In addition to creating bills by manually uploading invoices or forwarding them via email, you can import bills to Float Bill Pay that already exist in your connected accounting system. Unpaid bills will sync automatically each day and can also be synced on demand.
Importing bills from QuickBooks or Xero allows you to use your existing AP invoice management workflow, make payments rapidly after importing, and reduce downstream bill export errors by coding bills in your accounting system first, ensuring compliance with that system's rules.
To connect your accounting system to Float Bill Pay, see:
Configuring QuickBooks Online (QBO) for Bill Pay
Configuring Xero for Bill Pay
Guide Overview
Importing Unpaid Bills from your accounting system
Why aren't my Unpaid Bills Importing?
- Incomplete Bill Pay Configuration
- Currency Mismatch Between the Vendor and the Bill
- The Vendors are Multi-Currency
- Unsupported Bill Currency
- The Bills use Item Based Fields
- The Bills are Partially Paid or have Credit Memos
- Accounts Payable (AP) account Mismatch Between the Bill and Float
Importing Unpaid Bills from your accounting system
Once enabled, Float will import unpaid bills from your accounting system automatically and on-demand. Invoices will not be duplicated - if an invoice is already associated with a reimbursement or has been previously imported to Bill Pay, it will not be re-imported.
Importing Bills Automatically
Float will automatically sync unpaid bills from QBO or Xero once a day.
Log in to Float as an Administrator and navigate to Bill Pay > Settings.
Toggle on "Import Unpaid Bills from QuickBooks Online" or "Import Unpaid Bills from Xero"
Once connected, Float will automatically pull in your unpaid bills once a day. You can find them in the Unpaid tab on the Bill Pay page.
Importing Bills On-Demand
If you've created or made changes to a bill in your connected accounting system and you want to pay it immediately from Float, you can initiate an Import on-demand.
Log in to Float as an Administrator and navigate to Bill Pay
In the "Open Bills" summary tile, click "Import Unpaid Bills"
After importing, you can review the bills on the Unpaid tab, verify vendor payment details if needed, and schedule payments by adding a payment date.
Working with Imported Bills
Imported Bills can be paid through Float, and cannot be edited from within Float (but edits are easily synced).
Do Imported Bills follow the Float Approval Policies?
Imported bills are synced directly to the Unpaid tab, ready to be scheduled for payment. Meaning, they don't need to be approved, and don't follow the same approval process as draft bills created within Float Bill Pay.
Editing Imported Bills
If you need to make changes to an imported bill, they must be made in the system of origin and then synced to Float. The imported bill has a direct link back to your accounting system to make this process straightforward:
Locate the bill in Bill Pay > Unpaid and click to open it
Click "View Bill in QuickBooks Online (QBO)" or "View Bill in Xero" to be taken directly to the bill edit view in your accounting system
Make the necessary changes in QBO or Xero
To sync the changes into Float, click "Import Unpaid Bills" on the "Open Bills" summary tile from the Bill Pay page
Paying Imported Bills
Schedule payments for imported bills just as you would for a bill created directly in Float. Once payment is complete, Float will automatically update your accounting software to reflect the payment status. See:
How to Schedule & Unschedule Bill Payments
Important:
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Changes to a vendor’s payment details only apply to bills that have not yet been approved.
If a bill has already been approved, it will still use the old payment details. For more details, see: Managing Vendors and their Payment Details
Why aren't my Unpaid Bills Importing?
Incomplete Bill Pay Configuration
If you haven't completed your Xero or QBO configuration for Bill Pay, unpaid bills won't import. To ensure they are configured properly, see:
Configuring QuickBooks Online (QBO) for Bill Pay
Currency Mismatch Between the Vendor and the Bill
If the vendor's currency in Float is different from that of the bill's currency in your accounting system, the unpaid bill will not import.
To resolve this, update the vendor's currency in your accounting system or ensure the correct vendor is associated with the bill. Once the currencies between the bill and vendor match, select the "Import Unpaid Bills" button from the Bill Pay page.
The Vendors are Multi-Currency
Float does not support multi-currency vendors for imported bills.
For a bill to sync into Float:
- The bill and vendor must use the same currency
- Vendors assigned multiple currencies will block the import
To resolve this, update the vendor record in your accounting software to use one currency per vendor, then retry the import.
Note that in Xero, vendors are implicitly multi-currency, so a specific currency must be set.
Unsupported Bill Currency
Float does not support cryptocurrency as a bill currency.
If a bill or vendor in your accounting software is using BTC, ETH, or any other cryptocurrency, the bill will not be imported into Float.
Tip: Ask the vendor if they can issue the invoice in CAD or USD instead.
The Bills use Item Based Fields
If the bills in your accounting system use item based fields, it may not be possible to import them into Float. As Float's system is based on GL Codes, it was not created to be able to read and import information from item based fields in bills.
The Bills are Partially Paid or have Credit Memos
Partially paid bills will not import into Float. This is also the case for bills where a credit memo has been applied. Only entirely unpaid bills will be able to be imported into Float. Because it is not currently possible to add credit memos or make partial payments to bills in Float, the feature can't import these types of bills from your accounting sync.
Accounts Payable (AP) account Mismatch Between the Bill and Float
When importing unpaid bills, Float only pulls bills that use the same Accounts Payable (AP) account set up in your Float Bill Pay Settings. If a bill is assigned to a different AP account in your accounting sync than what your AP account is set in Float, it will be skipped during import.
How to resolve:
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In Float:
Go to Bill Pay > Settings and verify the GL Code set up as the Accounts Payable account
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In your Accounting Sync:
Make sure the bills you want to import are using the same AP account as what's in Float
If needed, update the AP account for the bills in your Accounting Sync
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Go back to Float:
Bill Pay > Select the "Import Unpaid Bills" button
Go to Unpaid, and the bill(s) should have imported into Float