This article walks you through filtering, searching, and sorting bills in Relay so you can find any invoice by vendor, date, amount, or status in seconds.
What you need before you start
A Relay account on any subscription plan (Starter Plan, Grow Plan, or Scale Plan)
At least one bill in the Bills tab, uploaded manually, forwarded to your Bills Inbox, or synced from QuickBooks Online or Xero
Payment or admin permissions on the account so the Bills tab is visible to your role
Who can use bill filtering, search, and sort in Relay?
Filtering, searching, and sorting bills is included on every Relay subscription plan. Bill Pay itself has plan-based limits on advanced features, but the tools for finding bills are the same across tiers:
Upload and view bills: Starter Plan, Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Filter, search, and sort: Starter Plan, Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Bill categorization: Starter Plan, Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Approval rules: Starter Plan, Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Bill line-item categorization: Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Batched vendor payments: Grow Plan, Scale Plan
Partial payments: Coming soon on Grow Plan and Scale Plan
How do I get to the Bills tab in Relay?
The Bills tab lives inside Payments in your Relay account. To open it:
Sign in to your Relay account.
Click Payments in the left navigation.
Click the Bills tab.
The Bill Pay table opens with every bill on your account, whether it was uploaded manually, forwarded to your Bills Inbox, or synced from QuickBooks Online or Xero.
What does the Bill Pay table show me?
The Bill Pay table pulls every bill into one view and surfaces the ones that need attention first. Four elements sit above the bill list:
Smart Cards at the top of the table summarize bill totals by status: Outstanding, Overdue Past 30 Days, and Needs Review.
Tab filters split the table into workflow stages so bills at each stage stay grouped.
A search bar finds a specific bill by vendor name, bill number, memo, or amount.
A filter menu narrows the list by invoice date, due date, payment method, amount, or status.
How do I filter bills by amount, date, or status?
Filtering narrows the Bill Pay table to a subset of bills that match one or more rules. To filter:
Click the Filter button in the top-left of the Bill Pay table.
Pick a filter category: Amount, Invoice Date, Due Date, or Status.
Choose a qualifier for the category. Amounts and dates support before, after, and between. Status supports is and is not.
Enter the value or range.
Click Apply.
You can stack multiple filters. Each one narrows the list further, so a bill has to match every active filter to appear.
To clear a filter, reopen the Filter menu and remove the rule, or click Clear all to reset the view.
How do I search for a specific bill in Relay?
The search bar above the Bill Pay table finds bills across every import source in one step. Type any of the following into the search bar:
Vendor or payee name (full or partial)
Bill or invoice number
Memo text on the bill
Bill amount
Results update as you type. The search runs across every bill on the account, including bills synced from QuickBooks Online or Xero, bills forwarded to your Bills Inbox, and bills uploaded manually.
How do I sort bills by column?
Every column heading in the Bill Pay table is clickable and sorts the table by that column.
Click a column heading once to sort ascending (A to Z, oldest date first, smallest amount first).
Click the same heading a second time to switch to descending.
Click a different column heading to change the sort field. Only one sort is active at a time.
Sort works together with filters and search. If you filter to unpaid bills and then click Due Date, you get unpaid bills in due-date order.
How do I combine filters, search, and sort?
Filters, search, and sort all apply at the same time. You can, for example:
Filter to bills with Status is Outstanding.
Type a vendor name into the search bar to narrow to that vendor's outstanding bills.
Click the Due Date column heading to sort those bills by due date.
The Bill Pay table recalculates after each action, so the table only shows bills that match every active rule.
Common issues
A bill you know exists is not showing up. Check the active filters at the top of the table. A stacked filter may be hiding it. Click Clear all to reset the view.
Search returns no results for a vendor you recognize. The bill may be filed under a slightly different vendor name. Try searching by bill number or amount instead.
The sort direction seems stuck. Click the same column heading again to toggle between ascending and descending, or click a different column to reset the sort.
Bills from QuickBooks Online or Xero are missing. Confirm the accounting sync ran recently. See "Bill Pay Integration Troubleshooting Guide" for reconnect steps.
Filter options look different from what you see in this article. Relay ships bill pay updates on a rolling basis. Reload the Bills tab, or contact the Customer Experience team if a filter you need is missing.
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If this article did not fully answer your question, our Customer Experience team is here to help.