Negative AP Balance but no Credits Available

I got you covered, gsilvapo.

The negative balance in Accounts Payables indicates that there are deleted or voided bills. The bill-payment checks are left “hanging” in the system, creating a negative balance in A/P.

here's how to fix it:

1. Go to the Reports.
2. Select Vendors & Payables.
3. Choose the Unpaid Bills Detail report.
4. Scan through the report and look for negative amounts.

If you see any, double click on them. Once you open the bill-payment check, look at the lower half of the screen. Possibly, there will be no bill located here, no amount at all, nothing to indicate that this check was applied to a bill. If so, leave this window open, and follow the step below:

1. Click Save& Close.
2. Enter a bill to the vendor you just saw on the last screen. Be sure to use the same amount you saw on the check. You will need to guess as to the correct due date – better yet, try to locate the original bill so you can get the correct information off it.
3. Choose Enter Bills.
4. Click the Vendors menu.

Additionally, here's a link that will help you learn more about how the product works: Help articles for QuickBooks Desktop.

Get back to me if you need help with something else. I'd be happy to assist. Enjoy the rest of the day!

Hi, gsilvapo.

Hope you’re doing great. I wanted to see how everything is going about the negative balance on your Accounts Payable (AP). Was it resolved? Do you need any additional help or clarification? If you do, just let me know. I’d be happy to help you at any time.

Looking forward to your reply. Have a pleasant day ahead!

Hi there,

I have been able to locate the negative balance in the report, however, I have not been able to clear the balance by creating another bill.

Looks like the payment that was performed was an overpayment creating a negative balance. However, if I create another bill with the exact same amount I get a payable in the report and then the negative balance. Which is not what I want to do as I want to remove the negative balance.

This negative balance dates back to a payment in prior year, so I also don't want to alter any prior year balances.

Thanks,

Thanks for coming back to us, @gsilvapo.

Deleting a bill may cause discrepancies in the accounts payable. We can resolve this by opening the Bill Payment Check and apply it to the right bill. Let me show you how to do it.

Let's start with writing a check:

1. Go to the Banking menu, then select Write Checks.

2. Enter the vendor name, date, and payment amount.

3. Go to the Expenses tab. In the Account column, enter Accounts Payable.

4. In the Customer: Job column, select the drop-down, then choose the vendor name.

5. Select Save & Close.

If you already have the amount of the bill to be paid, you can now enter them.

Here's how:

1. Go to the Vendors menu.

2. Select Enter Bills.

3. Fill in the necessary information.

4. Hit Save & Close.

After that, you can now link the check to the bill:

1. Go to the Vendors menu.

2. Hit on Pay Bills.

3. Highlight the bill you want to associate with the prepayment.

4. Select Set Credits.

5. The prepayment will display on the Set Credits screen. Make sure it is checked, then select Done.

I've added a link about fixing issues when the bill shows unpaid after writing a check-in QuickBooks Desktop: Bill shows as unpaid after writing a check-in QuickBooks Desktop.

Additionally, I'll reference these articles to give you more details in paying bills and understanding the Chart of Accounts in QuickBooks Desktop:

• Understand the chart of accounts in QuickBooks

• Pay bills in QuickBooks Desktop

Keep in touch if there's anything else I can help you with. I've always got you covered. Take care always.

The problem though is that I have no credits to apply to the bill. It shows 0 even though I have a negative AP balance.

Hi Maybelle,

The problem that I am having though is that I have no credits to apply to a bill despite having a negative AP balance in the vendor.

I already tried doing what you mentioned below and applying the credit.

Is there another solution? I already checked with the vendor and we are sure that we don't have any credits, and as such I want this negative AP balance in the vendor gone.

Thanks,

Thanks for the prompt response, @gsilvapo. I appreciate you for following the steps shared by my colleagues. Allow me to chime in and share additional details to clear the AP balance of your vendor.

The credit will still show on the report even if it's already tied to a bill or not. To isolate why the credits are not showing, let's run the Transactions History of the credit to see if it's applied to a bill.  

1. Go to the Reports menu at the top. 
2. Select Transaction History.
3. Set the necessary filters.

From there, check the bill associated with the credit. If it's already applied, you can create another vendor credit, just make sure that there's isn't a duplicate transaction. Also, make sure that the vendor credit is set up as A/P so it will show on the Pay Bills screen.

However, if it's still not showing, a data integrity issue could be the reason why this is happening. In this case, let's run the  Verify Rebuild Data tool that helps identify and repairs data issues within your company file. Here's what you'll need to do:

1. Click the File menu at the top.
2. Go to Utilities, then choose Verify Data.
3. If QuickBooks detected no problems, there's no further action needed. If you receive a message, "Your data has lost integrity", the file is damaged. Just continue to Rebuild Data to correct the problem.
4. When you Rebuild Data, you'll receive a message to back up your company file, just click OK. The utility starts as soon as the backup is finished.
5. Click OK when you get the message "Rebuild has completed".
6. Run Verify Data again to check for remaining data damage.

For more details about the Verify/Rebuild process, check this article: Verify and Rebuild Data in QuickBooks Desktop. You'll also want to visit this link for more troubleshooting steps: Fix data damage on your QuickBooks Desktop company file.

Once done, go back to the Pay Bills tab and click the Set Credits button if the credits will show. See screenshots for reference.

Just in case you need to run specific reports for your vendor, feel free to check out this article to learn how to run and customize the report: Customize vendor reports.

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

Remember when running your AP summary it is for a specific say (point in time) if the bill that is paid is in the future it will show negative until that day arrives.

-Rasheybot2024 &

Goodrat