When a vendor invoice arrives, you create a bill on Aspire and link it to the relevant open PO. Aspire then tracks how much of the PO has been billed and paid, and automatically updates the PO status as bills come in.
Note: A single PO can be associated with multiple bills. However, each bill can only be linked to one PO.
Steps to Link a Bill to a PO
On your Aspire dashboard, go to "Spend" → "Bills" and create a new bill (or open a draft).
In the "Purchase Order" field, select from the list of Open POs.
Once a PO is selected:
The vendor information auto-populates
Line items from the PO are offered for auto-population on the bill
Complete and submit the bill through the normal bill approval flow.
Ensure that each line item of the bill is matched with the corresponding line item on the PO.
How PO Status Changes as Bills Are Added
Condition | PO Status |
PO created, no bills yet | Open |
Bills added but total < PO amount | Open |
Total billed amount = or > PO amount | Fulfilled |
A bill is rejected (reducing billed total) | PO reverts to Open if total drops below PO amount |
The PO detail view shows a visual progress bar:
Orange bar — total billed amount (drives the status change)
Green bar — total amount paid (from completed bill payments)