Features Below Available To: ✅ Grow Plan ✅ Track Plan ✅ Free Plan
In the Costs section of the app, the Bills page contains all of the accepted bills you receive from your collaborative consultants or any bills uploaded on your own. This allows you to keep track of all the bills, their payment status, and additional information. This function is available for both phase and project consultants.
🛑 Before you start:
To utilize this feature, you will want to have all your consultants entered into the Consultant Directory first and assign the specific consultant to each project within the Consultant Fees tab in the Project Budget.
Navigating to Bills
To begin uploading and managing bills, navigate to the "Money" section in the main menu and then select the Bills tab.
Uploading a Bill
💡 Use the Smart Inbox to create bills automatically! Learn more here.
Once in the Bills tab, you can upload a bill by navigating to the 'Upload bill' button in the upper right of the screen. It is recommended you have the bill and any other relevant information handy as you begin this step.
The first step will be to upload a PDF of the bill. Currently, only PDF formats are supported and a PDF must be uploaded to allow the bill information to be saved. Once the bill has been uploaded, it will appear as a preview within the box.
Next, you will select the Project and the Consultant that this bill relates to. If the Project does not show in the drop-down list, it is because no Consultants have yet been added to the consultant tab of the planner. Please go to the Project Budget and add in the needed consultants.
💡 When selecting a consultant, you'll have the option to invite them to Monograph to collaborate on the project, allowing them to upload their own bills. Learn more about inviting consultants.
Once you have selected the Consultant, additional fields will show. Complete these fields as needed:
Issue Date is the date the bill was issued to your firm
Notes is optional but a great spot to include any additional details.
If QuickBooks Online is synced, you will also see a dropdown to select a QuickBooks Category, where you can select either an expense category or COGS (cost of goods sold) category. This category will be used for mapping purposes for when you send the bill to QuickBooks Online.
Once a bill is uploaded, click on the bill number to open and view it. From this screen, there’s an option to print the bill directly or download it as a PDF for your records. The More button offers additional actions, such as sending the bill to QuickBooks Online, editing its details, attaching it to a client invoice, marking it as paid, or deleting it.
Further down, the Activity section provides a timeline of the bill’s updates — showing everything from its creation to the most recent changes. Team members can leave comments here to track important notes or updates. To notify someone directly, use the @ symbol followed by their name, which will send them a notification and help bring the comment to their attention.
🚨 Only team members with the “View invoices and consultant bills” permission enabled can add internal comments and/or be @mentioned.
Using the Bills Tab
An important step in the Bills tab is selecting which client invoice the bill is associated with. In other words, which invoice sent to the client included that specific bill. The invoice will need to be created first in order to assign the bill to that invoice.
💡 When working with collaborative consultants, only accepted consultant bills can be added to client invoices.
Once the bill is created, click on the bill number to open it. Then, click the More button and select Attach client invoice.
You can also click the 'Mark as Paid' button to mark an invoice as Paid and select the date it was paid on. The bill does not have to be mapped to a client invoice for the bill to be marked as paid.
💡 Bills that collaborative consultations have uploaded cannot be marked as paid; they will mark it as paid on their end.
If a collaborative consultant has a paid Monograph account and creates the bill within Monograph, it can be marked as paid directly in the platform.
Learn more about reviewing and paying consultant bills in Monograph.
Additional bill management options appear when the three dots in the far right are selected. Here you can edit the bill if there is additional information you need to input or edit. You can also mark the invoice as paid from this area and delete the invoice if needed.
There are many filtering options within the Bill tab:
Date Range - shows bills within a specified date range based on the Due Date
"Select Range" will use a pre-set date range
The date range filter remembers the last selected dates.
