Collect invoices and create bills

Required roles: Finance manager and Finance approver 
Required permissions: View bills and Process bills.

Best for: One-off or ad hoc invoices submitted by your team.

You can upload images or PDFs of an invoice directly to the Bills screen.

After you upload an invoice, it appears in Bills. If scanning is enabled, it may move from Pending scan to Pending review.

Tipalti also supports invoices in Word and Excel format upon request.

Upload an image or PDF

1. Click Bills in the left menu.
2. Click + Add bill.
3. If you're assigned to more than one entity, select the entity from the Entity dropdown.
   
4. Click Upload invoices. You can upload one or more invoices at a time.
5. Drag and drop files or click Upload files to upload invoices from your device.

Best for: If your payees want to submit invoices to you directly.

Depending on your account setup, payees can submit invoices by email or through the Supplier Hub.

Payees and payers can email invoices as images or PDFs. If set up on your account, Tipalti also accepts Word, Excel, and CSV files by email.

After submission:

• Tipalti sends a confirmation email to the sender with the submission date and time.
• If the files couldn't be submitted, Tipalti notifies the sender and explains the reason, such as an invalid file format or file size issue.

Invoices submitted by email appear in Bills. Tipalti scans the invoices, adds the extracted details to the bill form, and moves the bills to Pending review.

Tipalti attaches the emailed invoice file in Comments and files in the bill's Activity tab.

If you use multiple entities:

• Invoices sent to a general email address don't automatically link to an entity. You assign the entity during review.
• Invoices sent to an entity-specific email address automatically link to that entity.

Payees can upload invoices through the Supplier Hub after registering an account.

Payees upload one invoice file at a time. After submission, Tipalti displays a confirmation message. If the upload fails, Tipalti explains the reason.

Payees can track invoice status in the Invoice History tab in the Supplier Hub.

Required roles: Finance manager and Finance approver 
Required permissions: View bills and Process bills.

Best for: High-volume or invoices generated by your accounting system.

Use CSV import if you process invoices in a third-party system and want to pay them in Tipalti.

To upload invoices by CSV, use the CSV template provided for your account and add your bill details to it.

Required fields

The required fields are IDAP (payee ID), bill reference code, invoice subject (for self-billing), invoice date, account ID (for self-billing without internal approval), line description or description, currency, and income type (if there is more than one type).

Upload a CSV file

1. Click Bills in the left menu.
2. Click + Add bill.
3. Click Import bills from CSV.
4. If you want to use our CSV template, click Download template CSV file. You can complete the CSV template with the invoice details and save it to your device.
5. Select the entity the bills are for from the Entity dropdown.
6. Drag and drop your saved CSV file or click Upload a file to upload it from your device. You can upload one CSV file at a time.
7. Click Import invoices.

Validation checks

Before Tipalti places bills in Pending review, Tipalti validates the file:

• If the file contains errors, Tipalti rejects the upload. Fix the errors and upload the file again.
• If the file contains warnings, you can review them and still submit the file.

Tipalti validates file format, required fields, invoice uniqueness, payee status, and line-level consistency.

Best for: Compliant, structured invoices that require minimal review.

E-invoices are digital invoices created in a structured, machine-readable format (XML). All e-invoices follow the same format, which improves data accuracy and reduces manual review compared to PDF invoices.

If a payee sends an e-invoice through the Peppol network, Tipalti processes it the same way as a PDF invoice. The invoice appears in Bills with a status of Pending review and displays as a PDF for review.

Bills created through the e-invoicing flow integrate directly into Tipalti AP workflows, so you can use the same review, coding, and approval steps as other invoices.

The e-invoice data appears in the language entered by the payee in Peppol, while field labels appear in English.

Details collected

Tipalti collects bill header descriptions, currency, header-level details, PO numbers, prepaid amounts, invoice and due dates, invoice lines (quantity, unit price, net amount, and tax), invoice numbers, and totals.

Tipalti links the bill to the entity that was set up when your company onboarded to Tipalti.

Ensure the e-invoice links to the correct payee

When you receive an e-invoice from a payee for the first time, select the payee from the Payee dropdown to match the payee details on the e-invoice.

Once the bill moves to Pending payment, Tipalti maps the e-invoice ID to the selected payee.

Original invoice file

Tipalti attaches the original invoice file as an XML to the bill's Activity tab on the right in Comments and files so you can confirm the extracted data or review additional details.

• The file is attached to Comments and files.
• Audit records that the invoice was processed as an e-invoice.

Learn more about how e-invoices work in Tipalti

You can also add invoices using Tipalti APIs when you integrate Tipalti with external systems.

In some bill flows, you can also create a bill without uploading an invoice file and enter the bill details in the form.

Click Add bill > Create bill without invoice and fill in the form on the right.

Use a recurring bill for repeat payments (for example, rent or subscriptions). You set the recurrence while the bill is in Pending review.

Recurring bills apply to both AP and self-billing processes.

Recurring bills show a Recurring bill badge in the header and a Recurrence section at the top of the bill.

Required permission: Process bills

To create a recurring bill

1. Click + Add bill > Create recurring bill.
   
2. In Recurrence, select how often the bill repeats and when it ends.
   
   • Never: Continues unless you stop it.
   • On: Select the date you want the recurrence to end.

   • After: Select how many bills you want before the recurrence ends.

     After you submit the bill, you can't change these options.

3. To upload an invoice, expand the invoice image preview on the left and click Upload a file or drag or drop your invoice into it from your device.
4. Fill in the rest of the form and click Submit. It moves to Pending approval and All bills.
   • The recurrence only starts after you submit this bill. Once you submit it, that'll be the first bill in the series.
   • Each time Tipalti creates a recurring bill, it's given a number to show which bill it is in the series.
   • This is added in the top left and to the end of the invoice number, which you can edit.

During the bill series, if you want to view the first bill the series is based on, click Based on bill #1 in the top right.

• Currently, images, approvers, and PO numbers aren't copied over to the next bill in the series.
• Filtering and managing recurring bills from the Bill list aren't supported yet, but we plan to support that in the future.

To stop the recurrence, open the latest bill in the series, and click Stop recurrence in the top right. 
No more recurring bills are created in this series, and it ends.