Possible flaw in the new Quickbooks Online Bill Pay

I appreciate that you've noticed the changes in payment processing, Mwbeke. These changes are designed to help you manage your bills more effectively.

To ensure that the ACH payment has been received by your vendor, it's best to coordinate directly with them. Additionally, if you need to confirm whether the check number has been cleared, you can reach out to your bank.

Both you and your vendor will receive an email confirming the scheduled payment, as well as another email when the payment is sent, including the expected arrival date. If you're unable to find these emails, please check your junk or spam folders. ACH transactions will take 3-5 business days, while checks may take 8-10 business days to clear.

Additionally, you can check this article to learn how to match your Payroll, Payments, and Bill Pay transactions: Automatically match QuickBooks Online product transactions.

I'm always here to assist if you have other concerns managing your bills in QuickBooks. Just drop a comment below.

@Heide DC  RE: To check if a transaction or Check number has been cleared, you can contact your bank.

Did you read the OP's question? It doesn't seem like you did.

The question is:

When I process a payment, [1] the funds pull from my bank account and [2] the check or ACH is sent [from Intuit's bank account]. How can I tell if the check and/or ACH was received by the vendor and CASHED?

Did you answer the question? No, you did not.

Thank you, Heide DC, for your response. Unfortunately, I don't think you understand my question. My issue is more with checks issued than ACH. When we submit the check, QB's pulls the funds from our bank accounts before the check is sent by Quickbooks Online Bill Pay. There is no way to know if the vendor received the check and deposited it from your bank/processor, (unless I'm missing something). I have multiple vendors contacting me saying they never received my payment. My bank statement shows the funds pulled by Quickbooks, but I have no idea if the check will or did make it to the vendor. 

I do appreciate Quickbooks Online Bill Pay more than Quickbooks Online Bill Pay by Melio and I am glad QB's made the switch. However, since May, I have noticed the QB's support team is lacking in knowledge of the new service and could use some training on the product. 

I appreciate your follow-up and feedback about the QuickBooks Online Bill Pay, @mwbeke.  Your satisfaction is our top priority, and I'm here to provide additional information about how processing a payment works in the new system.

Please know that you and your vendor will receive an email confirmation about the scheduled payment, followed by another email when the payment is on its way and the expected arrival date. If you're both unable to locate the email, please check your junk and spam folders.

Payment processing times for standard delivery are as follows: ACH transactions take 3-5 business days, while checks take 8-10 business days.

You can also review your bill payment details, including their status in QuickBooks to know if it's completed or not. Here's how:

1. Open your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Go to the Expenses menu and click Bills.
3. From there, you'll see all paid and unpaid bills.
4. In the Paid tab, you will see all completed bills as well as their details by clicking Show payments.
   
   
    
5. Click View details.
   
   

For detailed information about the process, utilize this article: Learn about QuickBooks Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online

Moreover, you may visit this article to learn how QuickBooks matches bill pay transactions: Automatically match QuickBooks Online product transactions

If you have more questions about processing payments or have any other QuickBooks concerns, never hesitate to reply below. I'll be around to provide the necessary answers to your questions. 

@mwbeke  RE: Unfortunately, I don't think you understand my question. My issue is more with checks issued than ACH. When we submit the check, QB's pulls the funds from our bank accounts before the check is sent by Quickbooks Online Bill Pay. There is no way to know if the vendor received the check and deposited it from your bank/processor, (unless I'm missing something). I have multiple vendors contacting me saying they never received my payment. My bank statement shows the funds pulled by Quickbooks, but I have no idea if the check will or did make it to the vendor. 

I find it quite the tell that you have to explain to Intuit how Intuit's payment service works. You'd think they'd be embarrassed.

Thank you for your response. I see how helpful it is to pull up the payment to a vendor, how much it was, when it was pulled from my bank account.

In the "view details" section, it says, "Payment complete" and that it has "cleared". My vendor, more than one, says that they never received the check and that it is past due now. Does the "cleared" mean it has gone through the Quickbooks four steps, or that the vendor cashed the check? How do I know how many checks I have that QB's pulled from my bank account and were never received/cashed by the vendor? 

I can see the urgency of this matter, @mwbeke and I want to help you get through this about Online Bill Pay.

