Bill

The term ‘bill’ can have numerous meanings:

• For most purposes, ‘bill’ is synonymous with ‘invoice’: a bill is a document which requests payment for previously supplied goods. Bills are issued typically at restaurants following a meal upon which immediate payment is required. The bill normally accounts for the full price of whatever has been consumed or supplied, includes any taxes and does not allow part-payment. Following payment, the customer normally exchanges the bill for a receipt showing that the establishment has received the due payment. Customers also receive bills from utilities, service providers and credit card companies. The latter typically demand payment by a certain date and give customers the option of paying only a part of a bill but will impose penalties in the form of interest if this option is taken up.

• ‘Bill’ can also refer to a ‘billboard’ – an external, vertical surface or signboard, sometimes freestanding or fixed to buildings, onto which advertising posters are fixed.

• ‘Bill’ may sometimes be used in place of ‘bill of quantities’. So, for example, if an individual remarks to another: “Is that included in the bill?” they mean is the item in question included in the bill of quantities. (For a further explanation of bill of quantities, see the link below.)

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Accounting.
• Advantages of a bill of quantities
• Bill of quantities.
• Common mistakes in bill of quantities
• Construction invoice fraud.
• Difference between purchase order and invoice.
• Late payment.
• Priced bill of quantities
• Purchase order.
• The benefits of e-procurement in construction.