Managing Supplier Bills: How to Stop Paying Late, Twice or Blind
A simple accounts payable routine for Nigerian SMEs: capture every bill, check it, approve it and pay it on time, with a record of each step.
Supplier bills arrive by email, WhatsApp, a driver's delivery note and occasionally the post. Some get paid twice, some get paid late and cost you a good supplier's goodwill, and some get paid without anyone checking the goods arrived.
Accounts payable sounds like a big-company process, and in a large company it is a whole team. But the core of it is the same whether you pay ten suppliers a month or a thousand.
The four-step payables routine
- Capture: every bill goes to one place the day it arrives. One email address for bills is the simplest rule.
- Check: compare the bill with what was ordered and delivered. Quantity, price and VAT should all match.
- Approve: the bill goes to the right approver under your policy before anyone pays it.
- Pay and record: pay by the due date and record the payment against the bill, so it cannot be paid again.
Stop duplicate payments
Duplicate payments happen when the same bill arrives twice, once by email and once on paper, or when a supplier chases and someone pays from the reminder. Recording every payment against its bill, and checking for an existing bill with the same supplier and number before paying, prevents almost all of them.
Pay on time, not early
Paying on the due date, rather than the moment a bill arrives, keeps cash in the business longer. Paying late damages supplier relationships and can cost you credit terms. A weekly payment run, with a list of what falls due, gives you both.
Keep bills for VAT
Every supplier bill that shows VAT is also an input VAT claim. Lost bills mean paying more VAT than you owe. See how to claim input VAT.
How Billif helps
Forward a bill to your Billif mailbox and OCR and AI turn it into a payable, tracked to its due date. It routes for approval before payment, and overdue payables show on your dashboard. Pay from your Billif wallet, or pay from your own bank and record it against the bill, and every vendor keeps a payment history.
Frequently asked questions
- What is accounts payable?
- The money your business owes to suppliers for goods and services received but not yet paid for, and the process of managing those bills.
- How do I prevent paying a supplier twice?
- Capture every bill in one place, record each payment against its bill, and check for an existing record before paying a reminder.
- Should I pay supplier bills early?
- Usually not. Paying on the due date keeps cash in the business longer without harming the relationship, unless the supplier offers an early payment discount.