Paying food and beverage suppliers in parts
How a kitchen or bar should record supplier bills line by line, approve them, and pay them in full or in parts from the right bank account.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
Every morning the deliveries arrive at the back door: the butcher, the greengrocer, the dairy, the beverage wholesaler, the bakery. Each leaves an invoice, and by the end of the week there is a stack of them on a spike by the pass, some stained, some missing. Several suppliers are on account and expect to be paid in parts when cash allows; a few want paying on delivery.
When those invoices are not recorded properly, the kitchen loses track of what it owes, pays the same invoice twice, or misses a payment and finds the next delivery on hold. This article explains how a restaurant, bar, hotel kitchen or caterer in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya can record, approve and pay supplier bills in Achekam.
Record each bill line by line
A business records supplier bills line by line, with VAT on each line. For a kitchen, line-by-line matters for two reasons.
First, one supplier's invoice often covers different things: food, drinks, cleaning materials, a hired chafing dish. Splitting them lets your accountant see food cost and beverage cost separately, which is what a hospitality business watches most closely.
Second, VAT can differ line by line, and the VAT on your bills is what you claim back.
VAT on supplier bills, by country
- South Africa. Supplier bills take 15% or 0% VAT per line, and bills post input VAT to the ledger. Enter the rate shown on the supplier's tax invoice for each line.
- Nigeria and Kenya. Supplier bills currently offer only 15% or 0% and default to 15%, rather than your own country's rate. Check every line and talk to your accountant about how to handle input VAT until this changes.
- Kenya, eTIMS. Since 1 June 2023, input VAT can be claimed only against TIMS or eTIMS invoices, and since 1 January 2024 business expenses not supported by an eTIMS invoice are disallowed for income tax. Achekam lists a Kenyan business's supplier invoices that have no eTIMS reference recorded, so you can see which expenses are at risk and ask those suppliers for proper invoices.
One list of suppliers
A business keeps one supplier list with duplicate checks by name or VAT number, and quotations, orders and bills pick suppliers from it. That stops the same butcher appearing three times under slightly different names, each with its own balance.
One limit for Nigerian and Kenyan kitchens: a supplier's VAT number must be in the South African format, so Nigerian and Kenyan VAT numbers are refused. Until that changes, keep each supplier's tax number on file with their invoices.
Bills without an order wait for approval
A bill that has no purchase order behind it waits for approval before it posts. In most kitchens, the daily deliveries are phoned or messaged through, not ordered on a purchase order, so most food and beverage bills will wait for someone to approve them.
Make that approval meaningful. The approver, usually the head chef or the general manager, should check:
- that the delivery note was signed on arrival, and any shortages were noted;
- that the quantities on the bill match what was delivered;
- that prices match what was agreed with the supplier.
A bill approved on trust is how a kitchen ends up paying for a crate of produce that went back on the van.
Paying in full or in parts
Once posted, a bill can be paid in full or in parts, from a chosen bank account. This suits the way many kitchens work with their larger suppliers: part of the beverage wholesaler's account this week, the rest at month end when the function deposits have cleared.
Choose the bank account the money actually leaves from. If you run a separate account for wages or for a second outlet, paying a supplier "from" the wrong one in the books will leave both bank reconciliations out.
The transfer itself happens at your bank
Paying a supplier in Achekam records the payment; it does not move money, and no bank payment file is produced for suppliers. You still make the transfer in your banking app or at the bank.
The safest habit is to do both at the same sitting: make the transfer, then record the payment in Achekam straight away with the bank's reference, and keep the proof of payment with the bill. A payment recorded but never made, or made but never recorded, is one of the commonest reasons supplier statements and your books disagree. ACCA's guide to supplier statement reconciliations explains why a separate record of each credit supplier is kept and how reconciling the supplier's statement to that record helps find errors.
Uploaded invoices are suggestions, not bills
Supplier invoices and receipts uploaded to Financial Intake become suggested postings. AI can suggest, but only a person approves and posts. An uploaded supplier invoice becomes a journal suggestion, though, not a bill on the Bills list that you can pay in parts.
That gives you two routes, and each invoice should take only one:
| Route | Best for | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Record as a bill | Suppliers on account, paid later or in parts | A bill on the Bills list, approved, then paid |
| Upload to Financial Intake | Purchases already paid, such as a cash or card purchase | A suggested journal a person approves |
Recording the same invoice both ways counts the expense twice. Agree in advance which suppliers go which way, and tell whoever does the uploading.
A weekly routine for the kitchen office
- Collect every supplier invoice and delivery note from the week.
- Record account suppliers' invoices as bills, line by line, with VAT.
- Upload receipts for purchases already paid to Financial Intake.
- Approve bills against delivery notes and agreed prices.
- Decide what to pay this week, and from which account.
- Make the transfers, then record each payment with its reference.
- Compare each supplier's statement with your balance once a month.
Group bookings bring their own extra purchases and their own deposits; group booking deposits without a pro-forma covers the income side. Weekly wages often leave the same bank account in the same week; weekly pay runs for casual and shift staff explains that run.
Start with this week's invoices: record them, approve them against the delivery notes, and pay what is due. Once the backlog is gone, the weekly routine keeps it from returning.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
