When making payments to bills, what does the CLEAR PAYMENT option do?

Hi there, @jake-r-elstone.

It's my pleasure to explain to you what the clear payment option in QuickBooks Online is for. 

Clicking the Clear Payment button on the Bill Payment will make the transaction zero or clear, and the bill active again. 

See the screenshot below. 

I've attached articles about paying bills through the Pay bill feature and other related topics. 

• What to do if you see unapplied cash bill payment expense on your profit and loss
•  Enter and pay bills

Post again in the Community if you need anything else. I’ll be here to help. Take care!

Does this mean that if any payment was applied, it has been nullified? Or just removed from record? Or does it simply clear the amount I enter into the Payment [  ] field of the Outstanding Transactions section? 
Thank you.

Sorry if this is a duplicate respond. 
Does it nullify the payment? Removes it from this particular invoice and leaves the client with credit? Or does it simply clear the Payment [  ] field value (Outstanding Transactions section)? 
Thanks.

Thank you for raising your concerns here in the Community, @Vichka. I'll share some insight about entering payment for the bills into QuickBooks Online.

What @MichelleBh provided above is about clearing a bill payment amount. And yes, you got it right. Form the given instruction above, it is simply removing or deleting the amount entered into the payment section.

The bill will be reserved and closed once the bill payment is successfully saved.

If you make errors when creating a transaction in QuickBooks Online, you'll need to void or delete it to avoid it affecting your account balances or reports. check this article for more information about void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online.

Additionally, learn how to track bills and record payments in this link provided.

If you require any additional information regarding bills and payments, please contact us. I'll be there to assist you.

Thank you! My second day with QB so I'll keep these questions coming, I'm sure )))

If the bill payment I'm clearing was already matched, will it unmatch and allow me to match it again?  I have a similar situation as Jake, except my vendor sent a revised invoice that I had already paid and matched.  I update the invoice in AP after payment had been matched; but the payment was unapplied and shows the entire bill amount due... 

Hi! I appreciate you for joining this thread @PC-AA. I'd be happy to help you clear the bill payments.

Yes, you can match the payment that was previously unmatched. You will need to re-apply the cleared payment to the bill to fix the issue.

Here's how:

1. In your Expenses tab, click on Vendors.
2. Select the bill payment that you have edited and mark the payment as cleared.
3. Enter the amount you have already paid, or you can Add the bill associated with your account.
4. Select Save.

I have attached a screenshot for your reference.

In case you want to pay your vendors and contractors via check or bank transfer, you can check out this link on how to apply and process bill payments online: Learn about QuickBooks Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online.

Please reply to this thread again if I can be of additional help with bill payments. Have a nice day!

I was paying bills and noticed I did something wrong. If I hit clear payment does this let me start over and do it again? I have not matched it with my bank feeds yet since my totals do not match. This is why I want to start over.

Yes. Deleting the payment will let you start over, Christy1213.

I'm here to share more information about it. 

If you haven't sent the payment, you can delete the payment and make changes. To do that, open the payment. Then, click More and then select Delete.

When you're ready to pay the bills, you can check this link as a reference: Learn about QuickBooks Bill Pay for QuickBooks Online.

I'l be around whenever you have concerns paying bills.