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Bill Pay Workflow from "Draft" to "Paid"

  • Updated

Each bill in Float moves through a clear workflow, from uploading to paying your invoices. Understanding these stages helps ensure timely approvals and payments.

 

Follow a bill through each stage of the workflow:

Draft

Approvals

Unpaid

Payments

Payments page

All Bills

Managing Bills from the Table

 

Draft

All newly uploaded, imported or forwarded bills appear in the "Draft" tab.

In this stage, you can:

 

Approvals

Bills in the "Approvals" tab are awaiting action from assigned approvers.

Approvers can:

Notifications are sent via email or Slack to prompt timely approvals.

 

Unpaid

Approved bills appear in the "Unpaid" tab, ready for payment scheduling.

Administrators, AP Clerks, and Bookkeepers can:

  • Add the recipient's payment details
  • Schedule a payment date for an individual bill or in batches for multiple bills
  • Certain fields of bills created in Float can still be edited from this tab. Edits possible:
    • Memo
    • Description
    • GL Codes
    • Tags and Custom Fields
  • Mark a bill as paid, moving it to the "All Bills" tab

Once a payment date is set, the bill moves to the "Payments" tab.

 

Payments

Bills scheduled for payment appear in the "Payments" tab. (Not to be confused with the separate Payments page, covered next — the Payments tab lives here in the Bill Pay table; the Payments page is where a scheduled bill is tracked through to completion.)

Key features:

  • The Payment Status column shows the current status of the payment
  • If a bill requires funds release approval, this must be completed from the Payments page
  • Bills that you wish to reschedule the payment date for can be actioned here
  • The Payment Details column includes the View button. Selecting View will open a summary of the payment on the Payments page, which includes:
    • Bill amount and currency
    • Scheduled payment date
    • Recipient name
    • Payment method (ACH, EFT, or Wire)
    • Funding source
    • Memo

 

Payments page

Once a bill has been scheduled for payment, it is managed from the Payments page. This page shows scheduled bills that need funds release approval, are pending, or have been paid. For more details, see: Payments Page Overview

The Payments page has four tabs:

  1. Needs Authorization
  2. Pending
  3. Complete
    • Payments completed within the last 60 days will appear here
    • Failed payments can be retried from here
  4. All Payments
    • Provides a comprehensive view of all payments

 

All Bills

The All Bills tab provides a comprehensive view of all bills, regardless of status.

Here, you can:

  • Search for a bill by recipient or invoice number
  • Filter bills by:
    • Due date range
    • Created by
    • Bill Currency
    • Recipient
    • Source
    • Bill Status
    • Amount
    • Approval Policy
    • Subsidiary (businesses connected to NetSuite only)
  • Sort the table by clicking a column header — Recipient, Bill Status, Invoice Date, Due Date, Amount, Source, or Payment Date. Clicking again reverses the sort order. Invoice Number, Created By, Memo, Approval Policy, Subsidiary, and Export Status can't be sorted.
  • Group bills by Bill Status, Bill Currency, Due Date, Source, or Recipient
  • Customize which columns are shown and in what order, and adjust the table's density (Compact, Default, or Spacious), from the settings icon beside the CSV download
  • Download CSV reports

This section is useful for audits and tracking historical payments.

Managing Bills from the Table

Buttons

  • Select "+ New Bill" to upload a bill — a dropzone opens for an image or PDF, and your account's bill-forwarding email address is also shown here
  • Select "Manage Recipients" to open the recipients drawer
  • The "⋮" menu links to Bill Pay Settings and View Payments (see: Payments Page Overview)

Opening a bill

  • Selecting a draft bill opens it in the bill creation flow for editing
  • Selecting any other bill opens a details drawer

Row actions

  • Hovering over a bill reveals quick actions for that row. The actions shown depend on the bill's own status, not which tab you're viewing it from

Bulk actions

  • Selecting multiple bills opens a bulk-action bar. The actions available depend on the tab:
    • Draft: Submit for Approval, Delete
    • Approvals: Approve, Move to Drafts, Delete
    • Unpaid: Set Payment Date, Unschedule, Move to Drafts, Delete
    • Payments: Mark as Paid, Unschedule, Move to Drafts
    • All Bills: any of the above, depending on each selected bill's status

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