Import bills and export the ledger

Before you start

• Finance is part of the Advanced plan. Seeing the “Ledger” and “Audit” tabs and exporting from them needs a role that can view finance. In the built-in set, administrators have that permission, and so do members of the “Finance” group. The “finance_manager” and “finance_approver” roles have it too; no group carries them, so an administrator gives one to a person by hand, as Roles, groups and permissions shows.
• Importing, allocating and deleting need a role that can manage finance (in the built-in set, administrators, members of the “Finance” group and the “finance_manager” role); the “IMPORT CSV” button is not shown without it. Approving and marking paid follow the same rules as for a single bill: see Capture and approve a bill.
• For an import: your bills as a CSV file, with a heading row. Any spreadsheet program can save one.

Import bills from a file

1. 1

   Step 1: Prepare the file

   The first row holds the column headings. Capital letters do not matter. Every row needs two things:

   • The company you pay, in a column headed “vendor” (also accepted: “supplier”, “payee”, “name”).
   • The amount, in a column headed “amount” (also accepted: “total”, “cost”).

   These columns are optional: “invoice number”, “date” (or “invoice date”), “currency”, “category”, “cost center”, “department” and “project”. Zonitix does not offer a template file to download; a file with these headings is all it needs.

   Include the invoice number if you have it. It is how Zonitix recognises a bill it already holds, so importing the same file twice does not create every bill a second time.

2. 2

   Step 2: Import it

   Go to FinanceFinanceLedger. Click “IMPORT CSV” at the top right of the list and choose your file. The import starts at once; there is no preview step.

3. 3

   Step 3: Read the result

   If every row came in, a short message reads “Imported” followed by the count. If some rows were left out, a window headed “CSV IMPORT” lists each one under “ROWS NOT IMPORTED” with its row number and the reason, for example a missing vendor or amount, an invoice number already on file, or a currency with no exchange rate set. Nothing was saved for those rows: correct them in your file and import just those rows again.

   Some rows come in but are held for a person to check, and the result says how many: an amount or a date that could be read two ways, or a row that looks like a bill already on file. Finish these on the “Review” tab, as for an uploaded bill.

   A row with no currency is not held. It comes in as a normal draft with your base currency assumed; the result says how many, and each one is marked on its “Ledger” row with the currency code and the word “assumed”. Check the currency on those before you submit them.

   Every imported bill starts as a draft. A “status” column saying a bill is already approved or paid is ignored on purpose, so each one still goes through submit, approve and pay.

Work through many bills at once

1. 4

   Step 4: Tick the bills

   On the “Ledger” tab, use the search box, “Date range”, “Status” and “Cost center” to narrow the list, then tick the box on each row, or the box in the heading for every row on the page. Changing a filter or the page clears your ticks, so act on one page at a time.

2. 5

   Step 5: Choose the action

   A bar appears showing how many are selected, with one button for each action that at least one ticked bill is ready for: “Submit”, “Approve”, “Reject” or “Mark paid”, each followed in brackets by the number of bills it will apply to. Bills that are not at the right stage are left alone.

   “Reject” asks for one “Reason for rejection”, which is recorded on every rejected bill. People who can manage finance also see “Allocate”, to set a cost centre, project or GL code on several bills, and “Delete”, which permanently removes draft and rejected bills after you confirm.

   Approvers can do the same from the “Approvals” tab: tick the bills waiting for approval and click “Approve selected”.

3. 6

   Step 6: Read what happened

   The message gives the number done. If any were not processed it stays on screen until you close it and lists each reason with the bills it applies to. The reasons are the same ones you would get one bill at a time: the person who submitted a bill cannot approve it, the month is locked, the budget would be exceeded, or your role does not allow it. A bill over budget is never approved in bulk; open it and approve it by itself.

Export for your accountant or an auditor

1. 7

   Step 7: Export the ledger

   On the “Ledger” tab, set the filters to what you want to hand over, for example one month in “Date range”. Click “EXPORT” and choose “CSV”, “Excel (.xlsx)” or “PDF (auditor-ready)”. The file holds every bill that matches the filters, not only the page you are looking at, and downloads to your computer.

   To export only certain rows, tick them and click “Export” in the bar that appears. That file is always a CSV.

2. 8

   Step 8: Export the finance audit trail

   Open the “Audit” tab. “FINANCE AUDIT TRAIL” shows the most recent entries: when, the action, who, which bill and the detail. Click “Export evidence (CSV)”. A file named “finance_audit_trail.csv” downloads with the whole trail, oldest entry first, up to 10,000 entries. The export itself is added to the trail with your name.

What you should see

If something goes wrong

Every row was skipped with "missing vendor or amount"

The heading row is missing or uses other words. Make the first row of the file the headings, and name the two required columns vendor and amount.

A row says "duplicate" and was not imported

A bill from that vendor with that invoice number is already on file, or appears earlier in the same file. Nothing needs doing unless the number in your file is wrong.

A row was refused because there is no exchange rate for its currency

Zonitix will not book a foreign amount without a rate. Add the rate under FinanceFinanceSettings, in “EXCHANGE RATES” (this needs the finance policy permission), then import those rows again.

Amounts or dates came in wrong, or many rows are held for review

A figure such as 1,234 or a date such as 03/04/2026 can be read two ways. Zonitix holds these instead of guessing. Confirm each on the Review tab, or write amounts with a decimal part and dates as year-month-day in the file and import again.

The IMPORT CSV button is not there

Your role can view finance but not manage it. Ask an administrator, or ask a colleague in finance to run the import.

The bulk bar has no button for the action you want

None of the ticked bills is at the stage that action needs, or your role does not allow it. A held bill, for instance, has no bulk action: it is released from the Review tab first.

Still stuck? See When something goes wrong, or Contact Zonitix support.

Where next

• Capture and approve a bill
• Close the month
• Match bills to purchase orders