Purchase invoice management — handling the bills from your suppliers — is one of the most time-consuming back-office functions for small businesses. Done poorly, it causes missed payments, tax errors, and bookkeeping chaos. Done well, it's nearly invisible.
Receipt
Invoice arrives by email, post, or portal download. The first job is getting it into your system — not your inbox.
Extraction
Data is read from the document: supplier, invoice number, date, line items, VAT, total, due date.
Coding
Each invoice (or each line) is assigned to an account code (nominal code) in your accounting software — the category that explains what was purchased.
Approval
The invoice is reviewed and approved by someone with authority to commit that spend. Rules may allow auto-approval for routine purchases.
Posting
The approved invoice is posted to your accounts payable — creating a liability (you owe this supplier money).
Payment
At the due date (or earlier for early payment discounts), the invoice is paid. The liability clears.
Reconciliation
The payment in your bank feed matches the bill in your accounting software. The transaction closes.
InboxBill handles capture, extraction, and FreeAgent sync automatically.
Start free trialHow to Automate Invoice Processing for Your Small Business
The average small business spends 5–10 hours per month manually processing supplier invoices. That's time spent copy-pasting figures into spreadsheets, chasing down PDFs, and reconciling mistakes. Automation cuts this to minutes.
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