Purchases

If you activate the 'Purchases' module in BestInvoicing, you'll be able to process purchase invoices and tickets. Follow up on payments, update stock and easily transfer your purchase documents to your accountant.

Activating Purchases

'Purchases' is a module that first needs to be activated in BestInvoicing:

1. Navigate to the top right corner of the screen (email address) and select 'Apps and Integrations' in the menu.

2. Check the list of 'Apps and Integrations Related to Documents'.

3. Click the green button 'Activate' on the line mentioning 'Purchases'.

As soon as this module is activated, it can be used immediately. A new line 'Purchases' will appear in the general BestInvoicing menu to the left.

Using the 'Purchases' module

In BestInvoicing you can record any kind of purchase, those that are connected to your stock management and invoicing (e.g. new products) and those that are linked to the general management of your company (e.g. heating, internet fee, ...). In order to clarify the different types of purchases, BestInvoicing proposes 'Purchase Categories', analogous to 'Product Groups'.

Entering Purchases

The base of processing your purchase documents can be found in the processing list (cogwheels icon at the top right corner):

There are four ways to receive purchase documents in your processing list:

• by uploading files to the upload box to the left (drag and drop)

• by taking a picture of the ticket from within BestInvoicing on your smartphone

• by forwarding the documents as attachment to an email to your BestInvoicing email address, displayed in the frame in the middle

• by receiving purchase documents in your PEPPOL inbox, if your suppliers are connected to PEPPOL and you use/activated this app (box to the right)

Files that are delivered to BestInvoicing in one of those ways, will be extracted and displayed in a list at the bottom of the window.

Processing Purchases

As soon as the documents arrive in the processing list, OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software scans them. OCR reads the information from the documents and tries to interpret it.

At the top of the document list, click 'Refresh Page' to see the progress on the OCR scanning. As soon as the software is done scanning, the letters 'OCR' turn green and the blue button 'Process' becomes clickable.

In order to process the document in BestInvoicing (e.g. attribute a payment or connect to a purchase category), click the blue button 'Process'.

In the processing window you'll see an example of a purchase document: to the left of it is information on the supplier. Here you can add missing data and if desired, tick the box to 'Save as new supplier'.

Do you wish to pay purchases from BestInvoicing? Then make sure to fill your supplier's bank account number!

The next step is completing the purchase information. These fields are available:

• Type: indicate whether this document is an invoice or a credit note. When entering a credit note, use positive numbers: BestInvoicing will interpret them negatively as it concerns a credit note.

• Date: the date on the invoice.

• Payment date: by default the payment date will be set 30 days after document date. It is possible to set a shorter or longer period here.

• Reference: e.g. invoice number or some other reference.

• Purchase category: select the appropriate purchase category or use the default category 'General purchases'.

• Amounts: enter the invoice total amount. It is possible to use multiple lines, in case e.g. some of the goods are invoiced with 21% VAT while others have a different VAT application.

Click one of the green buttons to process the next document(s) ('Add and Next') or to have a look at the information you entered ('Add and View').

Do You Use Stock Management?

If so, first of all activate the 'Advanced Input Mode' via the slider at the top right corner. This button will create additional product lines beneath the preview of the purchase document, allowing you to further split/divide the purchase.

On these lines you can mention the products, their price and numbers such as they appear on the invoice. You can also attribute them to a different purchase category per product line.

If these products already exist in your current product list, they will be connected to your products and your stock numbers will be updated. If for instance here you indicate that you've bought 10 items of product A, the stock count of product A will increase with 10 items.

Do You Use General Ledgers?

If so, first of all activate the 'Advanced Input Mode' via the slider at the top right corner. This button will create additional product lines beneath the preview of the purchase document, allowing you to further split/divide the purchase.

On these lines you can mention the products, their price and numbers such as they appear on the invoice. You can also attribute them to a different purchase category per product line. Per product you will be able to mention a general ledger account number. Is the product already known in your product list, then the corresponding general ledger account that you've previously attributed to this product, will be displayed here.

Creating Purchase Categories

Before adding any purchases, it might be interesting to think about the purchase categories you wish to use. When entering purchases, you'll be able to save them under the right category immediately. If you don't really need any categories you can just use the default preset category 'General Purchases'.

In the example below, the following purchase categories are created and being used:

• General purchases

• Overhead: office

• Software

• (...)

