Help: How do I manually mark an expense/bill as paid?

Congratulations on your new QuickBooks Online account, JRR430. Let's get these bills paid.

Manually paying bills in QuickBooks Online is quick and easy. We can mark them as paid through the Pay bills section, here's how:

1. Click + New in the left panel and choose Pay Bills.
   
2. Select the bills you wanted to pay.
3. Hit Save and close.
   
    

For more details about paying bills in QuickBooks Online, we can scan through the following articles below. We can find other ways how to record payment bills as well as a link to differentiate between bills, checks, and expenses. Also, I'll be adding a write-up about paying bills online:

Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online.

Learn about QuickBooks Bill Pay.

This should keep you moving today, JRR430. Don't hesitate to let me know if I can be of additional assistance while working in QuickBooks or need more help with paying bills. I'm always here to keep helping. Have a good one!

@JRR430 

You can't just mark a bill as paid because that isn't enough information to properly record the bill payment in double-entry accounting.  If you record a bill and then pay it, you are creating transactions that will impact your financial statements in future years.  If this is not a legitimate business yet, but will be in the future, you don't want to do that.   If you were using QB Desktop (a much better product IMO), you could create a practice company file and play around with it all you want since QB Desktop allows you to set up as many companies as you want.  QB Online doesn't allow you to create multiple companies under one subscription. 

However, if these are legitimate business expenses that you have paid personally, then you can pay the bills using a bank clearing account (if you don't have one, set one up).  Then, create a journal entry and debit the bank clearing account and credit owner equity.  If you want to just record this as an FYI, that is not really what QB is intended to do.    

This is helpful but my issue is that both with the QB provided practice company examples and a template file provided to me by my accountant based on my past expenses to get started, I've not yet seen this + New button anywhere. I'm sure it is probably human error. For what it's worth, I have Desktop Pro Plus 2022 online subscription. The transactions I'm entering are from earlier 2022, before getting QB.

Let me clarify some details about marking the bill as paid, JRR430.

In QuickBooks Desktop, you can go to the Pay Bills window to settle your payables. To locate the bills you want to pay, select theShow all bills option on the Pay Bills window, then scroll up or down to find the bill. You can run the Transactions List by Vendors report to check if you've already paid the bill. Here's how:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Select Vendors & Payables, then Transaction List by Vendor.
3. Select Customize Report, then Billing Status from the Column section.
4. Select OK.

Then, you can now pay the bills. I've provided the steps below for you to follow: 

1. Go to the Vendors menu, then select Pay Bills.
2. Select the correct accounts payable account from the dropdown.
3. Select the checkboxes of the bills you want to pay from the table.
   Note: To unmark or mark all the bills in the list, select Clear Selections or Select All Bills.
4. Set any discount or credit that you want to apply to the bills.
   • Discount - Select this if your vendor gave you a discount for this transaction.
   • Credit - Select this if you received a credit from your vendor, and used it to reduce your total bill amount.
5. Enter the date you paid the bill.
6. Select the payment method:
   • Check - Select the Assign check number if you plan to manually write the check. Select To be Printed to print the check or add it to the list of checks to print.
   • Credit Card - You can use credit cards to pay bills, then print a payment stub.
   • Online Bill Payment - You can directly pay your vendor bills in QuickBooks. It also records your payment automatically so your reports are accurate.
   • Online Bank Payment - The payment processor will print and mail a check to the employee. You can select Include reference number if you want the bill or credit reference number to be sent along with your name and account number.
   • Cash, Debit or ATM card, Paypal, or EFT - You can select Check, then Assign check number even when you’re not paying with an actual check. Enter the type of payment in the check number field or leave it blank.
7. Select Pay Selected Bills.
8. Select Done, or select Pay More Bills if you have other bills you need to pay.

Please know when you pay the bill, you don't have to write a check. If you do, the bill remains open and unpaid which leads to inaccurate financial reports. In addition, QuickBooks Desktop lets you add and match bank transactions in according to the modes you used. Learn how QuickBooks handles them by going through this article for your reference: Add And Match Bank Feed Transactions In QuickBooks Desktop.

Anything else that you need help with? Anyway, just let us know and we are sure ready to help you all the time.

@JRR430 

Your original post says you're using QB Online so that's where the confusion is.

@Rainflurry 

Thanks for the response and the tips.

Hello. So I have some questions on this topic as well. When I receive a vender statement I go in and select every invoice(bill) to match & pay the vender statement whether it be printing a check or ach I do this process the same. I have this recurring issue that quickbooks online seems to try to manipulate my selections on its own after the fact and then the next month I find the selections are different than what I originally showed on the bills & applied payments report?! I am wondering if after I make all my selections, match the stmt & print the check if I can go in to settings a lock it so QB cannot make indirect or automatic changes? I had it happen when I paid an Oct22 stmt and it actually selected items from 2021!  The only info I could get from the audit trail is that another use "indirectly edited the payment" I know she would not have selected 2021 invoices though so its not making sense to me and I am hoping someone out there has some insight to what QBO is doing or if there is some sort of setting I can turn off!?! Any input is appreciated!

