Hello kahandler,
It sounds like you've done your research when it comes to the options available in QuickBooks Desktop.
The Calendar is a handy tool that offers a quick way to view tasks as well as transactions made and due on any given day. This means, when you enter a bill into QuickBooks and set a due date for it, the calendar will put a note on the day it's due. This is true whether the bill is entered as a memorized transaction or not.
It sounds like you're looking for a one-time setup. I hear what you're saying about recurring transactions not working in this case since the amounts are different each month for certain bills. With transactions of different amounts that cannot be memorized, entering them in one-by-one is the way to go to make sure they're in your books and entered accurately.
Learn more about how the Calendar works through the in-product help articles. Here's how to find them.
- Select the Help menu in the top menu bar.
- Choose QuickBooks Desktop Help (Note: You can bypass step 1 and 2 by pressing the F1 key on your keyboard as a shortcut).
- On the Have a Question? window, click the Help tab.
- Click Search and enter "calendar" into the search bar.
- Hit Enter to search.
Check out the related articles and feel free to search more to see if you can configure the program the way you'd like.
I hope that helps. Let me know if you have more questions!