Payment processing times can vary, affecting when the receiving bank posts payments. Since your vendors didn't receive email confirmation via QuickBooks Online Bill Pay, I recommend contacting our Support Team for assistance. A representative can securely review your account and trace the payment.

To contact support:

1. Sign in to your QBO file.
2. Go to the Help (?) menu.
3. Select either tab to get started:
   • Assistant: Get quick, personalized answers. Select a suggested option, or type a question or topic you need help with. If you decide you need further help, you can still choose to Talk to a human.
   • Search: Search the QuickBooks Online knowledge base directly, or select Contact Us and choose a way to connect with support.
      

If you need assistance with manually recording bill payments, refer to this article as a helpful guide: Enter bills and record bill payments in QuickBooks Online. It also provides information on how to pay your bills using a credit card, cash, or check.

If you have any follow-up questions about online bill pay, feel free to comment below. I'm happy to help! 

@DebSheenD 

RE: I recommend contacting our Support Team for further assistance.

You are the support team.

RE: A live representative can look into your account securely and they will trace where the payment goes.

You're alive, right?

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

This is a serious issue/flaw with Quick Books Online Bill Pay and I hope that you will be able to pass it on to higher ups in QB's: It appears that the funds are pulled from my account, then deposited into a QuickBooks/Intuit account, the check is sent to the vendor, if the vendor never receives the check, the funds stay in QuickBooks' account, my original check clears even though the funds never reached the vendor. QuickBooks Online Bill Pay needs to consider adding a feature that shows the final check was cashed/deposited by the vendor. Maybe even a link to an image of the endorsed/cashed check. In addition, a report showing undeposited checks would be amazing. It would be nice to catch a lost check instead of getting late notices and penalties. 

I see how valuable viewing the vendor's check status as cashed/deposited on your end, and we're thankful you've shared this idea with us, @mwbeke. 

Since this feature is unavailable in QuickBooks (QB) Bill Pay, I recommend submitting feedback to our product engineers. If they see how useful this feature is in QB Bill Pay, they can add this to our future product updates.

Here's how:

1. Select Settings, then Feedback.
2. Enter your comments or product suggestions. Then select Next to submit feedback.

If you want to learn how payment processing works in QuickBooks Bill Pay, you can read this article: Learn about QuickBooks Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online.

Don't hesitate to return here if you have additional questions about managing your vendor bills. We'll be willing to help. Have a good day.

Agreed.  This is so embarrassing, time consuming, and frustrating.

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Agreed.  This issue is so embarrassing, time consuming, and frustrating.

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Bill.com has the ability to view the image of the cleared check.  I have no affiliation with them, I'm just a satisfied user.  The fact that QB Online Bill Pay doesn't have this feature is surprising.  There have been many times that I've needed to provide vendors with copies of cleared checks that they say they never received.  And, the ACH charge of 1% by QB payments is astronomical.  Bill.com and Melio charge a flat $0.50 per ACH transaction.  Paying $50 for a $5,000 bill payment?  No way, you might as well wire the funds - it'd be cheaper and instantaneous.         

UGH!!!! This is such a major problem. I wrote a very large check that the vendor said he didn't receive but it was withdrawn from my account. Now I can't figure out if someone else intercepted and cashed and the vendor is demanding a new check TODAY. This is crazy irresponsible on Quickbooks part. I have been on a chat for the last hour and they can't seem to understand me or help. I wish I had never tried using this service.  Really irresponsible, cheap etc etc. on their part. I feel like calling the better business bureau or something. This is going to MAJORLY hurt my business and freaking out. I feel like canceling QB online

The sad irony of this is that Intuit could have made the service simpler and printed checks directly from each customer's bank account, using that account's routing and account numbers. As a result, the payments would work like any other checks you write, which would be so much better for customers.

The only plus with the current model (for Intuit) is profit. With the current setup they get to hold customers' money in a big huge interest-bearing pile until the checks they write clear - if they ever do. I would not be surprised if 1% of the checks are never cashed, which Intuit will then keep.

Simpler is better. Over time, it is likely easier to write or print checks yourself than it is to use this service and have to spend hours dealing with the occasional vendor dispute. Or, find a service that prints vendor checks using your account number, so you know when or if they actually clear.

