How do I transform an Expense into a Bill Payment?

[ellem]

 Hello, please see the attached screenshot. How do I transform an expense into a bill payment? You will see that I highlighted a bill for $81. And unfortunately, an expense was entered instead of a bill payment to that $81 bill. So this $81 shows as Past Due. I imagine there is a smarter way to fix this issue than deleting this expense and reentering it as a bill payment, right?

I have many transactions of this kind to fix,  I am in the middle of a book clean up, so that's very important to me. 

I am looking forward to reading your wisdom :-)
Thank you very much in advance,

[JamesDuanT]

Hello Ellem,

Yes, deleting the expense transaction is one way of correcting this issue. On the other hand, I can give you steps to apply the expense transaction as a bill payment.

Here are the steps:

1. Open the expense transaction, and go to the Account details section.

2. Change the affected account in the ACCOUNT column to Accounts Payable (A/P).

3. Click Save and close.

4. Open the bill, and click the Make payment button.

5. Under the Outstanding Transactions section, mark the bill you want to pay.

6. Under the Credits section, mark the expense transaction. We'll use it as a payment.

7. Make sure the AMOUNT PAID is equal to zero (0.00).

8. Click Save and close.

That's it! Drop by your reply if you need more assistance with this.

[ellem]

Yay! Thanks so much, it works for me!

Thanks for taking the time to respond :-)

[M for TF]

I too have an issue but I am trying to follow your instruction and cannot find an 'account column'.  Where do I find this in the expense please?

[MirriamM]

Thanks for visiting us again here in the Community forum, M for TF.

QuickBooks Online release and updated some features in which one of those is the Account details section. Right now, it's been changed to Category details.  For your visual guide, you can check below screenshot:

For you to change the affected account, be sure to go to the Category column under the Category details section. Then, you can continue to follow the steps above provided by my colleague JamesDuanT.

The article below provide you more insights about editing an expense transaction: 

Enter, edit, or delete expenses in QuickBooks Online.

Please let me know how it goes by clicking the Reply button below. I'm always here to help if you have any other concerns. Have a great day!

[1231 4600 7539 879]

Hi,

thanks for you explication.

I just can't understand where is the Credits section

"6. Under the Credits section, mark the expense transaction. We'll use it as a payment."

Could you help me?

Screenshot attached

Thanks

[Mark_R]

I've got you covered, @1231 4600 7539 879.

You'll have to make sure that the expense or check transactions link to Accounts Payable (A/P). Let me discuss this with you in detail and help you from there.

The Credits section will only show on the Bill Payment page if you have selected Accounts Payable (A/P) to any expense or check transactions. To make sure, let's open your expense or check transactions and select Accounts Payable as an affected account. Here's how:

1. From the left menu, click Expenses.
2. Select the appropriate expense or check transactions.
3. In the Category details section, select Accounts Payable (A/P) under the Category column.
4. Click Save and close.

I've got you an article for more details: Enter a Credit from a Vendor.

Once done, you'll be able to see the Credits section on the Bill Payment page. I've got screenshots below for your visual reference.

In case you need tips and related articles in the future, feel free to visit our QuickBooks Community help website for reference: QBO Self-help. 

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have any other questions. I'll be right here to help.

[rrizzi]

It worked perfectly for me, after I scrolled down and read about the changes/updates to QBO (aka Category). I was also still able to apply markup to invoice my customer correctly for the item we purchased via Purchase Order, then received Bill, then tied Expense (which was an error on our part) to the Bill so it would show as paid without creating a double entry (one for expense and one for bill payment).

It was confusing at first, but now it makes total sense (for next time). :)

[CNR1]

When I followed these steps my amount Paid does not equal zero. What did I do wrong?

[MaryLandT]

Thanks for joining this thread, CNR1,

It's possible the expense amount is less than the bill or there's another open bill in the Bill Payment page. See the attached screenshot below for your visual guide.

Make sure to select one bill that matches the expense amount under Credits. Doing this will give you a zero amount.

I'll also appreciate it if you can provide a screenshot so I can see what's going on in your end.

Feel free to visit this video tutorial page to help manage your expenses and vendors.

Keep me posted and tag my name. I'm glad to help get this working for you.

[CLM-Optimist]

Of course, doing THIS means that the expense is no longer split to their ACTUAL G/L account allocation. So, that's a new problem...

[normajean22]

Hi

I have completed paying a supplier account in the way that is suggested in this article, but I have another question. Why is there still an open amount at the top of the page when all of the bills have been paid and the balance is zero. I don't understand this.

[JamaicaA]

I’d like to help you out, @normajean22.

I need more information to help me get on the same page. May I know which specific page you’ve observed an open amount on? I’d appreciate it if you'd include a screenshot so I can address your concern appropriately.

You can also tell us more details of your concern by leaving a reply on this thread. My team and other QuickBooks users in the community are willing to assist you too.

Let me know if you still have questions or concerns with QuickBooks. I'll be here every step of the way.

[normajean22]

Hi Jamaica

I am trying to clear a supplier account. I have changed the expenses to accounts payable and then paid them according to the suggestions in this thread. Now the account is at zero, but there is still an open amount. Why does this happen and how do I correct this? I am cleaning up my quickbooks for year-end and I have more than one account to fix.

Cheers, Norma

[lmcdaniel]

I have followed the instructions up to the point of "make a payment" my bill only has the options: schedule online payment or mark as paid. How would I get the expense to transform into Bill Payment from here?

[TracyH3]

I've just tried the proposed solution, and it doesn't work.  Although they are allocated against each other now, the outstanding balance in the supplier account is still too high by the amount of the expense.  As far as I can see, the only way to sort this properly is to delete the expense.  What quick books needs is a facility whereby a cheques which was incorrectly entered as an expense can be amended to a cheque payment.

[ZackE]

Thanks for becoming part of the Community, TracyH3.

If an incorrect expense was entered, it can be deleted from your Expenses menu.

Here's how:

1. In the left navigation bar, go to Expenses.
2. Access your Expenses tab.
3. Find the invalid record.
4. Use its Drop-Down Arrow (▼) icon.
5. Click Delete.
6. Select Yes.
   

Next, you can enter your bill payment:

1. In your left navigation bar, use the + New button.
2. Choose Check.
3. Enter all of its necessary details, then select Save and close.

I've also included a detailed resource about working with bill payments which may come in handy moving forward: Enter bills & record bill payments

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a wonderful day!

[ja_coy]

We put an extra transaction for the amount on a new line as a NEGATIVE and coded it to accounts payable.

Then the lined up and cleared out.