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Purchases

Record a supplier invoice

Capture a bill from a supplier so you can claim the input VAT, see what you owe, and mark it paid when the money goes out.

What a supplier invoice is for

A supplier invoice is a bill you have received from someone you buy from. Recording it in Worklog does three things: it keeps track of what you still owe, it records the input VAT you can claim back (if you are VAT registered), and it counts the cost in your books the moment the bill comes in, not only when you pay it.

You will find these under Purchases, on the Supplier Invoices screen.

Before you start

  • It helps to have your supplier saved under Suppliers, but you can also just type the name.
  • If you already made a purchase order for this order, you can link the bill to it and pull the supplier and items across automatically. This only shows if you have a purchase order on the go.
  • Input VAT only shows if you have entered your VAT number under Tax and SARS. If you have not, the bill is captured without VAT.

Record the bill

  1. Open Supplier Invoices under Purchases and tap the + New button in the top right.
  2. If this bill is for a purchase order you already made, tap the 🛒 Link to a purchase order button at the top and pick the order. Worklog fills in the supplier and the items for you. This step is optional and only appears if you have purchase orders.
  3. In the Supplier field, type or pick the supplier you bought from. If you pick a saved supplier who has payment terms set, Worklog fills in the Due date from those terms for you — you can still change it.
  4. In "Supplier's invoice / reference number", type their reference off the bill. This is optional but makes it easy to find later.
  5. Set the Invoice date to the date on the bill. Add or adjust the Due date if there is one, so Worklog can flag the bill as overdue once that date has passed.
  6. Under Line items, tap + Add line item (or pick one from Add from your items), then type a Description and fill in the Qty and the Unit price (R). Or, for a lump-sum bill, skip the lines and type the figure straight into Total on the invoice.
  7. If you have already paid some or all of it, type that in the "Amount already paid (R)" box. Leave it at 0 if you still owe the full amount.
  8. Check the summary box. It shows the subtotal, the input VAT you can claim (with the percentage the app is using), anything already paid, and the balance you owe including VAT.
  9. Tap "Save supplier invoice".
💡If you fill in the amount already paid so that nothing is left owing, Worklog saves the bill straight away as paid. Otherwise it is saved as unpaid until you settle it.
💡When you save, Worklog also gives the bill its own number (like SI-2026-0001). That is separate from the supplier's own reference — it is Worklog's number for the bill, and you can sort your bills by it.

See and open a saved bill

On the Supplier Invoices screen each bill shows the supplier, its Worklog number (SI-…), the total including VAT, and a status tag: unpaid, overdue (when the due date has passed), paid, or credited. Tap any bill to open it and see the full details and the balance you still owe.

  • Search supplier invoices — type any part of the supplier's name, their reference number, or the Worklog number.
  • Status pills — tap unpaid, overdue, paid or credited to show just those (only the statuses you actually have appear).
  • A–Z / Number / Recent — sort by supplier name, by the Worklog number, or newest first. Tap the one that is already on to flip its order — its ↑/↓ arrow shows which way.

Mark a bill as paid

There are two ways to settle a bill, depending on whether you also want to record the actual money going out as an expense.

  1. The quick way: open the bill from the Supplier Invoices list and tap "✅ Mark Paid". This clears the whole balance and stamps today as the paid date.
  2. The bookkeeping way: log the payment as an expense instead, so the money leaving your account is recorded too. See the next section.
💡Marked a bill paid by mistake? Open it again and tap "↩️ Mark unpaid" to reopen it for the full amount.

Match a payment to the bill

When you actually pay the supplier, log that payment and link it back to the bill. This keeps your Profit and Loss correct, because the bill already counted the cost once, and Worklog then leaves the payment out so it is not counted twice.

  1. Go to Log Expense (under Money) and enter the Amount you paid.
  2. In "Paid to", put the supplier's name. If you have bills open from that supplier, Worklog highlights them for you.
  3. Find "Is this paying a supplier invoice? - optional" and tap it. You can search by supplier, their reference, or the amount. Pick the bill this payment covers.
  4. Once the bill is linked, Worklog hides the "What for?" box — the bill is the record of what the money was for, so you do not fill it in again.
  5. If your payment covers the full amount still owed, a tick box appears offering to mark that bill as paid. Tick it to close the bill off.
  6. Tap "Log expense" to save.

You can also link a payment to a bill while working through Banking's statement reader, when Worklog reads your bank statement and you go through the transactions one by one.

💡If you only pay part of what you owe, link the payment anyway. Worklog records the part payment and keeps the bill open for the balance that is still owing.

When a supplier credits you

Sometimes a supplier gives money back or knocks an amount off a bill — you returned goods, or they overcharged. Record that against the bill as a credit note so what you owe and your input VAT both come right.

  1. Open the bill from the Supplier Invoices list.
  2. Tap ↩️ Supplier credited me.
  3. Under "What did they credit?", tap Whole invoice, or tap Specific lines and tick the lines they credited.
  4. Add a Reason if you like, such as returned goods or an overcharge. This is optional.
  5. If the bill still has money owing, choose under "How to settle it": Reduce what you owe them, or Hold on account (pay less next / they refund you). If the bill is already paid, the credit is held on account automatically.
  6. Check the credit amount, then tap Record credit note.
💡The credit note gets its own number — supplier credits use their own series (like SCN-2026-0001), kept apart from the CN- numbers on customer credits. If you held it on account, it shows up later on a remittance advice for that supplier and nets down what you pay them next.

A note on VAT and tax

⚠️Worklog keeps your records and works out the VAT for you, but it is not a tax adviser. For how a specific purchase or your VAT claim should be treated, check with SARS or a registered tax practitioner or accountant.

What saving and paying it actually create

  • The bill counts as a cost — and its VAT as an input-VAT claim, if you're registered — from its issue date, before any money moves.
  • Lines that name a Product or Material from your price list add the quantity bought back into stock, the mirror of the way a sales invoice takes stock out.
  • Mark Paid settles the bill only. Record the actual payment under Banking → Log expense linked to the bill, and it reaches Cash Flow and reconciliation too.
⚠️If “Big payments need approval” is switched on and the bill is over the limit, marking it paid needs approve rights on Supplier Invoices. The payment itself still saves and stays linked — the screen tells you who can finish the last step.

A bill with payments matched to it can't be removed: deleting it would leave that money out of your costs and out of the VAT you claim. Remove the payment in Banking first — that reverses cleanly — then remove the bill. The same rule protects invoices.

Related guides
Create a purchase order →Send a remittance advice →Log money in and out →Work on your VAT201 →Purchases Reports →Set what your team can access →
Still stuck? Open the in-app help assistant, or email us at hello@worklogsolutions.co.za.
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