@BigRedConsulting 

"The sad irony of this is that Intuit could have made the service simpler and printed checks directly from each customer's bank account, using that account's routing and account numbers. As a result, the payments would work like any other checks you write, which would be so much better for customers."

The reason businesses want a third party to issue checks is security - we don't want our routing and account numbers on the check.  Otherwise, we'd do it ourselves.  I'm happy to pay $1.99 for Bill.com (we use Bill.com) to print and mail checks with their routing and account numbers.  There are very few vendors that require paper checks anymore anyways.  

"I would not be surprised if 1% of the checks are never cashed, which Intuit will then keep."

Why would you think Intuit keeps the money from uncashed checks?  If the vendor doesn't get their check, the vendor will let me know.  That, and Bill.com shows me what checks haven't cleared so I know what checks are outstanding and can void/stop payment and re-issue as needed.  That money either ends up back in my bank account or in the vendor's account but it doesn't stay in Intuit/Bill.com's account.       

Simpler is better. Over time, it is likely easier to write or print checks yourself than it is to use this service and have to spend hours dealing with the occasional vendor dispute.

You might change your opinion if you've ever had your routing and accounts numbers hacked from one of your checks.    

RE: The reason businesses want a third party to issue checks is security - we don't want our routing and account numbers on the check.

I'd never considered that, as I view these numbers as non-private - just like a CC number, and your signature, which you give away with many purchases.

RE: Why would you think Intuit keeps the money from uncashed checks?

Because.... Intuit. Have you ever heard of them giving money back when the checks don't clear for (say) 90 days? Maybe they do...

RE: That, and Bill.com shows me what checks haven't cleared so I know what checks are outstanding and can void/stop payment and re-issue as needed.

That seems to be a missing feature with this Intuit service. It seems if they added it, it would go a long way to solve the various poster's issues with the Intuit service.

I used to use Bill.com as well, but quit after a couple of fiascos where they said they paid, they provided 'proof', but the vendor didn't credit their payment to my account, probably because the aggregated the payment and sent the vendor one check for many customers - with a voucher detailing how much to credit each customer.  After dealing with that for hours, I stopped using the service.

RE: You might change your opinion if you've ever had your routing and accounts numbers hacked from one of your checks. 

Do you mean and then someone would commit check fraud? I guess I wouldn't write checks if I was seriously concerned about it. I've never had a problem of that sort. If that is a worry, then the traditional way to prevent check fraud is to use the bank's positive pay service - though the possible cost and overhead if you don't write many checks may not be worth it.

@BigRedConsulting 

"I'd never considered that, as I view these numbers as non-private"

We went to Bill.com because we had two different occasions where someone (presumably an employee at one of the vendors) created checks with our routing and account number and used them.  With a cc, you have recourse for unauthorized use, and the cc company can credit you for the unauthorized transactions.  Much tougher to get the funds back with a fraudulent check.

"Because.... Intuit."

Great point.  Can't argue with that!

"That seems to be a missing feature with this Intuit service. It seems if they added it, it would go a long way to solve the various poster's issues with the Intuit service."

Another great point. 

"Do you mean and then someone would commit check fraud? I guess I wouldn't write checks if I was seriously concerned about it."

Yes, check fraud as described above.  How would you suggest I pay vendors that don't accept electronic payments?  Some vendors still require checks.  When you use Bill.com, their check service is included and they charge just $1.99 to mail a check.  Writing your own check out of QB currently costs ~$0.90 for a voucher check, ~$0.10 for the envelope, and $0.73 for postage = $1.73.  Add a few more cents for labor.  I'm not writing my own check to save < $0.26 and having my routing and account number floating around.  But, to each their own I suppose. 

RE: How would you suggest I pay vendors that don't accept electronic payments? Some vendors still require checks. 

I'd just hand write a cheap personal-style hand-check and send it to them in their return envelope.

I can see your cost/benefit calculation makes sense, but because I write about one check a month and the rest of everything is electronic payments and free, it's not worth bothering with a service like Bill.com - especially when it starts at $45 a month!

@BigRedConsulting 

Big Red:

"Do you mean and then someone would commit check fraud? I guess I wouldn't write checks if I was seriously concerned about it. "

Rainflurry:
"How would you suggest I pay vendors that don't accept electronic payments? "

Big Red:

"I'd just hand write a cheap personal-style hand-check and send it to them in their return envelope."

Hmmm...