Also when I need a "remittance" report for my vendor I have been utilizing hte bills & Applied Payments report; is there a better report for this purpose?

thanks

-Lori

Hi there, Lori. I'm here to lend a hand.

If you utilize the Bank Rules feature in QuickBooks Online (QBO), it'll automatically categorize your transactions from your bank. And this is the reason why you said it's manipulating your selections. 

To verify the created bank rules, here's what you'll need to do:

1. In the left menu, click Banking or Transactions.
2. Go to the Rules tab.
3. Locate the specific bank rule.
4. Click the Edit dropdown button under the Action tab.

From there, you'll see how your transactions are categorized automatically.

For more details on how the bank rules feature works, I recommend checking this article: Set up bank rules to categorize online banking transactions in QuickBooks Online.

As for your other concern, if you pull up the Bills and Applied payments report, it'll show all the payments you’ve made and the bills that go with them. To ensure we're on the same page, may I know what specific information you wanted to have on the report? So I can guide you on running the report you need.

In the meantime, to learn more how to run report in QuickBooks Online, visit these articles:

• Run reports
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online

Please know that you're welcome to post here anytime you need help. I'm more than happy to work with you. Have a great day and more success in your business.

i have an add on question i believe to this same topic -

I am trying to pay multiple bills for a vendor that i have entered and the payment was made via EFT. when i tell QB Online that i want to pay the bills, from the bank account to reconcile correctly in QB, it shows it trying to force it to switch to cutting a check. the funds were already transferred and paid via EFT, i just need to note them as paid with the date and EFT for the total amount. is there a way to do a batch that was paid via EFT and just note them as paid or do i have to mark each individual bill?

Not sure if you've resolved it, but I was researching the same issue.  If you created the bill as a bill payement due, then paid the bill outside of QB online, meaning you did not use the pay bills function, instead went to your bank bill pay or direct to the vendor site, QB does not know you did that.  You can go back to the pay bills icon, click on a bill which will allow you to edit it. Then, at the bottom, click the more button and select delete. The "accounts payable" that was there should not be gone.

Hello all, and thank you in advance for your help!  I have QuickBooks Desktop Premier Plus. How do I mark a bill that has been paid already by a credit card?  I first generated a purchase order since this is an inventory item.  I then received the item against the purchase order.  Now I have a bill that needs to be paid, that has already been paid.

Thanks again!  

Hey there, @francined. 

Thanks for chiming in on this thread. 

To clarify, have you already enter the payment in QuickBooks? 

If so, you should be able to connect the bill to that payment. This is the way QuickBooks is suppose to work, it reflects what happens in real life. 

If you took a credit card payment for the bill then you'll need to either enter or match the credit card bill to the payment in QuickBooks. 

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask. Have a wonderful day! 

Hello Candice, and thank you for replying.  

We do not pay anything with a credit card through QuickBooks.  This was paid with a credit card and I am now trying to receive the inventory item in against the purchase order that I generated.  Should I not have generated a purchase order and just updated the quantities? 

Thanks for the clarifications, @francined. 

If you want to keep track of your orders and expenses, creating a Purchase Order is advisable. Also, if your business doesn't track the goods and services you order, you can directly enter bills. 

Moreover, since you mentioned in your initial post that you already entered a bill against the inventory, we can use the Pay Bills option to mark it as paid. Let me walk you through the steps on how to do so.

1. On the top navigation menu, select Vendors, then choose Pay Bills.
2. Select the appropriate accounts payable account from the dropdown.
3. Tick the checkboxes of the bills you want to pay.
4. Set any discount or credit that you wish to apply to the bills.
5. Input the date you paid the bill.
6. Choose the payment method.
7. Click Pay Selected Bills. 
8. Select Done, or select Pay More Bills if you have other bills you need to pay.

You can visit this article for reference and additional information: Pay bills in QuickBooks Desktop.

In the meantime, you can check out these articles to learn more about reports in QBDT and how you can personalize them: 

• Understand reports.
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to return to this post if you need further help recording the inventory item in QBDT. We're always available to assist you.

I am not sure how else to explain my question.  

1.  I generated a purchase order for inventory items, and paid for those inventory items using a credit card a few weeks ago.  

2.  We are now in receipt of those inventory items.  How do I get them into QuickBooks. . 

Hi francined,

I'm here to help record the transaction.

Since you already paid the purchase order, I'll take that there's a bill created. If so, let's record the items and the corresponding bill. Here's how:

1. Go to the Receive Inventory drop-down, then select Receive Inventory with Bill.
2. On the Enter Bills window, select a vendor's name.
3. Select Yes to receive a purchase order for the bill.
4. Click Save & Close.

Once done, you can now proceed to pay the bill. Then, make sure to select Credit Card as the payment method. I've added this article as your guide: Pay Bills.

Moreover, to see the complete list of workflows and other vendor-related transactions, you can check this reference: Accounts Payable Workflow.

Keep me posted anytime you have concerns about managing transactions.