Everything about accounts payable / suppliers
Manage your suppliers, link them to accounts payable, and automate expense account categorization from one central page.
For: Account Owners and Controllers on all plans (Autocat rules require the Standard plan or above).
Before you start
Roles: Account Owners and Controllers can create, edit, and archive suppliers and accounts payable.
Plans: All plans can manage suppliers and accounts payable. Autocat expense account rules require the Standard plan or above.
Setup needed: A supplier must receive at least one invoice request before you can edit its bank details.
Note: You cannot export your purchase journal if any payable is missing an accounts payable field. Set a default in Settings > Chart of accounts to avoid this.
Access the Accounts Payable page
Navigate to Settings > Accounts Payable.
Review the Accounts Payable table to view, search, and manage all suppliers.
Select a supplier row to open its Supplier Panel.
💡 Tip: Use the search bar in the Accounts Payable table to find a supplier by name instead of scrolling through the full list.
Create and manage suppliers
Navigate to Settings > Accounts Payable.
Click "Create a new supplier."
Enter the supplier's legal name and bank details.
Enter the accounts payable information.
Click "Save" to store the supplier.
Requesters can also add a supplier's bank details while submitting an invoice request:
Navigate to New Request > Supplier invoice.
Enter the new supplier's name and available bank details.
Submit the request. An Account Owner or Controller completes any missing details later.
👥 Roles: Invoice validation in Invoices > Review requires complete supplier details, including bank information for eurozone suppliers. Missing bank details block SEPA transfer and XML file generation.
Associate suppliers with accounts payable
You can link a supplier to an accounts payable account in three places:
During invoice review: navigate to Invoices > Review, open the invoice, and select the "..." menu next to the supplier's name.
During monthly closing: navigate to Bookkeep > Prepare. If no accounts payable is linked to a payable, Spendesk prompts you to create or associate one.
From the supplier's profile: navigate to Settings > Accounts Payable, select the supplier, and edit the "Accounting" section.
Once you link a supplier to an accounts payable account, Spendesk applies that link automatically to future transactions from the same supplier.
You can also:
Assign one accounts payable account to a single supplier.
Use one accounts payable account for multiple suppliers.
Edit supplier bank details
Navigate to Settings > Accounts Payable.
Select the supplier you want to update.
Click the "Edit" icon next to the bank details section.
Update the bank information.
Click "Save."
Spendesk applies updated bank details automatically to that supplier's next scheduled invoice payment.
Account Owners and Controllers can also view the history of bank detail changes:
Navigate to Expenditures > Invoices > Review.
Open an invoice from the relevant supplier.
Click "View history" to see who changed the bank details and when.
⚠️ Warning: Anyone with access to the Accounts Payable page can currently edit a supplier's bank details. There is no built-in approval step for these changes. Restrict access to this page to trusted roles only.
Automate expense accounts with Autocat
Autocat pre-fills the expense account for a payable based on the linked supplier. Set it up in one of two ways.
From the supplier's profile:
Navigate to Settings > Accounts Payable.
Select the supplier you want to set a rule for.
Click the "Edit" icon under the "Accounting" section.
Select the expense account to link to the supplier.
From Bookkeep > Prepare:
Navigate to Bookkeep > Prepare.
Select an expense account for a payable whose supplier has no existing rule.
Click "Create a rule" when prompted.
You can edit or remove any Autocat rule from Settings > Accounts Payable at any time.
Special cases for accounts payable
Card purchases
Define a generic accounts payable account for card purchases in Settings > Chart of accounts > Supplier accounts.
By default, card suppliers are assigned to a generic miscellaneous accounts payable account (for example, Miscellaneous - 401000/DIVERS).
If you define a specific accounts payable account for a supplier (for example, 401GOOGLE), it overrides the default.
Default accounts payable accounts
Default accounts payable accounts (used automatically for card purchases) cannot be deleted from the Accounts Payable page or from Settings > Chart of accounts.
Troubleshooting
Symptom: You cannot edit a supplier's bank details.
Cause: The supplier has not yet received an invoice request and is not an "invoice supplier."
Resolution: Submit at least one invoice request for this supplier. Bank detail editing becomes available after the first request.
Symptom: You cannot delete an accounts payable account.
Cause: The account is a default accounts payable account (no trash icon appears next to it).
Resolution: Default accounts payable accounts cannot be deleted. You can only delete non-default accounts you created.
Symptom: An invoice shows the wrong supplier, and you cannot change it directly on the invoice.
Cause: Spendesk restricts supplier changes on invoices to prevent payments going to the wrong supplier or bank account.
Resolution: Contact Spendesk support to correct the supplier assignment, or create a corrected invoice with the right supplier.