Purchases: Bills, Purchase Orders & Debit Notes

Whether you're paying a supplier, ordering stock, or correcting an overpayment - Purchases is where it all lives. Think of it as the flip side of your Sales. Sales is money coming in. Purchases is money going out.

stub gives you three tools inside Purchases:

• Bills - What your suppliers charge you. Rent, stock, services - if someone sends you an invoice, it becomes a Bill in stub.
• Purchase Orders - What you've ordered but haven't received (or paid for) yet. It's your "I'm going to need this" list.
• Debit Notes - When a supplier overcharged you or you returned something, a Debit Note adjusts the original Bill.

Where to find Purchases

1. From the sidebar, click Purchases.
2. You'll land on the Purchases overview - a snapshot of what you owe, what's overdue, and what's outstanding.

At the top you'll see three summary cards:

• Purchases - Total value of all bills for the month.
• Overdue - Bills past their due date (the red badge means something needs attention).
• Outstanding - What's still unpaid but not overdue yet.

Below that, every Bill, Purchase Order, and Debit Note you've created for the month is listed with its date, name, and amount.

Use the arrows next to the month to move between periods, and the Filter button to narrow things down.

Filtering your Purchases

Got a long list and need to find something specific? The Filter button (top left) lets you slice your Purchases view in four ways:

• Type — Show only Bills, only Purchase Orders, or only Debit Notes.
• Status — Filter by where things are at — draft, awaiting payment, paid, overdue, etc.
• Tag — If you've tagged your purchases (e.g. by project, department, or supplier type), filter by tag to group them.
• Flag — Flagged something for follow-up? Filter by flag to pull up everything you've marked.

How to create a Bill

A Bill is what you create when a supplier invoices you. Rent, stock, a freelancer's invoice - if you owe someone money, this is how you record it.

1. From the Purchases page, click the green + Bill button (top right).
2. Fill in your supplier details, line items, amounts, and due date.
3. Save it.

That's it. The Bill will show up in your Purchases list and feed into your reports automatically.

How to create a Purchase Order

A Purchase Order is your way of saying "I need this" before the bill arrives. Use it when you're ordering from a supplier and want a record of what was agreed.

1. From the Purchases page, click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the green + Bill button.
2. Select Purchase Order.
3. Fill in your supplier, the items you're ordering, quantities, and amounts.
4. Save it.

When the goods arrive and the supplier invoices you, you can convert the Purchase Order into a Bill.

How to create a Debit Note

A Debit Note is how you correct a Bill. Supplier overcharged you? Returned some stock? A Debit Note adjusts the amount you owe.

1. From the Purchases page, click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the green + Bill button.
2. Select Debit Note.

Importing and Exporting

Need to bring in a batch of bills from a spreadsheet, or export your purchase data?

1. From the Purchases page, click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the green + Bill button.
2. Select Import to upload a CSV, PDF, Excel, text or image files., or Export to download your purchase data.

Getting bills into stub the easy way

You don't have to manually create every Bill from scratch. If your suppliers email you invoices or you've got receipts sitting in your inbox, you can forward them straight into stub.

1. From the sidebar, click ⋯ More (at the bottom).
2. Tools.
3. Click Files.

Every stub business gets a unique email address - you'll find it at the top of the Files page. It looks something like:

your-unique-name@docs.stub.africa

Forward supplier invoices, receipts, or any docs to that address and they'll land in your stub Files automatically. No uploading, no dragging and dropping — just forward and done.

You can also drag and drop files directly into the Files page if you've got them on your device.

Tip: Save your stub email as a contact on your phone. Next time a supplier invoice hits your inbox, just forward it - sorted.