A bill in BldrTeam travels a short, deliberate path. Understanding it makes it obvious where an invoice is stuck when a trade partner asks about payment.
The path
Arrival. Bills reach BldrTeam by upload, by email, or from your accounting system if it is connected. However it arrives, it starts as an unapproved document rather than a cost.
Coding. Each line on the bill is assigned to a project and a cost code. This is the step that connects a piece of paper to a budget line. A bill nobody has coded cannot show up against a job, because BldrTeam does not know which job it belongs to.
Review. Coded bills wait for someone with authority to approve them. Who that is depends on the roles you set up for your company.
Approval. On approval the bill becomes an actual cost. It appears against its cost codes in the budget, beside the amount you estimated for that work.
Where bills usually stall
- Uncoded lines. The most common cause. The bill is present but invisible on the job because no line names a project.
- No matching project reference. A bill from your accounting system that does not reference a BldrTeam project has nowhere to land.
- Waiting on an approver. The bill is coded and correct, and simply has not been approved yet.
Why approval matters for your numbers
Until a bill is approved it is not a cost, and your actuals do not include it. That is deliberate: it keeps disputed or mis-coded paperwork out of your margin. It also means a job can look better than it is if bills are sitting in review. Remember that at the end of a month.
More on this in budget and job cost tracking.