Recording a supplier invoice in SamBooks

How a supplier invoice reaches SamBooks — through SDI, by hand or from a PDF — and how you check it, assign the account and post it to the journal.

What this is for

This guide follows a purchase invoice (also called a supplier invoice or, in Italy, a fattura passiva) all the way through SamBooks: how it arrives, how the supplier is recognised, what you have to check, how you assign an account to each line, and what posting produces — the journal entry, the VAT purchase register protocol number and the payment due date.

You will find them under Purchase invoices in the left-hand menu; the page itself is titled Supplier invoices, and the two names mean the same thing.

Before you start

• The supplier: an invoice that arrives through SDI brings its own supplier record, created from the document; entering one by hand means picking a supplier from your address book (Managing suppliers). Posting then requires a cost account on every line (Chart of accounts).
• Automatic reception requires the company to be set up on the SDI channel (SDI code and tax drawer).
• Who can do it: the Manager and Administrative roles create and post invoices, a Viewer can only read them. Companies on the Italian flat-rate scheme do not see the purchase cycle in the menu at all (Tax regimes RF01 and RF19).

Step by step

1. Open the invoice under «Purchase invoices»

The list shows Supplier number, Document date, Reception date, Supplier, Total, Self-invoice and Status, with four filters — Status, Period, Supplier and Self-invoice (the Foreign / requires self-invoice option) — and Clear to reset them. Click a row to open the invoice; if it is not there yet, New supplier invoice at the top right opens the entry page.

2. Check the document data

The Details tab shows the document exactly as the supplier filled it in: Supplier number, TipoDocumento, Issuer tax regime, the Lines with quantity, unit price, VAT rate or nature and taxable amount, and the Totals card down to Document total. This is the supplier's own data and it is not something to "adjust" until the figures look right: if an amount is wrong, ask the supplier for a credit note.

3. Assign an account to every line

This is the step that unlocks posting. Under the lines, in the same tab, sits the Account & accrual period section with one card per line: where SamBooks has proposed an account, press Accept; where the proposal does not convince you, use Change account to pick another one from the chart of accounts; where you read No account assigned, choose it yourself.

The same card holds the Accrual period (Select period or Linked to asset) and the Catalog item code, the matching product or service in your catalogue. If the line carries a supplier code, a small panel offers to reconcile it: confirm the match once and, from the next invoice of that supplier onwards, the same code resolves on its own and brings the cost account with it.

4. Link orders and delivery notes, if any

In the Accounting tab, the Recognized references card lists the orders and delivery notes quoted by the supplier, each with its status (Not found, To confirm, Ambiguous, Linked): Resolve automatically tries to attach them for you, while Attach DNs/orders opens the searchable lists of that supplier's delivery notes and orders. This step is optional, but it has to happen before posting.

5. Press «Confirm and post»

Press Confirm and post in the action bar at the top. While any line is still without an account the button stays disabled and the tooltip says why: "Assign an account to every line before posting." When it succeeds you read "Invoice posted to the journal." and the status becomes Posted.

The three ways an invoice arrives

Through SDI, automatically

This is the normal case for Italian invoices. When the supplier transmits the electronic invoice, SamBooks receives it and creates it with no action on your part: you find it in the list as a Draft, complete with lines, VAT summary and due dates, the original file stored and an account already proposed on each line. The Document tab shows where it came from ("Received via SDI on …"), lets you download the file with Download original XML and lists the SDI events underneath.

By hand, with or without the XML

Press New supplier invoice. Two upload boxes sit at the top of the page:

• Upload the FatturaPA XML to fill everything — for an XML file you received some other way (certified email, tax drawer), signed .p7m files included: header, lines, VAT, due dates and linked documents fill themselves in, and the file stays attached to the invoice exactly as if it had come through SDI.
• Upload PDF or image to fill via OCR — the third route, described below.