Do you use the app 'General Ledger Accounts'? It is possible to add a general ledger account number to a certain purchase category. All purchases recorded in this category, will be saved under this general ledger account number.

You will also be able to gain more insight in your purchases via these purchase categories, e.g. based on a certain period (from-to):

Payment Follow Up

In the overview of purchases, you'll immediately see which documents have not been paid yet. This is indicated by the labels in the column 'Status'.

• green button 'Paid': the document has already been paid

• yellow button with payment date: the document has not yet been paid, but falls within the preset payment date

• red button with payment date: the document has not yet been paid, and has also surpassed the preset payment date

Paying Purchases from Within BestInvoicing

BestInvoicing offers three methods for executing outgoing payments (= payment of your purchases):

1. Payment via QR code

2. Payment via Ponto

3. Payment via SEPA file

In order to use any of these payment methods, you should definitely enter the IBAN and BIC bank account information from your supplier in BestInvoicing. If this information is missing or incomplete, you will not be able to use any of the payment methods (BestInvoicing will display a notification).

Payments from BestInvoicing: QR Code

It is possible to directly pay your purchase document after you've processed it in BestInvoicing. A QR code is generated based on the registered purchase information (amount, reference, IBAN number supplier, ...).

This code appears at the bottom of the purchase summary, under 'Payments'. By scanning it using your bank app, you can immediately execute the payment to the supplier, based on your purchase data:

Not every bank is able to read and process such SEPA QR code. Please check with your bank in your specific country.

• Is your bank account connected via e.g. Ponto: the payment will automatically be linked and the status of your purchase will automatically change to 'paid' if the payment is received after you fully processed the purchase in BestInvoicing.

• If your bank account is not connected, change the status of your purchase manually to 'Paid' (green button at the top in the purchase summary window).

Payments from BestInvoicing: Ponto

If you've activated the connection with Ponto in BestInvoicing for collecting your bank transaction data, a Ponto payment button will appear at the bottom. Select your connected bank account under 'Bank Account'.

Click the green button 'Pay' to be redirected to the online Ponto environment, where you'll be able to confirm and execute the payment.

Since your bank account is connected, they payment will automatically be linked to the purchase document and its status will automatically change to 'paid'.

Payments from BestInvoicing: SEPA File

From BestInvoicing, it is possible to execute multiple payments in one go to be paid via your web banking. This is done by creating a SEPA file. The SEPA file format is the Single Euro Payments Area . xml file format that is commonly used in European countries. You collect all payment information from within BestInvoicing, export it in a structured way, import it into your own online banking environment and the payments will be executed on the future payment dates as entered by yourself in BestInvoicing.

Step 1. Enter the future payment date

When processing your purchase, make sure to add a 'Payment date'. Bank transfers to be executed based on a SEPA file will be executed two days before the date you have recorded as 'Payment date' in BestInvoicing.

In BestInvoicing you enter the due date for a payment. You want to transfer at least 1 business day earlier, so that the payment is with the supplier on the due date. If you still want to make your payments later, you have to enter in BestInvoicing e.g. the 'due date + 2 days'.

Step 2. Exporting purchases to SEPA file

In the overview of purchases, select the purchases to be paid.

Go to the blue button 'Actions' and select the option 'Export to SEPA payment file' by clicking it. This will download the SEPA file. If you didn't fill the necessary IBAN and BIC information for all your suppliers, BestInvoicing will display an error message.

When exporting, you are asked if you want to mark the exported documents as 'planned'.

If you confirm this choice by clicking 'Yes', the payment will appear as 'Planned' in your purchases list.

Step 3. Importing the payment file into your online bank environment

The SEPA file is an xml file to be downloaded on your computer. It can subsequently be uploaded to your own online banking environment.

Each bank has its own trajectory on how to do this. Please contact your bank in order to understand how you may upload and process a SEPA file.

Exporting Purchases for Accountant

The purchases you've entered may also be forwarded to your accountant. This can be done via direct connection with an accounting software package or delivery platform or as UBL files.

Click here to read more about connecting to accounting packages.

Delivery as UBL Files

UBL (Universal Business Language) is the standard format for electronic invoicing. It contains your document data in an XML file, which can be quickly processed by a computer. An accounting program can quickly read the file and process the information (from your purchase document, for example).

If you export your invoices from BestInvoicing in UBL format, you can send them to your accountant. He/she can then easily read them into his program.

Exporting Purchases to UBL

Read all about this method in our tutorial 'Exporting to UBL'.