Overview
Once a bill is created, it moves through a series of statuses from initial entry to being paid. This article covers what each status means and when a bill moves between them. For the day-to-day steps of getting a bill into JACK, see Processing a Bill.
1. Draft
When a bill is uploaded or entered manually, it appears in Draft status.
Bills in this stage may be incomplete or awaiting verification.
Drafts can be found under Finance > Bills > Draft.
You can edit details such as the job, supplier, and budget links.
Once reviewed, click Needs Approval to move the bill forward.
2. Awaiting Approval
Bills marked as Awaiting Approval are ready for internal review.
These may need validation from a manager or admin.
You can still edit allocations or supporting information.
Once approved, click Approve for Payment to progress the bill.
3. Hold Payment
If a bill needs to be paused for review or clarification, set its status to Hold Payment.
This removes the bill from the list of items to be synced to QuickBooks.
Use Hold when waiting for revised invoices, credit notes, or disputed charges to be resolved.
You can move a bill off Hold at any time to resume normal processing.
4. Approved for Payment
Once approved, the bill is ready to be sent to QuickBooks.
Approved bills appear in Finance > Bills > Approved for Payment.
When you sync JACK App with QuickBooks, these bills are created in QuickBooks as Unpaid.
Review and pay them from QuickBooks when ready.
5. Paid
After a bill is paid in QuickBooks, syncing again automatically updates its status in JACK App to Paid.
Paid bills appear under Finance > Bills > Paid.
This final status locks the bill for editing and updates job budgets accordingly.
Marking a bill as paid manually: not every bill needs to go through Xero or QuickBooks before it's reconciled. If a bill was entered directly in your accounting software, or you'd rather leave it out of the sync entirely, you can record it as paid directly in JACK instead. This keeps job budgets and cash flow reporting accurate immediately, without creating duplicate entries. Marking a bill as paid this way only updates its status in JACK — it does not create, update, or perform any action in Xero or QuickBooks.
Navigate to the bill, scroll to the payments section, and click the + button.
In the Record Payment view, select the payment method (Bank Transfer, Cash, or Cheque), the payment date, and the amount. Payments sync to your accounting software by default — untick the sync checkbox if you don't want this one to sync.
Record the full amount as a single payment, or record multiple partial payments until the bill is paid in full.
The bill's status updates to Paid or Partially Paid.
You can remove a recorded payment at any time by clicking the red X; this reverts the bill to Partially Paid or Approved for Payment.
6. Rejected
Used when a bill needs to be sent back to the supplier as incorrect.
Change the status to Rejected from Finance > Bills, select the bill, then Reject and enter a reason.
The supplier gets an email with the bill attached and your reason; rejected bills don't push through to QuickBooks. This is also recorded in the bill's historical comments section.
7. Not Job Related
Not a formal documented status, but in practice a bill doesn't need to be linked to a job.
It can be processed for overhead costs (insurance, rent, etc.) without linking to a job budget item or PO.
8. Back Charges
Bills organized under this tab are set to recover a cost from a subcontractor who caused damage or made a mistake, instead of absorbing it as a job loss.
The bill must be Approved first, then create the Back Charge against it, choosing the subcontractor and the bill items to charge.
This creates a credit against those items in the job budget and QuickBooks, and can email the subcontractor a copy.
To create a back charge, navigate to Finance > Bills > Paid > click into the bill, then use the Back Charge button
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9. Credit Notes
When a supplier or contractor credits you — for example for returned materials or an over-billed amount.
Create it the same way as a standard bill, but enter a negative quantity so it produces a negative amount.
Once approved and synced, it shows under the Credit Notes tab in Finance and against the job budget with a status of Credit Note.
ℹ️ See How To Create A Credit Note for more detail.
For the steps to get a bill into JACK in the first place, see Processing a Bill. To send approved bills to your accounting software, see How Bills Push to QuickBooks.