How do I record an amount I paid to a contractor for a project?

Last verified: October 13, 2026اقرأه بالعربيّة

What you will do

You record, in a payment voucher, an amount you paid to a contractor for one or more items in a project. For each item, you enter the contractor cost, which is what you paid them. Along with it, you enter the work value for the customer, which is what you charge the customer for this work. Depending on your settings, the voucher is recorded as paid the moment you save it, or it is saved as pending until it is approved and then its payment is confirmed. Until the voucher becomes paid, no money leaves the treasury, and nothing enters the project figures, the contractor's account, or what the customer owes.

Before you start

The contractor carries out an item in the project. Assign the item to them from Edit values in the project. A contractor who hasn't been assigned an item doesn't appear in the contractor list when you pay from the project page.
Know whether your payment vouchers need approval. This is a general setting for your company, and each project can override it. See "Is the voucher paid the moment you save it?" below.
Know which treasury the amount left from, if your company has more than one treasury.

Steps

The shortest way starts from the project page. There, the project is filled in automatically, and the contractor list shows only the contractors who carry out its items:

Open the project page.
Click Record a payment, then choose Contractor payment voucher. A drawer opens titled Add Contractor Payment Voucher.
Type the contractor's name in Select Contractor, or choose them from the list.
Choose the item from Main Item. If Sub Item and then Sub-Sub Item appear after it, choose from them down to the last level. Three figures then appear under the item: Contractor Due Amount, then Contractor Paid Amount, then Contractor Remaining Amount. The due amount is the contractor's contract value for the whole item, not what they have earned up to today.
In Contractor Cost, type the amount you paid them for this item. Before that, look at Contractor Remaining Amount: the system doesn't stop you from paying more than it. If you pay more than it, Contractor Remaining Amount shows a negative figure.
Review Work Value (Customer). The system fills it in automatically, and it follows what you type in Contractor Cost. It is calculated from the ratio of the item's value for the customer to its value for the contractor in the BOQ. If you want a different figure, type it in, and automatic calculation stops for this item. If the BOQ is missing the item's customer price or its contractor price, type the value yourself.
If you paid for more than one item at the same time, click Add Item, and repeat steps 4 to 6.
Check the Voucher date. It is filled with today's date automatically. The voucher date is the day the work is accrued. If the voucher doesn't need approval, it is also the day the money leaves the treasury. So if that day has already passed, choose it instead of today's date. A future date isn't accepted.
Leave Funding source on From the treasury. If an employee paid the amount from their custody (employee petty cash), choose From an employee custody, then choose the custody from Choose a custody.
If a Treasury field appears, choose the treasury the amount left from. This field appears only if your company has more than one treasury. The default treasury is already selected in it.
Type a Description if you want.
Review the totals at the bottom of the form: Contractor Cost, Work Value (Customer) and Profit.
Click Save at the bottom of the drawer.

⚠️ Work Value (Customer) is what you charge the customer for this work. It doesn't leave the treasury. But it is added to the customer's Due now on the day the voucher becomes paid. Supervision fees and taxes, if any, are included with it.

Enter in it the value of only the part of the work that this payment covers, not the value of the whole item. Otherwise, you will charge the customer for the item's value more than once.

If the payment is an advance to the contractor before the work is carried out, the Work Value (Customer) you enter is charged to the customer on the day the voucher becomes paid, even if the work hasn't been carried out yet.

Profit is the difference between the two figures. If it becomes negative, a warning appears, so make sure you didn't type one figure in place of the other.

Other ways to the same voucher

From the sidebar: Payments → Contractor payment voucher → Add Contractor Payment Voucher. First choose the contractor from Select Contractor, then the project from Select Project. Then continue from step 4, and at the end click Save Data. After saving, you return to the voucher list.
From any screen: Quick vouchers → Payment to contractor. First choose the contractor, then their project from Projects of this party. To record several vouchers in a row, click Save and another.
From the dashboard: the Contractor Payment Voucher step in Finish setting up opens the same add page.

If Progress-claim mode (by %) appears for you, it is an alternative to entering amounts. In it, you enter a Cumulative claimed (%) for each item, and the system calculates the two amounts. This mode appears only if it has been enabled for your company.

And if a Settlement field appears at the top of the form, the steps above are for the Direct — cost on line items option. The On account — payment against the party's balance option is a payment without items, and you enter its amount in Payment amount.

Is the voucher paid the moment you save it?

It depends on your settings. You find the general setting in Settings → Operations → Payment vouchers require approval and payment confirmation. Each project can override it: in the project, open the Project settings tab → Project overrides → Voucher approval & payment. Then choose Follow general setting, Yes or No. What you choose in the project overrides the general setting.

