Skip to main content

Bill Processing in JACK App

Everything you need to know about bill processing

Updated over 2 weeks ago

In this article, you will learn how to:

Overview of the bills flow

  1. All bills must be entered into JACK App first if you would like them to be recorded in JACK App for budget tracking or cashflow purposes.
    ⚠️ A bill already in Xero cannot be linked to JACK App, however, our team will assist in recording past paid bills & invoices during onboarding.
    ​

  2. Process the bill in JACK App, and Approve it for payment.
    ​

  3. Syncing to Xero creates bills as drafts, allowing you to review the chart of accounts they are allocated to. Once these are ready, approve them in Xero so they can be paid.
    ​

  4. After payment, sync with JACK App and the bills will marked as paid.


Read through the detail instructions below to learn how to complete each step. Refer to Xero Support area on bills processing here.


​

Uploading bills to JACK App

To save time relating to processing supplier or subcontractor bills, you can upload the bill directly into JACK, and the bill details will be automatically extracted. Details include supplier/subcontractor name, invoice date, invoice number, due date, and amount payable.

To upload a bill, navigate to Finance > Bills. Locate the upload box:

You may drag and drop files into the Upload box or, from within the Upload box, click Browse, and select a file from your local drive.

You may also email the bills directly to JACK App, click to display your unique email and add safe senders from which bills can be emailed into your system.

Once processed, the bill will appear on the list of bills awaiting approval.

If there were details relating to the bill that could not be extracted, an orange warning icon will appear next to the Bill Amount. You will need to click on it to enter outstanding details manually.

Processing or Editing bills


To link a bill to budget items or a purchase order, complete the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Finance > Bills and locate the bill within the relevant status (Awaiting Approval, Hold, etc).
    ​

  2. Select the Bill by clicking it, and the Edit Bill screen opens (as shown below).
    ​

  3. First, link the bill to the job, then choose if you are linking the bill to budget items or a purchase order (PO) using the buttons highlighted above.
    ℹ️ When allocating to POs, the bill will be linked to the corresponding budget item from the purchase order.
    This will allow you to allocate amounts to line items in the job budget to track your expenses accurately.
    ​

  4. To do so, click the Link Item button , a pop-up opens with the budget, and select the corresponding budget item.
    ​
    Should you wish to link all items to the same budget line item, |
    use the button

    To correct a mistake, unlink an item by clicking


    Once the bill is complete, click Save
    ​
    ​

  5. After linking to a budget item, JACK App will display the status of the budget for the item and cost centre as shown below:

    ℹ️ The remaining amount updates after the bill is approved, so you will first see the current available amount in that cost centre before approving the bill.
    ​
    ​

  6. Remaining amounts shown in red indicate an item is over budget, whilst remaining amounts shown in green indicate amounts still under budget (the green amount is what is left available to spend if required). This will also be reflected in the Job budget as seen below:

  7. Once the bill is Approved, it is ready to Sync to Xero for payment.
    If the bill status is changed to Hold or Reject the bill will NOT be added to the list of bills to be synced to Xero.


​

Pushing bills to Xero


To push supplier or subcontractor bills to Xero you will first need to have connected your JACK account to your Xero account. Find out more here.

Navigate to the Finance tab on the main left menu and click on Bills.

You will then be able to see all bills and their status. In the top right of the screen, locate the Pending Sync Items and click the button.

The following window opens:

Use the Sync button to send bills & client invoices to Xero

Use the Refresh button to update JACK App with any changes (i.e. Paid)

Any bills or client invoices with sync issues will show an error message in the right column.

How to reallocate a bill or purchase order to a budget item (fixing a mistake)


When you need to change the bill allocation in the job budget, it is possible to do so up until a bill is synced to Xero but not yet approved.
​

  1. To unlink a bill (that has been synced to Xero) from a PO or budget item, navigate to Job > Job Financials > Bills > select the relevant Bill.
    ​

  2. Once the edit bill screen opens, click on the linked budget / PO button and this will drop down a menu allowing you to unlink the bill items from the PO or budget items.
    ​

  3. Relink the bill or invoice to the correct job and budget items, and click Save.
    ​

    ⚠️ To exit, you must re-link the Bill or PO to another budget item and Save.

Did this answer your question?