How-to: Contractor Invoices — the Invoices Received Board

Who this is for: Customer Support Admin (Sandra), anyone covering AP, and anyone in helpdesk who finds a vendor invoice sitting in their ticket queue.

The one-sentence version: invoices reach the Invoices Received board by email or by converting a helpdesk ticket, Odoo pushes them into Float automatically, and the board shows exactly where every invoice sits on its way to Paid. You only touch cards that land in Needs Attention.

1. Getting invoices onto the board

By email (the normal way). Tell contractors and vendors to email their invoice (PDF attached) to invoices@soundintown.com. Each email becomes a card on the Invoices Received board (Project app → Invoices Received) and the PDF forwards to Float within a minute.

From a helpdesk ticket. Some vendors email invoices to our support addresses instead, so they arrive as helpdesk tickets. Open the ticket, click Convert to Task, and pick the Invoices Received project. That one click is the whole job: the automation pulls the invoice PDF and the vendor's email address off the ticket for you, forwards to Float, and the card advances on its own. Don't download and re-upload anything. If the ticket has no PDF, the card lands in Needs Attention immediately so you know it still needs a document.

By hand. You can also create a card on the board yourself and attach the invoice PDF — attaching the document is what triggers the forward. A card without a document waits quietly for a while; if nothing lands on it within about six hours it's flagged in Needs Attention.

There is no auto-reply, on purpose. Auto-responding to whatever lands in the inbox is a risk surface (spoofed senders, no-reply platform addresses), so senders hear nothing until the payment notice goes out — which is the notice they actually care about. If someone asks "did you get my invoice?", the board is your answer: find their card.

Nothing can be forgotten. An hourly sweep picks up any card the automations somehow never touched (untouched for about six hours) and runs it through the same forward — so a card can't sit in New forever.

📸 [SCREENSHOT 1 — the Kanban board showing the six stage columns]

2. What the stages mean

The card moves on its own — an hourly check reads Float and advances it. Every move is recorded in the card's chatter, including a link straight to the bill in Float:

📸 [SCREENSHOT 2 — a task form showing the stage bar, the Float Bill Status / Float Bill Id fields, and the "Linked to Float bill" chatter note]

3. The normal week (nothing changed in Float)

Coding bills, approving them, and scheduling payment still happen in Float exactly like before. The board just means you no longer enter bills into Float by hand, and everyone can see payment status without opening Float. Click the bill link in the card's chatter to jump to it. Nothing in Odoo can pay anyone — Float's approval flow remains the payment gate.

4. When a card lands in Needs Attention

You'll get a to-do activity. The card's last chatter note says which case it is:

• No attachment — there was no invoice document on the email (or on the source helpdesk ticket). Get the PDF and attach it to the card — that's it; the forward fires by itself the moment the document lands. No field editing needed. If you entered the bill in Float by hand instead, set Float Forward to Handled manually — no auto-forward so the pipeline leaves the card alone (see section 5).
• Possible duplicate — the note links an earlier card from the same sender (last 60 days) and says why: it holds the same document (the same file, or a copy with the same text), it has the same subject or file name with an invoice number in it, or it has the same plain subject or file name ("Invoice", "INVOICE.pdf") and arrived within 7 days. Compare the two. If it's genuinely new, clear the Float Forward field while the card is in Needs Attention — that forces it through. If someone moved the card out of Needs Attention, move it back first: from any other column, clearing the field runs the check again and holds the card again. Float does not drop duplicates on its side, so take a real look before forcing one through — but no bill is paid without a human approving it in Float.
• Forward failed — email hiccup. Clear Float Forward to retry.
• No bill appeared — we forwarded it, but Float never made a bill — and the system already re-sent the forward by itself several times before telling you (it watches whether each forward email actually arrived, retries bounces within the hour, and re-sends bill-less forwards; it stops after 5 sends total). So when this to-do reaches you it's real: the card's note lists every attempt and whether it was delivered or BOUNCED. Repeated bounces usually mean Float's intake inbox is having a bad day — forward the PDF to the intake address yourself or enter the bill in Float by hand. If the bill actually exists in Float, copy its id from the Float page URL and paste it into the card's Float Bill Id field — the card reconnects within the hour. This field is the escape hatch for any oddball case. And if a bill shows up on a later automatic retry, the card heals and your to-do marks itself done.
• Payment failed / bill voided — open the bill link and investigate.

