The bill payment workflow in Finale Inventory completes the purchasing process — moving from ordered and received goods to final supplier payment. This workflow ensures your payables, inventory value, and accounting records stay synchronized and accurate.
Overview of the Bill Payment Workflow
In Finale, the bill payment process typically follows these stages:
Create and receive a Purchase Order (PO)
Record what you ordered and confirm what was received.Create a Bill
Generate a bill from the PO once goods have been received.Post the Bill
Finalize the payable amount owed to the supplier.Apply payment to the Bill
Record or sync the payment once it’s made to the supplier.
If your account is integrated with QuickBooks® Online (QBO), the final step (payment) must be completed in QuickBooks. Finale syncs the Bill to QuickBooks Online, and the Bill Payment syncs from QuickBooks Online to Finale to keep both systems aligned.
Step 1: Create and Receive a Purchase Order
Start by entering a purchase order for your supplier.
Record item details, quantities, and below the line adjustment costs.
Once goods are received, mark the items as "received" in the PO.
Receiving items updates your on-hand inventory and prepares the PO for billing.
Step 2: Create a Bill
Once all (or part) of a PO is received, you can create a bill to record what’s owed.
To create a bill:
Open the Purchase Order.
Click Create Bill from the PO menu on the right.
Verify supplier information, bill date, due date, and reference number.
Click Save to generate the bill record.
You can also create bills directly from Purchasing > Bills and link them to a PO.
Step 3: Post the Bill
Posting a bill finalizes it and records the amount owed to the supplier.
To post a bill:
Open the bill record.
Confirm that all details are correct.
Click Post Bill.
Posting performs the following:
Locks the bill for edits (until moved back to a draft status).
Creates a payable record in your General Ledger and syncs to QuickBooks Online, if integrated.
Step 4: Apply Payment to the Bill
Once the supplier has been paid, you’ll mark the bill as paid to complete the workflow.
If Integrated with Quickbooks Online
When you post a bill in Finale, it syncs automatically to QuickBooks as an unpaid bill.
Payments are entered in QuickBooks, and Finale recognizes that payment through the sync.
This keeps your supplier balances, AP ledger, and payment history consistent between both systems.
If Not Integrated with Quickbooks
You can record payments directly in Finale to maintain an accurate payable history.
To mark a bill as paid in Finale:
Go to the Bills section.
Open the posted bill you’ve paid.
Click Mark as Paid.
-
Enter:
Payment date
Payment reference number (e.g., check or transaction ID)
Payment amount (defaults to full balance)
Any optional notes
Click Change Status to Posted.
Finale updates the bill status to "Paid", completing the workflow.