go out, and the budget would not move. Use "Add a budget line for this contract" right there on the invoice; it starts the line at the contract amount, which you can change on the Budget tab.
Approving an invoice is what moves the budget - it lands on the committed and actual figures for that line. Uploading the document alone does not.