Filling the form by hand, the required fields are Supplier, Document number, Document date and Reception date, plus at least one line with a description: while any of them is missing, Create supplier invoice stays disabled without telling you which one. Document type starts on the ordinary invoice and can be switched to the documents a supplier actually issues (credit note, debit note, professional fee note, simplified and deferred invoices); self-invoices TD16 to TD21 are deliberately absent, because you never receive one — they are generated from an existing invoice instead.

Below the lines you get Payments and due dates plus three collapsible cards — Withholding and stamp duty, Social security fund, Linked documents. If the supplier has payment terms on file, the instalment is proposed for you.

From a PDF or a photo (OCR)

This is the route for a supplier who sends a PDF or a scan instead of an XML file, which is common with foreign suppliers. Use Upload PDF or image to fill via OCR: it accepts PDF, JPEG and PNG, scans the file for viruses before storing and reading it, then pre-fills the fields ("Document processed: fields pre-filled.") and flags anything it is unsure about in a warning box. Automatic reading is help, not a signature: always review the fields before saving, above all the total, the VAT rates and the dates.

How the supplier is recognised

The main key is the VAT number: when it matches a supplier in your address book, the link is immediate. On invoices coming through SDI, if no supplier matches by VAT number or tax code, SamBooks creates the record from the document's own data; in the supplier list the newcomer is marked in the Origin column as Auto from SDI.

With documents read from a PDF the behaviour is deliberately cautious: when the VAT number is missing — often the case with non-EU suppliers — SamBooks tries to match the name, but only attaches the supplier if exactly one candidate exists. With none or several it refuses to guess and shows "Supplier not recognized: select it manually.": pick the supplier yourself in the Supplier field, or create the record and come back to the invoice.

What posting produces

• Journal entry. A double-entry record is created: the costs on the debit side (one per account, following each line's accrual period) together with input VAT, the payable to the supplier on the credit side — on a different account depending on whether the supplier is Italian, EU or non-EU — and any withholding tax to the tax authority. From the Accounting tab, Open entry takes you straight to it (Recording journal entries).
• VAT purchase register. The invoice receives a sequential protocol number, shown in the Accounting tab under the posting confirmation: it is the number under which the document enters the register and feeds the VAT settlement.
• Payment due dates. They are created with the invoice, not with the posting: as soon as the document is received or saved, its instalments become open items, and where the document lists none a single due date is created on the document date. You will find them in the Due dates and open items and close them when you pay (Recording a payment). After payment the invoice stays Posted: it never turns into "Paid", it is the open item that closes.
• Stock: nothing at all. This is the rule that surprises people most. A purchase invoice does not move stock, neither on reception nor on posting: quantities and average cost change only through the purchase delivery note, at the moment you issue it. If you have both goods and invoice but stock has not moved, what is missing is the issued delivery note.

Statuses, going back, and credit notes

The Status filter lists six values, but day to day you meet two: Draft (received or entered, not yet posted) and Posted. Confirmed only shows up after you have reversed a posting.

• Back to draft — in the detail action bar and as a row icon — takes a Posted or Confirmed invoice backwards: on a posted one the dialog warns that the linked journal entry will be deleted and that posting will have to be done again from scratch. It is disabled ("Reverse the linked self-invoice first.") when a reverse-charge self-invoice has already been generated from the invoice. Once posted, the header is no longer editable; the account and accrual period of each line still are.
• Delete draft appears only on a draft ("Delete the draft?"): a posted invoice has to go back to draft first. In the same bar, Download PDF offers the SamBooks template and the AdE model, and Regularize omitted invoice covers the opposite situation, the supplier who never sent the invoice at all.

A credit note from a supplier — the reversal of an invoice you received — is to all effects a purchase invoice: it arrives through SDI like the others, or you enter it by hand with the matching document type, and it is posted the same way, with the journal entry reversed in sign. The same holds for a debit note.

