How do I set up a bill that is autopayed?

You can sign up for a separate Melio account for free to manage and schedule your bill payments easily. You can also pay your bills for free by ACH and integrate it with QBO.

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Hey there, @dennishouse. 

Great having you here with us in the QuickBooks Community. Congrats on the new QuickBooks. I hope it helps you with keeping track of everyday expenses. I'm 100% with you on finding a better way to manage funds. 

So as you've already mentioned, utilities are never the same amount each month. With that said, you'll run into issues setting recurring payments or bills. When you use the recurring features, the amounts must stay the same from bill to bill and payment to payment. 

However, I'm glad that you mentioned reminders. I think this would be the best option for you. This way, QuickBooks will let you know that you have an upcoming bill, and you can enter it and then record the payment as needed. 

Before I jump into setting up a reminder, I wanted to go over how to create and manage bills. 

1. Select + New.
2. Choose Bill.
3. From the Vendor dropdown, tap on a vendor.
4. From the Terms dropdown, select the bill's terms. This is when your vendor 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, click on the expense account you use to track expense transactions. Then enter a description. 
7. Enter the Amount and tax.
8. When you're done, select Save and close.

Please know that bills added manually appear directly in the Unpaid tab. Because you added the bill, you don't need to review it. From here: 

1. Go to Get paid & pay, then Bills.
2. The Bills page contains the For review, Unpaid, and Paid tabs.
3. Go to the Unpaid tab. This tab lists all of your unpaid bills and if they are due later, soon, or overdue.
   • Schedule payment: Use a QuickBooks connected bank or credit card to pay for the bill powered by Online Bill Pay.
   • 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 either Save, Save and schedule payment, or Mark as paid.

Now that we have that covered, here's how you can set up a reminder: 

1. Go to the Gear Icon. 
2. Click on Recurring Transactions. 
3. In the top right corner, tap on New.
4. From the pop-up window, choose Bill as the transaction type. 
   • 
5. Hit OK. 
6. At the top of the bill, under the Type section, be sure to select Reminder. Then enter how many days you would like to be reminded before it's due. 
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That should do it. For additional information about managing bills, check out Enter and manage bills in QuickBooks Online. 

I hope this helps you out. Feel free to reach back out if you have any questions or concerns. Have a good one, Dennis!