Create a bill from a purchase order | Appcrual

If you use Appcrual alongside FreeAgent, you’ve probably been through this routine: raise a purchase order in Appcrual, send it to your supplier, then switch to FreeAgent to create the matching bill — retyping the reference, the amounts, the supplier, the dates. It’s the kind of repeat admin that quietly eats into your week.

You can now create a bill directly from a purchase order in Appcrual, and it lands in FreeAgent at the same time. No switching between tabs. No re-entering data. One form, pre-filled from the PO you’ve already approved.

Why this matters

The link between a purchase order and its bill is one of the most important in spend management. The PO is your commitment; the bill is the invoice that follows. When those two sit in different systems and you’re copying data between them manually, mistakes creep in — wrong amounts, mismatched references, bills that never get linked back to the original order.

This feature closes that gap. Because the bill is created from the PO itself, the data carries across automatically. The reference, supplier, amounts, VAT, and currency are all pre-filled. Your PO’s payment status updates on its own. And you get a clear audit trail from commitment to cost, without the manual work in between.

For teams tracking committed costs and trying to keep fewer surprises in their cashflow, that’s a meaningful improvement.

How it works

Here’s what the process looks like, step by step.

1. Open a sent purchase order. Navigate to the PO detail page for any purchase order with a status of “Sent”. If the PO has remaining unbilled value and your account has FreeAgent sync enabled, you’ll see an orange Create Bill button in the top-right action toolbar.

2. Click Create Bill. This opens a bill form with most fields already filled in from the PO:

Reference — pulled from your PO reference or order number

Date — set to the PO’s order date

Due date — set to the PO’s delivery date, if one was provided

Net value — calculated from the unbilled total minus VAT

VAT amount and rate — auto-calculated and locked

Total value — the full unbilled amount, locked

Currency — locked from the PO

Supplier — locked from the PO

Project — pre-set from the PO, but you can change it if needed

You can adjust the reference, dates, and net value if the bill doesn’t match the PO exactly — for example, if a supplier is billing in stages.

3. Choose a spending category. This is the one required field you need to fill in yourself. Select from the dropdown of your FreeAgent spending categories.

4. Add an item description (optional). You can type your own, or click the Fill from PO link to auto-populate a summary of all the line items from the purchase order. Handy if you want the bill to reflect exactly what was ordered.

5. Attach the PO as a PDF (optional). Tick the checkbox to attach the original purchase order as a PDF file to the bill in FreeAgent. The file is named clearly — something like YourCompany_Purchase-Order_#1042.pdf — so it’s easy to find later.

6. Submit. The bill is saved in Appcrual and pushed to FreeAgent in one go. You’re taken back to the PO detail page, and the PO’s payment status updates automatically.

That’s it. One form, a few seconds, and both systems are in sync.

When this is useful

Regular supplier orders. You raise POs for the same suppliers each month. Now you can create the matching bill the moment the invoice arrives, without leaving Appcrual.

Staged billing. A supplier invoices against a single PO in stages — say, 50% upfront and 50% on delivery. Because you can adjust the net value, you can create a bill for just the first instalment and come back for the rest later.

End-of-month reconciliation. Your finance team needs bills in FreeAgent to match against purchase orders in Appcrual. Creating bills directly means fewer mismatches and less time spent cross-referencing.

Audit trails. When someone asks “where did this cost come from?”, the bill links straight back to the PO. The reference matches, the amounts tie up, and there’s a PDF of the original order attached if you need it.

Keeping committed costs accurate. As bills are created against a PO, the unbilled value updates. You always know how much of a commitment is still outstanding.

Tips for getting the most out of it

Use the Fill from PO link for descriptions. It saves time and means your FreeAgent bill reflects the actual line items from the order. Useful for anyone reviewing bills later who wasn’t involved in the original purchase.

Attach the PDF when it matters. If your team or auditors need to see the original PO alongside the bill in FreeAgent, tick the attachment box. If the attachment fails for any reason, the bill is still created — you’ll see a note explaining that you can upload the PDF manually in FreeAgent.

Check the spending category before submitting. This is the one field that isn’t pre-filled, and it’s required. If you’re not sure which category to use, check with your finance team — it affects how costs are categorised in FreeAgent.

Keep your PO delivery dates up to date. The due date on the bill comes from the PO’s delivery date. If that’s blank or out of date, you’ll want to adjust it on the bill form before submitting.

Availability

This feature is available now to all Appcrual accounts with FreeAgent sync enabled. If you’re on Appcrual but haven’t connected FreeAgent yet, you can set up the integration from your account settings.

Appcrual costs £8/month + VAT, with unlimited purchase orders, projects, and users. If you’re not yet using Appcrual, you can start with a 30-day free trial at appcrual.com.

Next steps

Open any sent purchase order and look for the orange Create Bill button. If you have FreeAgent sync enabled and the PO has unbilled value, you’re ready to go.

If you have questions or run into anything unexpected, contact us at support@appcrual.com.