What is not possible today

• Setting partial VAT deductibility on a line. On a purchase invoice, VAT is always treated as fully deductible: no field anywhere — not in the form, not in the XML import, not in the PDF reading, not by asking Sam — lets you declare a different percentage. That field does exist on expense notes, where the percentage is set when the note is created.
• Attaching an order or a delivery note after posting: go back to draft, attach, post again.

Ask Sam

Everything described here can also be asked of Sam in the chat panel on the right: the two routes are equivalent, not two different features.

• "Create a purchase invoice from supplier Rossi, number 128 dated 3 March, €1,000 plus 22% VAT."
• "Post supplier invoice 128 to the journal." — this is also the sentence that the Post to journal button in the Accounting tab writes for you; Sam shows you the debit/credit entry before posting it, and you confirm.
• "Reverse the posting of supplier invoice 128 and take it back to draft." · "Change the account on line 2."

You can also attach the invoice PDF to Sam: it reads the document and proposes the data, but creating the invoice remains your confirmation (the Sam assistant). And next to the chat there is always the manual route: on a confirmed invoice, Post manually opens a dialog with the VAT date field, which decides in which VAT settlement the tax is deducted.

If something goes wrong

• «Confirm and post» is greyed out. At least one line has no account: in Details, look for the card that reads No account assigned. Posting from the chat or from the manual dialog, the error lists the lines still uncovered.
• A line asks for a fixed asset. On a depreciable fixed-asset account, the line shows Line on a fixed asset with a Link asset button: until you link the asset, posting is refused. If the cost is not really an asset, change the account.
• Posting refused because of the period. If the VAT date falls in a period already settled, or in a closed financial year, the operation is blocked with a message naming the period and suggesting the first one still open.
• Other blocks. With purchase control switched on (it is off by default), an invoice deviating from its order beyond tolerance has to be approved in the control panel first. On top of that sits the invoice allowance of your subscription plan — reception through SDI, on the other hand, never stops.
• «Back to draft» is refused. This happens when a due date has already been paid or a bank transaction is reconciled to the document: undo the payment or the reconciliation first, then reverse the posting.
• The reverse-charge notice. On foreign invoices, or lines under reverse charge, a notice — not an error — invites you to record the document as it is: the self-invoice or VAT integration (TD16-TD21) is proposed afterwards, from the invoice detail. If instead the purchase is VAT-free under a letter of intent, the Plafond usage card appears after posting (habitual exporter and VAT plafond).

Frequently asked questions

A supplier invoice arrived through SDI — what do I have to do? Nothing to receive it: it is already under Purchase invoices as a Draft. Open it, check the data, assign an account to each line and press Confirm and post.

Can I upload the supplier's PDF and have the invoice fill itself in? Yes, with Upload PDF or image to fill via OCR (PDF, JPEG, PNG): the fields are pre-filled and stay editable. With the XML file, the box next to it fills in even more.

The supplier was not recognised — what now? It happens with PDFs when the VAT number is missing or more than one candidate matches: SamBooks will not guess. Pick the supplier in the Supplier field, or create the record if it is not there yet.

Why can't I post the supplier invoice? An account is missing on some line (the button stays grey); a line sits on a fixed-asset account with no asset linked; the VAT date falls in a settled period or a closed year; the order-to-invoice control has flagged a deviation.

How do I set partial VAT deductibility on a purchase invoice? You cannot, today: VAT is always treated as 100% deductible and there is no field for a different percentage. On expense notes, by contrast, the percentage can be set.

Does a purchase invoice move stock? Never. Stock intake and average-cost recalculation happen when the purchase delivery note is issued. The invoice moves accounting, VAT and due dates.

Related guides

• The purchase order — it comes before goods and invoice: the supplier quotes it, and you attach it from the Accounting tab with «Attach DNs/orders».
• Managing suppliers · Chart of accounts — records and cost accounts.
• Recording journal entries — the entry posting creates.
• Due dates and open items · Recording a payment · Reconciling bank transactions — paying the supplier.
• SDI code and tax drawer · Habitual exporter and VAT plafond · The Sam assistant.