Can Bills and Expenses be matched?

I discovered this back in January 2021 and reported it, and while some is part fixed, it is still possible to make a mistake for one scenario....

If you open an expense (either matched to a bank feed transaction or not), QuickBooks will pull up on the left all open bills and credits on the right hand side for that supplier. Great for matching outstanding bills to those bank feed transactions recorded as an expense instead of matching to a bill (either missed or bill received late)

Open the expense and match a bill previously recorded in a filed vat return to the open expense = works

Open the expense and match a bill in the same vat period as the expense = works

Open the expense and match a bill to an expense recorded in a previous vat return fails, as it creates an expense exception payment for this value on the vat return, duplicating the expense.

You should also note you cannot go back into the expense to amend as it will disappear, you will need to contact QuickBooks for support for a solution.

Test it this out in the sample company.

So although matching up expenses to bills seems to be an option, be very careful. If you are unsure, un-match the expense and add the payment to the bill in the correct QuickBooks method.

I think they have changed the UI since this was written. All steps can be followed until Step 4. Now there is no "Find Match" button. Do you have whatever the new way to do this is by chance? I have Bills I entered that were paid with one payment and I would like to match those two bills to the one payment. 

Hello there, @MichaelM210. 

The steps shared by my colleague @Adrian_A still work. And I have checked our records and haven't found any reports from other users about the Find Match button not showing when trying to match bank transactions in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

To further investigate the problem, you can use a private browser or incognito window to eliminate any browser history that may cause a glitch inside QuickBooks. You can refer to the following keyboard shortcuts below:

• Google Chrome: Ctrl + Shift + N
• Microsoft Edge: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Firefox: Ctrl + Shift + P
• Safari: Command + Shift + N

If this fixes the issue, close the private window and clear the cache on the regular browser. Otherwise, use other supported browsers to help narrow down the cause of this behaviour.

For future reference, here's a great resource about the best practices when reconciling: Learn the reconcile workflow in QuickBooks.

Please let me know if there's anything else I can do for you. I'll be standing by for your response. Have a great day.

Oh - I see it now. I had only clicked the Checkbox, not clicked into the full view to allocate the transaction. My apologies!

Hi Adrian_A

Hope you are well. 

I am new to QBO and having trouble with something along the same lines. I have a supplier I get materials from and get billed monthly. When I pick up materials I receive a receipt for the amount that will be billed to my account. I upload that receipt to QBO "Plus" and create a bill. At the end of the month I uploaded the statement ($818.75) and categorize as an expense (it is unmatched waiting for a matched credit card transaction) . When I select the month end transaction in expenses it shows up with all the corresponding bills on the right side with an "ADD" option. I add the bills to equal the amount of the Expense (Which has now turned to bill payment).

I fill in "amount" box to equal the total of the bills for the month ($818.75) when I hit save, the transaction is now in my expenses as a bill payment with the amount of negative $818.75. 

Hoping you can let me know what I am doing wrong?

I also tried manually matching the bills to the expense in the receipts for review. I could find all of the the bills, but when I tried to match them I got a noticing saying I could only match one transaction. I tried this in private window as well. Just not really sure what to do from here

Thank you for your time. 

Welcome to the family of QuickBooks, @TyC. Detailing your concern enables me to provide a precise explanation and solution. I appreciate you for doing that. 

I'll discuss this situation further as to why the bill payment is showing negative after saving it and how to fix it. This way, you're able to monitor them accordingly.

First, bills and expenses usually don't match up because they both serve the same purpose in QuickBooks Online. Use bills if you pay them later, then use expenses if you pay in real-time. For more details, see this article: Learn the difference between bills, checks, and expenses in QuickBooks Online. 

Also, you don't need to create a bill since you already upload the receipts. I'd suggest deleting the bill payment and bill so that the transactions don't double. This will also correct the negative amount.

Go as follow: 

1. Go to the Expenses tab.
2. Click the Filter drop-down and pick the following: 

• Type: Choose All transactions or Bill or Bill Payments one at a time. 
• Status: Press Paid. 
• Date: Select the appropriate date. 
• Payee: Elect the vendor name.

        3. Hit Apply. 

        4. Double-click the transaction, then press More and Delete. 

Additionally, if there's no record found after uploading your receipt, you can make a new expense transaction from your receipt. Let me show you on how:

1. Choose Review to make corrections or add missing info, then click Save and next.
2. Click Create expense.
3. Follow the on-screen instructions. 

However, if one record is found, please select Match to connect your receipt to the transaction immediately. For more details, check out this article: Upload your receipts to QuickBooks Online. 

Lastly, check out the following articles below to learn the different ways to record payments toward bills and other related matters: 

• Email receipts and bills to QuickBooks Online
• Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to post a reply and tag me in the comments below if you have other questions about your vendor transactions. I'll take care of them for you. I hope everything is clear, @TyC.