Self-billing
Required user roles: Finance manager or AP processor
Or custom roles that include permissions: View bills, Process bills, or Bill approver
Self-billing lets you create and manage invoices internally in Tipalti instead of receiving them from external sources. It is commonly used when you manage a high volume of payees who do not submit invoices and want to rely on automated bill workflows.
Self-billed invoices are created without an uploaded invoice image and use system-generated invoice numbers. This supports a fully digital billing workflow.
To enable self-billing, contact your Tipalti representative.
Create and manage self-billed invoices
Use self-billing to create bills without uploaded invoice files and manage them directly in the Bills tab.
Create a self-billed invoice
To create a self-billed invoice:
- Go to Bills.
- Click Add bill.
- Select Create a bill without invoice.
You can also create recurring bills without invoices by following the same process used for recurring bills.
Key characteristics
Self-billed invoices have the following characteristics:
- No uploaded invoice image
- A generated invoice PDF is available for download
- The invoice number is generated automatically and cannot be edited
- An Invoice Subject free-text field is available
Work with the invoice preview
Because self-billed invoices do not include an uploaded image, the invoice area is used to download and preview the generated invoice PDF.
To preview the generated invoice:
- Open the invoice area.
- Click Download invoice to preview the generated PDF.
Select or add a payee
To edit a self-billed invoice, you must select or add a payee first.
For more information, see Managing payees.
Optional fields
The Expense account field appears on self-billed invoices only if GL account selection is enabled in your configuration.
Approval and release behavior
Approval behavior depends on your self-billing configuration and may include internal approval, payee approval, or both.
Approvers section
The Approvers section appears only when internal approval is enabled for self-billing.
When shown, it can be used to:
- Add or update approvers
- Use Tipalti AI-suggested approvers
- Set a default approver
Self-billing approvals do not support custom bill approval rules or conditions.
Payee approval setup
If your self-billing flow includes payee approval, you can control whether a payee must approve the bill from the payee settings.
To enable payee approval:
- Search for the payee.
- Open the Settings tab.
- Enable Request for payee approval.
When the setting is enabled:
- The payee receives an email with a PDF of the bill
- The bill moves to Pending payee approval
When the setting is disabled:
- The bill moves to Pending payee invoice
- An AP processor must select Mark invoice as received to move the bill forward
Release a self-billed invoice
Self-billed invoices are released, not submitted.
To release a bill, complete the bill and click Release.
After release, the bill status depends on your self-billing configuration:
- No approval: The bill moves directly to Pending payment
- Internal approval only: The bill moves to Pending approval
- Payee approval only: The bill moves to Pending payee approval or Pending payee invoice
- Internal + payee approval: Internal approval happens first, then payee approval, before the bill reaches Pending payment
Auto-release behavior
Auto-release settings determine whether bills move directly into the approval flow or first require AP review.
- If auto-release is enabled: Bills move directly into the configured approval flow
- If auto-release is disabled: Bills first move to Pending review
Supported and unsupported actions
Supported actions
Self-billed invoices support the following actions:
- Download invoice after the bill is first saved
- Mark as approved for internal approval flows
- Mark invoice as received for payee approval flows
- Remind payee to send an email reminder
- Cancel payee approval request to move the bill to Pending AP action
Unsupported actions
Self-billed invoices do not support the following actions:
- Dispute bill
- Delete invoice image
- Replace approver
Additional configuration
GL account selection
If enabled, GL account selection may appear in:
- Digital bills CSV files
- The bill details screen
- Approval request emails
- The bill approval screen
US source and additional withholding
Line-level US source percentage and additional withholding are available only in self-billing flows.
Two fields are available for each bill line:
- US source % — the percentage of the line treated as US-source income and used to calculate withholding
- Additional withholding — a fixed amount withheld on the line in addition to any amount calculated from the US source percentage
If neither field is populated, Tipalti uses the withholding settings defined at the payee level.
You can also set these values through your CSV bills file or the API. See the developer documentation.
Bill coding preferences in Mass Payments flows
If your account uses Mass Payments flows, bill coding preferences apply at bill creation rather than during review. How mandatory fields behave depends on your flow type.
| Flow type | How mandatory fields apply |
|---|---|
| No approval | All mandatory fields must be provided at bill creation (via API or CSV file). Missing mandatory fields cause bill creation to fail with an error. |
| Self-billing with payee approval | Same as no approval — all mandatory fields must be provided at creation. |
| Self-billing with internal approval | Fields mandatory for bill processors must be provided at creation. Fields mandatory for bill approvers can be left blank at creation but must be completed during approval. |
Post-approval editing is not supported for Mass Payments flows.
To configure coding preferences, see Configure bill structure and coding.
Track bill progression
After release, you can track self-billed invoices using the same tracking tools available for standard bills.
- Status updates
- Approval queues
- Activity and audit history