Pay a supplier or an expense with a payment voucher

Q: Which payment type do I choose?

Against voucher to pay named bills of one supplier (the bills' Due amount falls); Advance or Supplier to pay a supplier with no bill named; Other for rent, salaries, a loan repayment and anything that is not a supplier.

Q: I paid a supplier but the bill still shows Unpaid .

The payment was made as Advance , Supplier or Other , so it names no bill. The supplier's balance is right; to mark the bill paid, pay Against voucher instead ( Pay a supplier and what clears what ).

Q: Can I pay more than the bill?

Only if your company switched on Over payment receipt applicable . Otherwise the payment plus any TDS cannot exceed the bill's outstanding amount: pay the bill against it and the rest as an Advance .

Q: The cash account went below zero.

The screen does not check the balance. Look at Pay from 's balance before you pay.

Q: I wrote a cheque the bank should pay next week.

Record a Cheque with transaction type Payment and deposit it on the date; the deposit makes the payment voucher ( Record and deposit cheques ).

A payment voucher records money going out of a cash or bank account to one or more ledgers. It credits the account the money left and debits each ledger it went to. Against an invoice it clears the invoice; the TDS you hold back can be entered with it.

Accounting Cash and bank vouchers
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026

For Cashier Accountant

On this page

What it does
Make a payment
What the screen checks
After saving
Common questions

What it does

A payment voucher records money going out. It is the voucher for paying suppliers (Pay a supplier and what clears what) and for paying anything else: rent, a bill, a person, a refund. The money leaves one cash or bank account and goes to one or more ledgers.

Open Payment Voucher (menu Payment Voucher). The list shows the Voucher no, Date, Reference Voucher, Pay from, Paid account, Amount and TDS amount, and an Approved or Pending status when your company uses approval for vouchers.

Make a payment

Choose Add
Who
Cashier or accountant
Where
Payment voucher > Add. With more than one payment series for your branch, choose the series first.
What changes
Add payment voucher opens.
Choose the payment type
What changes
Payment types: Against voucher (pays named invoices of one supplier), Advance, Supplier, or Other. The Payment/Receipt mode (cash, cheque and so on) shows where your company switched it on.
Needs
A type and an account before you can add lines.
Choose where the money came from
What changes
Pay from is the cash or bank account. It lists only cash and bank accounts, unless your company allows any ledger. Currency, Cheque No and Cheque date for a cheque, Project/Business Unit, and a Reference Voucher (up to 20 characters).
Add the lines
What changes
Add a line for each ledger paid: Pay to (suppliers, accounts that are both customer and supplier, and other ledgers), Sub ledger, the Payment amount and a Narration. For Against voucher the screen lists the supplier's unpaid bills with Bill amount, Due days, Outstanding amount, TDS amount and Current pay: type the amount for each bill you are paying, and the TDS you are holding back if any (Deduct TDS when you book or pay an expense).
Needs
An amount above 0 on every line. A ledger can be on the voucher only once. Pay plus TDS cannot be more than the bill's outstanding amount, unless your company switched on Over payment receipt applicable (the same setting as for receipts).
Save
What changes
"Payment voucher (number) saved successfully." The account goes down, the ledgers paid go down (you owe the supplier less).

What a payment voucher changes

Area	Change
Cash or bank account	Goes down by the total paid
Each ledger paid	Goes down for a supplier (you owe less); an expense account is debited
An invoice	Only a payment against it lowers its Due amount (Pay a supplier and what clears what)
Stock	Nothing
IRD	Nothing: payments are not sent to the IRD

Worked example: one cheque for two bills, one of them in part

XYZ Suppliers has two unpaid bills: bill A with 30,000 outstanding and bill B with 20,000. You send one cheque of 40,000 from your bank. On Add payment voucher choose Against voucher, Pay from the bank account, the Cheque No and Cheque date, then add a line with Pay to XYZ Suppliers. The screen lists both bills:

Bill	Outstanding amount	Current pay	Afterwards on the invoice list
A	30,000	30,000	Due amount 0, Paid
B	20,000	10,000	Due amount 10,000, Partial

The bank goes down by 40,000 and you owe XYZ Suppliers 40,000 less. Next time you pay XYZ Suppliers, bill B is offered with 10,000 outstanding. Typing 25,000 against bill B would be refused: "The amount could not be greater than the outstanding amount", unless your company switched on Over payment receipt applicable.

What the screen checks

Check	Message
The date is before the fiscal year starts	The financial year for this transaction date has already been closed, so you are not allowed to make a transaction on this date.
No lines	Please provide data details to save the transaction.
The same ledger twice	Data related to this ledger on this voucher already exists.
An amount of 0	Transaction with zero (0) value not allowed.
More than a bill's outstanding amount	The amount could not be greater than the outstanding amount
A TDS amount with no TDS ledger	Please set the TDS ledger before giving the TDS amount
A foreign currency has no rate	Please set the rate for the currency selected.

The screen does not check that the account has enough money. The full list is in Messages you may see.

After saving

You want to	Do this
Print the cheque	Print payment cheque
Change it	Edit, until it is approved (where approval is on), reconciled with the bank or its year is locked (Change or delete a saved voucher)
Remove it	Delete, until it is reconciled or its year is locked. An approved payment is not deleted: correct it with a new voucher
Add many at once	Import from a spreadsheet (Import receipts, payments, contra and journals from a spreadsheet)
Pay a cheque later	Record a Cheque instead (Record and deposit cheques)

Common questions

Which payment type do I choose?

Against voucher to pay named bills of one supplier (the bills' Due amount falls); Advance or Supplier to pay a supplier with no bill named; Other for rent, salaries, a loan repayment and anything that is not a supplier.

I paid a supplier but the bill still shows Unpaid.

The payment was made as Advance, Supplier or Other, so it names no bill. The supplier's balance is right; to mark the bill paid, pay Against voucher instead (Pay a supplier and what clears what).

Can I pay more than the bill?

Only if your company switched on Over payment receipt applicable. Otherwise the payment plus any TDS cannot exceed the bill's outstanding amount: pay the bill against it and the rest as an Advance.

The cash account went below zero.

The screen does not check the balance. Look at Pay from's balance before you pay.

I wrote a cheque the bank should pay next week.

Record a Cheque with transaction type Payment and deposit it on the date; the deposit makes the payment voucher (Record and deposit cheques).