If approval isn't required: the voucher is recorded as paid the moment you save it, and the amount leaves the treasury on the voucher date. You don't need any step after saving.
If approval is required: the voucher is saved with the status Pending, and no money moves. Then someone who has the permission completes it with these steps:

Open the voucher with Show from the sidebar: Payments → Contractor payment voucher.
Choose Approved from Select invoice status, under Invoice Actions.
Click Save Data. The voucher status becomes Approved, but it hasn't been paid yet.
Choose the Payment method.
Choose the Treasury if it appears.
Check the Payment date. It is the day the amount actually left. A date before the Voucher date isn't accepted, and neither is a future date.
Click Confirm payment. Only now does the voucher status become Paid. The amount appears as leaving the treasury on the Payment date you chose, not on the day you clicked.

To reject the voucher, choose Rejected instead of Approved in step 15, then click Save Data. In that case, nothing moves.

What changes after you save

The drawer stays open after the success message, with an empty form for another voucher. The voucher appears in the project's Financial transactions tab. It also appears in the Contractor payment voucher list with its status: Pending, Approved or Paid.
The following happens only when the voucher becomes paid, immediately or after Confirm payment:
- Treasury: if the payment is From the treasury, the Balance in All Treasuries decreases, and the amount appears in the Treasury Statement under Out. If it is From an employee custody, the custody balance decreases. As for the treasury, the money leaves it only once: on the day the custody was handed over, or on the day of this payment, depending on your company's setting.
- Project, Overview tab: in Project financial snapshot, under Executed so far, Paid to executors increases by the contractor cost. Value of executed work increases by the work value for the customer. Supervision fees earned increases by the supervision percentage of the work value for the customer, if supervision is enabled on the item. So Actual Profit increases by the work value for the customer and its supervision fees, and decreases by the contractor cost.
- Customer balance: Due now increases, in the project and on the customer page, by the work value for the customer and its supervision fees. If the project has taxes, added tax increases it, and tax withheld at source decreases it.
- Item: the item's Actual Expenses increases in the Construction Items tab, Summary view. Expected Profit, however, doesn't change, because it is calculated from the BOQ prices.
- Contractor: on the contractor page, Projects tab, Paid Amount increases and Remaining Amount decreases for this project. The voucher appears in the Invoices History tab.
- After that, the item's contractor can't be changed in Edit values, because the item has a paid voucher.
- Journal: an automatic journal entry appears for the voucher: a cost on the project against the treasury or the custody. Don't record a manual entry for it, or the amount will be counted twice in the accounts.
- Commissions: if the project has a marketer or broker on commission, their commission is recalculated.

To print the voucher

Open the voucher from the Contractor payment voucher list with Show, then click Print invoice. If you want a space for the contractor to sign for receipt, check Signature lines.

If you made a mistake in a voucher

The voucher is Pending: open it with Show, and choose Rejected for it from Select invoice status. Then record another, correct voucher.
The voucher is paid: open it with Show, and click Cancel / reverse voucher. Then type the reason for cancelling; it is required. The voucher stays in the list with the status Cancelled. Its effect is removed from the treasury, the contractor and the project, and from the customer's Due now. Its entry disappears from the Journal. Then record the voucher again, correctly.

A voucher that has an entry in a closed accounting period can't be cancelled. And a progress claim can't be cancelled if another progress claim was issued after it on the same item, so cancel the latest one first.

Permission you need

You are the account owner, so you have all permissions. If you want an employee to act on your behalf, grant their level these permissions from the Payments & Financial Vouchers group:

Add Contractor Payment Voucher to record the voucher.
View Contractor Payment Vouchers and View Contractor Payment Details together, so they can see the list and open the voucher.
If your vouchers need approval: Change Contractor Payment Status to approve, and Mark Contractor Payment As Paid to confirm payment. Each of these also needs Edit Contractor Payment Voucher. Without it, saving is refused.
To cancel a paid voucher: Mark Contractor Payment As Paid and Delete Contractor Payment Voucher together.

For approval to serve its purpose, don't grant the same employee both adding a voucher and approving it.

If you can't find the button or saving is refused

You can't find Contractor payment voucher under Record a payment: your account doesn't have Add Contractor Payment Voucher.
"No contractor is assigned to this project…", or you can't find the contractor in the list: the contractor hasn't been assigned an item in this project. Assign an item to them from Edit values.
"This contractor has no projects": the contractor doesn't carry out any item. This depends on your settings: if you turn off Limit contractor voucher lists to the contractor's own projects and items in the Operations settings, all projects and items appear on the add page.
A message appeared asking you to choose the item: you didn't choose the item down to the last level. So choose the Sub Item or the Sub-Sub Item.
"The accounting period is closed through…": the voucher date falls in a period that was closed in Accounting Periods. Choose a date after it, or ask the accountant to reopen the period.
The voucher is Pending and the treasury didn't change: your vouchers need approval and payment confirmation. Complete steps 14 to 20.
The treasury or custody balance doesn't block saving. If the balance isn't enough, it becomes negative and is shown that way. So check the treasury before paying.