📸 [SCREENSHOT 3 — a Needs Attention card with its explanatory chatter note and the Float Forward / Float Bill Id fields visible]

5. Handling a bill outside the pipeline ("Handled manually")

Sometimes the pipeline shouldn't forward a card at all: you already entered the bill in Float by hand, the document is a statement rather than an invoice, or the file is too big to email. Set Float Forward to Handled manually — no auto-forward. That's terminal — no automation, retry, or sweep will ever forward that card, and the hourly sync won't move it either. Drag the card to whatever column matches reality (or archive it) yourself.

6. Things to know

• Vendor invoices work the same as contractor ones. QuickBooks emails (like Aurora Audio's) and Zoho Invoice emails (like Matt Alan Currie's) both attach the PDF and process automatically. Vendors whose email only contains a link to the invoice (no PDF) land in Needs Attention — download the PDF and attach it to the card; it forwards on its own.
• One invoice per email is the rule of thumb. Float creates one bill per PDF (confirmed by test: an email with 4 PDFs made 4 bills). The card tracks the first bill; each extra bill gets its own chatter note with a link and a to-do so nothing is lost — but you'll be juggling them in Float, so ask vendors for one invoice per email.
• Combined statements (one PDF containing several invoices, like DrivingForce's monthly fleet email) become a single Float bill — split or code it in Float as before.
• Duplicates: the board's duplicate hold is about cutting noise before it reaches Float — the real protection is that every bill needs coding and approval in Float before any money moves. Float's own intake does not drop duplicates, so a duplicate that gets past the hold arrives as a second bill: if one shows up in Float, void it there like always. The hold compares what the documents say, so a vendor re-sending the same invoice (even as a fresh "Reminder" email) is held, while a new invoice under the vendor's usual subject goes through.
• Fraud guard: if a contractor emails new bank details, call them on a number you already have before changing anything in Float. Emailed banking-change requests are the #1 AP scam.
• Huge attachments (over ~25 MB) can't be forwarded by email — enter those in Float manually and set Float Forward to Handled manually — no auto-forward.

7. Walk through it yourself (test invoice)

The best way to learn the board is to send a test invoice and watch it travel. Anyone can do this — it takes one email and about an hour of occasional glancing.

Send it:

1. Email any small PDF invoice to invoices@soundintown.com from your own mailbox. Use a PDF and a subject you haven't sent in before. Sending the same PDF again, or reusing a subject or file name within a week (or one with a number in it, within 60 days), will correctly trigger the duplicate hold instead of the happy path.

What you should see, in order:

1. Within a few minutes: a card with your subject line appears on the Invoices Received board and lands in Sent to Float almost immediately (you'll rarely catch it in New — the forward runs the moment the incoming email is recorded on the card). Open the card: Float Forward reads Forwarded to Float, and chatter shows the forward note.
2. Within ~15 minutes, in Float: a draft bill appears in Float's bill inbox with the amount and vendor read from your PDF. (You get no reply email — that's by design; see section 1.)
3. At the next hourly sync: the card links up — chatter gets a "Linked to Float bill" note with a click-through link, the Float Bill Status field fills in, and the card moves to In Float. The card can sit in Sent to Float for up to an hour even though the bill already exists in Float — that's just the hourly cadence, not a problem.
4. From there, drive it from Float: approve the bill and schedule payment like a normal bill, and within an hour of each change the card follows — Payment Scheduled, then Paid (where it folds away).

Cleaning up a test: if you'd rather not pay your own test invoice, void the bill in Float. The card will move to Needs Attention with a "bill voided" note and a to-do — that's the system working as designed. Mark the to-do done and archive the card (⚙ → Archive).

If a step doesn't happen on schedule, that's exactly what Needs Attention exists to catch — the card will land there on its own with a note saying what went wrong (see section 4). A card stuck in Sent to Float re-forwards itself automatically (bounced emails within the hour, bill-less ones every 8 hours, up to 5 sends) and is flagged no later than 24 hours after the first forward; a card nothing ever touched is swept through the forward within about six hours.

8. Quick reference

• Board: Project app → Invoices Received
• Invoice address: invoices@soundintown.com
• Invoice arrived as a helpdesk ticket: Convert to Task → pick Invoices Received — the automation does the rest
• Card held with no document: attach the PDF to the card — it forwards automatically
• Force a held duplicate through: clear the Float Forward field with the card in Needs Attention (moved out? move it back first)
• Entered the bill in Float yourself: set Float Forward to Handled manually — no auto-forward
• Manually connect a bill: paste the bill id into Float Bill Id
• Sync cadence: hourly through the day; untouched cards are swept within ~6 hours
• Deeper technical reference: Reference: AP Invoice → Float Automation