Company - shows bills associated with a specific company
Project - shows bills associated with a specific project
Status - show bills based on the status of the Bill
Open - the consultant's work has not been billed to the client
Billed Client - the client has been billed for the consultant's work
Client Paid - the client has paid the invoice that included the consultant's work
Paid - the consultant has been paid by your firm
Exporting Bill Report
You may download a CSV file of the Bill report for your records by clicking the "Export" button on the top right of the page:
Please note - only the default columns will pull into the report, regardless of the selections that you have set up for viewing on the page. Defaults are:
Consultant Bill #
Company Name
Project #
Project Name
Client Invoice #
Bill Status
Due Date
Paid Date
Notes
Bill Amount
Paid Amount
🟢 Sending a Bill to QuickBooks Online
You can send a Bill to QuickBooks Online, whether or not the Consultant has been synced previously to QuickBooks Online. Doing so will allow the bill to be marked as paid automatically in QBO when it is marked as paid in Monograph.
To send the bill, click on the three dots in the far right and select 'Send to QuickBooks Online'.
If the Consultant is already synced to QuickBooks Online, when this button is selected the bill will be sent over to QuickBooks Online. The QuickBooks logo will appear to the left of the bill and a pop-up will show in the lower left as well confirming the bill has been sent.
If the Consultant is not synced to QuickBooks Online, a series of pop-up modals will guide you through sending the invoice.
Sending the current company to QuickBooks will add this Consultant Company to your QuickBooks Online account. If 'Select a different company contact' is selected then you will see a drop-down to select the correct Consultant company from QuickBooks Online.
🚨 To note: Consultant bills sent from Monograph to QBO do not populate the Customer/Project field in QBO.
Paying Consultant Bills
If you and your collaborative consultant are both signed up for Monograph Payments, you can pay the consultant bill directly from the Bills page. Click Pay Now next to a bill to follow the same payment workflow your clients use for invoices.
Learn more about reviewing and paying consultant bills.
Permissions Settings for the Bills Tab
Permissions for Bills are controlled by the invoicing permissions. To enable maximum usage of this feature, all 4 permissions should be enabled.
When the 'View Invoices' permission is solely enabled, then the user can only view the Bill tab.
When the 'View Invoices' and 'Edit Invoices' permissions are enabled, a user can View and Edit the invoice, but not delete the bill nor upload a bill.
When the 'View invoices', 'Edit Invoices, and 'Create Invoices' permission are enabled, the user will be able to upload a bill and complete all other actions within this tab, aside from deleting a bill.
When the 'View Invoices', 'Edit Invoices', 'Create Invoices', and 'Delete Invoices' permissions are all enabled, the user will be able to complete all actions within this tab.
When the 'View Invoices' and 'Delete Invoices' permissions are enabled but no other invoice permissions, the users will be able to see all the bills and delete them, but not other actions such as 'Mark as Paid'.
If you do not see the Bill Tab option, it means your current access level does not permit you to see or upload Bills. Please speak to an Admin for assistance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I unable to send a Bill to QuickBooks Online?
If you're unable to send a Bill to QBO, it could be that the document associated with the Bill already exists in QBO or the name. To fix this, you can configure your settings in QBO to allow duplicated document numbers.
Should I send my Bills to an Expense category or a COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) category?
The choice to send your Bills to an Expense category or a COGS category is based on how your firm operates and your accounting/bookkeeping needs. If you're unsure, you'll want to contact your accountant or bookkeeper, as Monograph cannot advise on which account should be used.
If I upload a bill on behalf of a consultant, do I still have to approve it?
Self-uploaded bills do not need to be reviewed/accepted. They are automatically “accepted” and the status will show as “unpaid” at first.
If I mark a consultant bill as paid in QuickBooks Online, will it update to show as paid in Monograph too?
No - if you mark a consultant bill as paid in QBO, it will not appear as paid in Monograph. However, if you mark a bill as paid in Monograph, it will also update as paid in QBO.
How far back can my organization go in the Managing bills page?
The Managing bills page allows date selection starting from one year before the subscription date. For example, if your subscription began on May 1, 2015, dates prior to May 1, 2014 will not be available.