Accessing Your Bills Library
Once in, follow the path All Items or a specific project > Bills to access your bills library.
Under All Items > Bills, you will find all your construction bills regardless of the project.
Under a specific project, you will find only project-specific bills.
Creating a New Bill
To create a new bill, click Create > Bill.
Buildern will ask you to choose the project for which you want to create a new bill if created from the All Items view.
A new window will open where you’ll need to fill in all the bill-related information.
Note that certain lines are marked as required, so you cannot proceed further if you don’t cover them. This includes the following information:
Bill Name (required)
Bill ID (optional) – you can define it manually or let Buildern generate a unique number automatically.
Related Purchase Order (optional) – if you choose one, the bill cost lines will be automatically populated.
Sub/Vendor whom you should pay (required).
Reference (optional) – put any details you find relevant for the bill.
Bill Date and Due Date (required).
Cost Lines
ℹ️ Note: Whether the tax is applied as Inclusive, Exclusive, or No Tax depends on your tax settings. You can review the default configuration by navigating to Settings > Finance > Taxes, where you’ll see whether bill amounts are set to be inclusive, exclusive, or non-taxable by default.
If needed, you can override this setting for an individual bill by using the Amounts Are dropdown within the bill itself.
Syncing the Bill with Your Accounting Software
This is also where you choose to sync (or not) the bill with your accounting software (Xero or QuickBooks).
It is important to know that Buildern will show you error messages when configuring the sub/vendors or cost lines by adding any kind of information not yet synced with your accounting software.
Here are a few screenshots to illustrate these cases ⤵️
We have added a new subcontractor who is not matched with our QuickBooks account:
If we decide to sync the bill with QuickBooks, the system will automatically show the following message:
Click Fix Issue and follow the instructions to proceed further.
The same applies to the cost lines.
If you add a cost code that has not previously been synced with your QuickBooks database, you will receive the following warning:
Again, click the Fix Issue button and follow the instructions. You can either create a new cost code that will be automatically added to your QuickBooks account, or you can match it with an existing one.
How to Configure the Bill Cost Line Type
Buildern allows you to choose the bill line type from the following options:
Estimate Bill
Allowance
Change Order
This means that whatever option you choose, the bill will be linked and associated with that particular document.
Let’s see how each option works.
Choosing the Estimate Bill Type
There are two ways to add items from an estimate. First, click on the Item Name field and select Estimate. A dropdown list will appear, allowing you to choose from the estimate items available for the project.
Alternatively, click on More Types, then select Estimate. This will display your estimate along with all of its details, allowing you to browse and select the items you would like to add.
When you select the estimate items, the information for the item will be automatically filled in.
When you configure the Estimate bill line type, the cost code assigned to the selected estimate item will automatically be carried over to the budget. This means that whichever cost code is set on the estimate item will appear in the budget.
This will be shown in your budget Group By Lines view Estimate section.
👉 Learn more about how to Work with Estimates
Choosing the Allowance Type
Let’s set your bill line type to allowance.
Associating a bill line with an allowance lets you calculate the Allowance Actual based on the bill line amount. Within the project estimate, you will find the Settings "gear" icon, where you can change the current project calculation settings.
In this page you will find the "Calculate Allowance actual price based on Bills" checkbox.
Once enabled, the project allowance actuals will be calculated as the sum of bill line totals associated with the allowance item.
Once the setting is enabled and the bill is Approved/Paid, the allowance Actual will appear under the Allowances section of the Budget tab Group by Lines view, along with their corresponding cost codes.
Choosing the Change Order Type
If you set the bill line type to change order, this will mean that the bill refers to a specific change order.
View the results and any changes to the saved bill in the project budget:
Recording a Payment
When creating a bill, you can also record a payment at the same time. This will add the payment to the bill and automatically change its status to Approved.
Saving the Bill
Once you’ve finished entering all the bill details, you can either click Save or select the arrow next to the Save button to access additional save options.
The available options are:
Save and Add Another – Saves the current bill in Draft status and immediately opens a new bill creation page, allowing you to continue entering additional bills.
Submit for Approval – Saves the bill and changes its status to Awaiting Approval, making it ready for the approval workflow.
Save and Approve – Saves the bill and immediately changes its status to Approved.
Approve and Next – Approves the current bill and automatically opens the next bill in the list for review.
💡 Tip: If you’d like to quickly review and approve multiple draft bills, navigate to the Bills page and filter the list by Draft and Awaiting Approval status. Then, open the first bill and click Approve and Next. Buildern will automatically open the next draft/awaiting approval bill, allowing you to approve your bills one by one without returning to the bills list each time. This provides a fast and efficient way to work through all of your draft bills.
In upcoming articles, we’ll explore more features and tools to help you get even more out of Buildern.
Happy Building!