Help Center / Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable Overview

What is this page about: How Light's Accounts Payable module handles the full bill-to-payment workflow, from capturing a vendor bill through approval, payment, and settlement. Covers the modules and pages that make up AP, the tabs on the Bills list, every state a bill can move through, and the features that get a bill from inbox to paid. Written for anyone entering or approving bills, and for finance teams setting up or auditing the AP workflow.

Light's Accounts Payable module takes a vendor bill all the way from capture to settlement, through approval, payment, and reconciliation. This overview shows you the pages that make up AP, the tabs on the Bills list, every state a bill can move through, and the features that get it from inbox to paid.

On this page

  • Modules and pages in AP
  • Bills list tabs
  • Bill lifecycle states
  • Key features
  • Related articles

Modules and pages

AP is made up of six modules. Each has its own page in Light.

Module Path What it's for
Bills /payables Vendor bills (invoices you owe)
Reimbursements /reimbursements Employee expense reimbursements. Uses the same list and tab layout as Bills
Credit entries /credit-entries Credit notes from vendors, applied against one or more open bills
Vendors /vendors Vendor records and banking details
Purchase orders /procurement/purchase-orders POs that match against bills
Purchase requests Sidebar, under Spend management The request stage that precedes a PO

All six sit under Spend management in the Light sidebar. Spend management also includes Cards, which isn't part of AP but shares the same sidebar section.

Bills list tabs

The Bills page has five tabs.

Tab Shows
Inbox Newly ingested bills awaiting review or approval
Approving Bills currently in the approval flow
Scheduled Bills approved and ready for, or already in, payment
Paid Fully paid bills
Discarded Declined or cancelled bills

Bill lifecycle

A bill moves through 21 states from creation to settlement. You'll see the ones below reflected in Light's UI and in any exports that include a raw status field.

State Meaning
INIT Bill record initialised, before any data is added
CREATED Bill record created
IMPORT_PENDING Document uploaded, waiting on AI extraction
IN_DRAFT Draft, editable
APPROVAL_REQUESTED Sent for approval
APPROVAL_PENDING Awaiting approver action
DECLINED Rejected by an approver
APPROVED_ACCOUNTING_ENTRY_PENDING Approved; accounting entry being finalised
READY_FOR_PAYMENT_RELEASE Ready to release payment
PENDING_PAYMENT_APPROVAL Payment batch awaiting approval
PAYMENT_PAUSED Payment paused
RESET_PENDING Payment being reset to an earlier state
SCHEDULED Payment scheduled for a future date
PAYMENT_PENDING Payment initiated
PARTIALLY_PAID Partial payment matched
UNPAID Posted to the general ledger, not yet paid
PAID Fully paid
COMPLETED Settled
CANCELLATION_PENDING Cancellation in progress
CANCELLED Cancelled
DUPLICATED Flagged as a duplicate of an existing bill

Key features

  • Get a bill into Light through any of four routes: upload a PDF, image, or CSV; enter it manually; forward it to your bill inbox email address; or bring it in through a connected integration.
  • Skip manual data entry. Light's AI extraction reads vendor, dates, amounts, line items, and tax straight from an uploaded document.
  • Route approvals automatically. Bills go to assigned approvers, who approve or reject with one click, and every action is recorded in the approval log.
  • Pay in batches. Group bills together, set one payment date, send the batch for approval, then release it.
  • Run multiple entities and currencies from one workspace. Each bill has its own entity, and the currency you bill in and the currency you pay in are set independently, so a bill in EUR can be paid from a USD account.
  • Match bills to purchase orders to confirm what was ordered against what was billed.
  • Apply vendor credits to one or more open bills, instead of tracking them separately.
  • Reimburse employees through the same pipeline. Reimbursements run through AP as their own document type, on the same tabs and UI as bills.

Also searched as: accounts payable, AP module, bill pay, vendor bills, invoice payable, bill approval workflow, bill lifecycle states, AP automation, PO matching, expense reimbursement, vendor credits, multi-currency bill payment.

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