Falaah Falaah AI

Vendor Bills

Track accounts payable: create a bill, approve or reject it, then record how you paid it from your own bank so the bill is marked paid.

Vendor Bills is your accounts payable list: what you owe, to whom, when it is due, and whether it has been approved and paid.

When you’d use this

  • An invoice arrived and you need it on the books with a due date.
  • You are approving this week’s bills.
  • You have paid a vendor by check and need the bill marked paid.
  • You are disputing a charge on a vendor’s invoice.

Where it lives

Sidebar → Smart Payments → Vendor Bills. You need permission to view vendor payment execution.

Muin does not send money to your vendors

This is the one thing to be clear about. Pay Now does not pay anybody. It opens a Record Payment form, and recording the payment is what marks the bill paid:

Muin does not send money to your vendors. Pay them from your own bank, then record how you paid here, that is what marks the bill paid.

Creating a bill

  1. Press Create Bill.
  2. Pick the Vendor. This is required.
  3. Enter the Amount and the Currency (USD, EUR, GBP or CAD).
  4. Set the Bill date and the Due date. The due date is required.
  5. Add the Invoice number and PO number.
  6. Set the expected Payment method, the Fund the money comes from, and Charge to grant if the cost belongs to a grant.
  7. Accept or change the suggested GL code and write a description.
  8. Submit.

You can also attach a receipt and let Muin read the vendor, amount and dates off it, then correct anything it got wrong.

Working the list

Stat tiles: Pending Approval, Approved, Overdue, Total Pending.

Tabs: All, Pending, Approved, Paid. Filter by due date with All, Overdue, This week, or This month, and search by vendor, invoice or PO number.

The table shows Vendor, Amount, Fund, Due Date and Status. Statuses are pending, approved, scheduled, rejected, paid and overdue.

Approving and rejecting

On a pending bill:

  • Approve asks you to confirm. If a fund spending rule or a grant restriction blocks the bill, the dialog offers an Override reason field, noted as “only if spending or grant rules block it.” What you write is recorded against the approval, beside the rule it overrode.
  • Reject requires a reason.

Your organization’s approval rule is shown on the page as a chip reading Rule: …, so you can see what posture applies before you act.

Two guards may stop you:

  • Self-approval. If you created the bill, Muin either requires a note with your approval or blocks it, depending on your organization’s posture.
  • Payer separation. The person who approved a bill may be blocked from also recording its payment, so that two people touch every disbursement.

Recording a payment

  1. Pay the vendor from your own bank, check, or card.
  2. Press Pay Now on the approved or overdue bill.
  3. Choose How did you pay?: ACH transfer, Check, Wire transfer, Zelle, Venmo, Credit card, Cash, or Other.
  4. Enter the Payment reference. This is required for every method except Cash and Other.
  5. Set Date you paid. It cannot be in the future.
  6. Add the Check number and Notes if relevant.
  7. Press Record Payment.

On a paid bill, View Payment opens the payment in Transactions.

Paying several bills at once

Tick the bills and press Pay Selected (N). That takes you to the Payment Run wizard under Finance, which walks a batch of bills through together.

Disputing a bill

Press Dispute on any bill that is not rejected. Muin drafts the dispute message for you to review and send to the vendor.

What it affects

  • Recording a payment marks the bill paid, creates a payment transaction visible under Smart Payments → Transactions, and records the disbursement.
  • An approval against a fund or grant restriction, with an override reason, is kept as part of the audit record for that bill.
  • The fund and GL code you set decide where the expense lands in your accounts.

When it goes wrong

“No vendor bills found. Create vendor bills to track accounts payable.” The list is empty. Press Create Bill.

“No bills match your current filters.” Clear the search box or switch the tab.

Approve is refused because a fund or grant rule blocks it. Either the fund’s spending rules do not allow this expense or the grant restriction does not cover it. Change the fund, or approve with an Override reason if you have the authority.

A note is required with your approval, or approval is blocked outright. You created the bill. Either add the note Muin asks for, or have a colleague approve it.

You cannot record the payment on a bill you approved. Payer separation is on. Have someone else record the disbursement.

“A payment reference is required.” Every method except Cash and Other needs one: the check number, the ACH trace, the wire reference.

“Date you paid” is rejected. The date cannot be in the future. Record the payment on or after the day it left your account.

“Failed to reject bill.” Nothing was rejected. Check that you entered a reason, then try again.

“Failed to extract data from receipt.” Muin could not read the file. Enter the bill by hand.

Next step

For the vendor payments Muin drafts from your invoices and schedules for you, see Scheduled Payments. For the transaction record a recorded payment creates, see Managing Transactions.