Incoming invoices | General

In the incoming invoices module you collect the invoices and credit notes of your suppliers. You link their lines to your projects, orders and supply orders, you pay them and you forward them to your accountant. Your bookkeeping itself does not take place in Robaws, but managing your incoming invoices in Robaws has quite a few benefits: you see your actual costs per project, and you know which invoices still have to be paid. The incoming invoices module is included in the Starter, Go and Pro licences. You give a user access via the permissions on incoming invoices in their user role.

Navigate quickly to:

• the overview of the incoming invoices
• getting an incoming invoice into Robaws
• journal, numbering and pro forma
• the incoming invoice file
• paying an incoming invoice
• sending to your accountant
• credit notes
• acceptance flow and confidential invoices
• the action buttons

Overview screen

You can adjust the overview of the incoming invoices via the settings: which columns you want, in which order, which quick filters? In addition, every user can create their own overviews and personalise them. For example, you create an overview of all incoming invoices received via Peppol, or of the invoices that still have to be paid. Via the overview screen you can make bulk changes to several incoming invoices at once.

Useful columns include Outstanding amount, Due date, To accountant, Acceptance status and Origin: it shows whether an invoice came in via Peppol, the Robawsbox or manually. If an invoice has a status in which it can expire, the Status column shows how many days it has been overdue, for example 'To be paid (12d)'. Credit notes count negatively in the totals.

Views

Besides the table view, the overview of the incoming invoices has two more views:

• Kanban: your incoming invoices as cards, in a column per status. At the top of every column you see the total excluding VAT.
• Analysis: your purchases over time. You only see this view if your user role is allowed to see financial info and analyses.

Getting an incoming invoice into Robaws

Robaws reads in an xml file or an invoice via Peppol completely. Robaws only reads in a PDF if you work with OCR recognition. Otherwise you get an incoming invoice with only the PDF, and you fill in the details yourself.

If the same invoice comes in twice via the Robawsbox, Robaws stops the second one by default and notifies the administrators. If you fill in an Invoice Nr. yourself that already exists for that supplier on that date, you get the message 'Number already exists'.

Journal, numbering and pro forma

Every incoming invoice belongs to a purchase journal. The journal determines the company and the numbering of your incoming invoices and credit notes. You set up your journals via Settings > General, at Master data > Financial > Journals.

• If you create an incoming invoice yourself and you have several purchase journals, you choose the journal at Add.
• For invoices via the Robawsbox, you choose the journal per mailbox in the settings.

If Automatic booking is switched on for the journal, a new incoming invoice immediately gets its definitive number. If it is switched off, the invoice starts as a pro forma, with the number PROFORMA. With the Book action button you then give it its definitive number. The date of the invoice stays the same.

As long as an incoming invoice has not been booked, you can still change the Type (invoice or credit note) and the Journal on the file.

The incoming invoice file

Invoice info

If you work with extra fields, they also appear in this block.

Supplier info and document

On the right you see the bank account, the VAT number and the billing remarks from the supplier file. That way you quickly check whether everything is correct. If the invoice shows a different account number than the supplier file, you see the message Bank account mismatch. With a payment via Robaws, Robaws always uses the bank account of the supplier. With the button next to it you update it.

Below that is the document: a PDF or an image. If the invoice came in electronically without a PDF, Robaws shows an invoice image, built from the data in the file.

Items

Here you find the invoice lines. You can link every line to a project, an order, a supply order, a post, equipment or an activity, and to a GL account for your accounting. That way your costs end up in the recalculation of the correct project. With the cross next to the project, you keep a line out of the recalculation.

At the bottom you fill in the Total vat incl. of the paper invoice. If it does not match the sum of the lines, the button next to it aligns the lines with that total.

Remarks, Documents, Tasks, History

Here you communicate internally about the invoice, add files and create a task. In History you see who approved or rejected the invoice.

Paying

The Outstanding amount is the total of the invoice minus what has already been paid or credited.

• With a payment file: select the invoices in the overview, click the Pay incoming invoices action button and export the payment file. You import it at your bank. See Creating a payment file
• Via Ponto: if you work with the Ponto integration, you choose Send to Ponto at the same action button.
• Registering yourself: click the Outstanding amount, choose Simple registration and fill in the date and the amount. Or set the invoice to your Paid status: Robaws then registers a payment for the full outstanding amount.

If you paid outside Robaws and you have an integration with your accounting package or your bank, the payments reach the invoice by themselves. You see all your bank transactions via the Payments action button in the overview.

As soon as an invoice has been paid in full, it gets the Paid status from the settings. If it has only been paid in part, it gets the Partially paid status.

Sending to your accountant

Robaws sends your incoming invoices to your accountant as a UBL file: with the PDF and all details of the invoice in it.

• If your accounting package is linked, or you send your UBLs to your accountant by email, you click the Send to accountant action button. See Sending your incoming and sales invoices to the accountant
• If you work without an integration, you download the UBLs in a zip file with the UBL action button.

Which of these buttons you see, you set at UBL download and UBL e-mail in the settings.

Robaws only forwards an incoming invoice if it has been booked, has a supplier and an Invoice Nr., and if the total matches the lines. An invoice that has already gone to your accountant gets the warning 'Attention! This invoice has already been sent to the accountant.' at the top.

Credit notes

You add a credit note from your supplier with Add credit note (−) in the overview, or it comes in via Peppol or the Robawsbox. A credit note has two extra fields:

• Linked invoice: which incoming invoice the credit note corrects.
• Deduct from: from which incoming invoice the amount is deducted. The outstanding amount of that invoice then decreases by the amount of the credit note.

You cannot include a credit note in a payment file.

Acceptance flow and confidential invoices

With an acceptance flow you have an incoming invoice approved first before you pay it. You set it up at Master data in the settings. An invoice that has not been approved yet cannot be included in a payment file or sent to Ponto.

A confidential incoming invoice is only visible to the users who are allowed to see it according to their user role, and to the approvers of that invoice. If a supplier is confidential, their new incoming invoices are confidential too.

Action buttons

In the overview screen

For most action buttons in the overview, you first tick the incoming invoices on the left on which you want to perform the action.

On the incoming invoice file

At the top of the incoming invoice file there is a row of action buttons. The name of an action button appears as soon as you hover over it with your mouse.

Updated on: 09/11/2026