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Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online

by Intuit•32• Updated 1 month ago

Learn how to track bills and record the payments.

In addition to tracking sales, QuickBooks Online makes it easy to record business expenses. Entering your income and expenses gives a more complete picture of your business and profit.

If you plan to pay for the expense in the future, enter it as a bill. You can record bills one at a time, or record multiple bills for multiple suppliers at once. On the other hand, if you've already paid for a business expense, enter it as an expense. These specific transaction types tell QuickBooks how to record everything.

Or, learn the difference between bills, cheques, and expenses.

Here's how to enter bills and record payments towards them in QuickBooks.

Review and manage bills

  1. Sign in to your QuickBooks Online account.
  2. Go to Expenses and select Bills (Take me there).
  3. The Bills page contains the For review, Unpaid, and Paid tabs. Select one of the tabs to view bills in that status and see available actions:
    • For review: This tab lists all of the bills pending your review.
      • Review: Opens the details of the bill so you can verify accuracy, then Save it to move it to the Unpaid tab.
      • Save: Adds the bill to your Unpaid tab. If the bill is for GBP £0.00, then it’s added to the Paid tab instead.
    • Unpaid: This tab lists all of your unpaid bills and if they are due later, soon, or overdue.
      • Mark as paid: Use for offline payments that are not directly scheduled through QuickBooks.
      • View/Edit: Make any needed changes to the bill, then select Save and close, Save and new, or Mark as paid.
    • Paid: This tab lists all of your paid bills and any linked payments. Select any bill to view details.

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Enter bills into QuickBooks

Add a bill manually

After you get a bill from a supplier, here's how to record it:

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Bill.
  3. From the Supplier ▼ dropdown, select a supplier.
  4. From the Terms ▼ dropdown, select the bill's terms. This is when your supplier expects to be paid.
  5. Enter the Bill date, Due date, and Bill no. as they're recorded on the bill.
  6. Enter the bill details in the Category details section. From the Category dropdown, select the expense account you use to track expense transactions. Then enter a description. 
    Tip: You can also enter specific products and services in the Item details section to itemise the bill. To set up, go to Settings ⚙, then select Account and settings. Select Expenses. In the Bills and expenses section, select the pencil ✎ icon. Then, turn on the Show Items table on expense and purchase forms switch.
  7. Enter the Amount and VAT.
  8. If you plan to bill a customer for the expense, select the Billable checkbox and enter their name in the Customer field. Learn more about billable expenses.
  9. When you're done, select Save and close.

Bills added manually appear directly in the Unpaid tab. Because you added the bill, you don’t need to review it.

Upload bills from computer

  1. Go to Expenses, then Bills (Take me there).
  2. From the Add bill ▼ dropdown, select Upload from computer.
  3. Drag and drop files into the Upload window, or select the Upload button to choose files on your computer.
    Note: QuickBooks supports PDF, JPEG, JPG, GIF, and PNG images.

The bill is added to the For review tab where you can verify the information and record the payment or pay later.

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Record payments toward bills

If you have yet to pay for the bill, you can add it to QuickBooks to pay later. Or, you can record a cheque, cash, or credit card payment to keep your books accurate.

If you paid your supplier offline or haven’t recorded the payment through QuickBooks yet, you can mark the bill as paid through the Bills page.

  1. Go to Expenses, then Bills (Take me there).
  2. Select the Unpaid tab.
  3. For the bill you want to mark as paid, in the Action column, select Mark as paid.
  4. On the bill payment form, verify the information is correct, such as the Payee, Payment date, and Bank/Credit account fields. Make any changes if needed.
  5. In the Amount field, enter the total amount paid.
  6. In the Outstanding Transactions section, select the bills the payment went to.
    Tip: If it covers multiple bills, select the checkboxes for those bills. You can split the payment and enter an amount for each bill in the Payment column.
  7. If you have any credit for this supplier, you can select it from the Credits section.
  8. When you're done, select Save and close.

After making a payment for your supplier outside of QuickBooks, you need to record that the bill was paid:

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Pay bills.
  3. From the Payment account dropdown, select the account you paid the bill from.
  4. (optional) If you select a current or savings account, you can enter the Reference no.
  5. Enter the Payment date.
  6. Select the checkboxes for the bill(s) you made a payment towards.
  7. In the Payment column, enter the amount you paid towards each bill. Tip: If you have credit with the supplier, you can apply it in the Credit Applied column.
  8. Select Save.

Only follow these steps if you paid with a cheque. This records the payment in a specific way so QuickBooks stays accurate:

  1. Select + New.
  2. Select Cheque.
  3. From the Payee dropdown, select the supplier you paid. This opens a window with all of their outstanding bills.
  4. Select Add to add an open bill to the cheque.
    Note: If you don't see this, select the small arrow next to the amount. If you have credit with the supplier, you can also add it from the Credits section.
  5. From the Bank Account dropdown, select the account you made the cheque payment from.
  6. In the Amount field, enter the cheque amount.
  7. In the Outstanding Transactions section, select the bills the cheque payment went to. Tip: If it covers multiple bills, select the checkboxes for those bills. You can split the payment and enter an amount for each bill in the Payment column.
  8. When you're done, select Save and close.
    Tip: You can also select Print to print out a physical cheque.

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  1. Go to Expenses, then Bills (Take me there).
  2. Select the Unpaid tab.
  3. For the bill you want to mark as paid, in the Action column, select Mark as paid.
  4. On the bill payment form, verify the information is correct, such as the Payee, Payment date, and Bank/Credit account fields. Make any changes if needed.
  5. In the Amount field, enter the total amount paid.
  6. In the Outstanding Transactions section, select the bills the payment went to.
    Tip: If it covers multiple bills, select the checkboxes for those bills. You can split the payment and enter an amount for each bill in the Payment column.
  7. If you have any credit for this supplier, you can select it from the Credits section.
  8. When you're done, select Save and close.
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