How to link a check to a Bill

I am going to mark this as an acceptable solution because it will work in the future. It does not answer my question on how to fix what was done in the past. I had special circumstances that this general solution does not address.

Hello there, @DTetzlaff.

I appreciate you for taking your time in getting back to us. I'd like to furnish you with additional information on how to link the check you've entered to a Bill.

There are two options on how you can record vendor prepayments or deposits for prepaid parts or services: 

• Use Accounts Payable to record prepayment
• Use an Asset account to track the prepayment

Here's how to record and link your transactions:

1. Create an Other Current Asset (OCA) account to track prepayments.
   1. Go to the Lists menu.
   2. Select Chart of Accounts.
   3. In the Chart of Accounts, right-click anywhere, then select New.
   4. From the Other Account Type drop-down, choose Other Current Asset.
   5. Click Continue.
   6. Enter Prepaid Inventory as the Account Name.
   7. Hit Save & Close.
2. Write a check to your Vendor.
   1. Click the Banking menu.
   2. Select Write Checks
   3. Enter the vendor name, date, and the payment amount.
   4. Go to the Expenses tab.
   5. In the Account column, select the OCA account.
   6. Select Save & Close.
3. Enter the bill when the items arrive.
   1. Select the Vendors menu.
   2. Choose Enter Bills.
   3. Go to the Expenses tab.
   4. Choose the OCA account.
   5. Enter the amount of the prepayment as a negative value.
   6. On the Items tab, enter the items.
   7. Click Save & Close.
4. Pay the bill balance.
   1. Go to the Vendors menu.
   2. Select Pay Bills.
   3. Choose the balance due after the prepayment is applied.
   4. Click Pay Selected Bills.

That should do it! This will allow you to accurately record your vendor prepayments and link it with a bill.

Stay in touch with us here in the Community if you have other questions about managing vendor prepayments in QuickBooks Desktop. I'm always here to help.

This is fine... I was going to do just that.  BUT my check was already cleared and account balanced in a previous month... so deleting the check means I have to back out reconciliations.  WISH there was a way to point the cleared check to the bill!  I didn't catch the problem for a couple of months as the bill came in much later... 

I appreciate you looping in the thread, @ecsailing.

You can choose this option if the check has been reconciled.

1. Open the check you created. Change the Expense account to Accounts Payable.
2. From the Customer: Job dropdown, select the vendor name. If you don't enter a name, QuickBooks will ask you to choose a vendor for the Accounts Payable line item.
3. Select Save & Close.

Next, pay the bill.

1. Go to the Vendors menu, then select Pay Bills.
2. Select the bill connected to the check.
3. Choose Set Credits, then go to the Credits tab.
4. Put a check on the credit. Change the amount as needed.
5. Select Done. Then select Pay Selected Bills.

When checking your transaction history, this will show the regular check as the payment. 

Let me know if you have any questions. I’m always here to help. Enjoy your day!

I have a similar situation. I have a cleared check that I need to link to a bill that is showing up as unpaid. However, when I open the check I don't have the option to change expense accounts like you mentioned above. I've included an image of my cleared check. The check only shows a list of bills paid with this transaction - in this case none. In this case, how can I link this check to an unpaid bill?

Hello, @mechanicalflower.

The check you're trying to update is a bill payment check. You have accidentally deleted the bill associate with it. Let's open your audit trail to check who and when the bill was removed. Then, let's recreate and reapply the bill payment.

Here's how to view your audit trail:

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Choose the Accountant and Taxes.
3. Select Audit Trail.
   • You can click the Customize button to filter the audit trail. This way, you can locate the deleted bill easily.

Once completed, let's recreate the bill. Just make sure to enter the same bill date and details.

1. Go to the Vendors menu.
2. Pick Enter Bills.
3. Enter the bill details.
4. Click Save and Close.

Now, let's link the bill payment check to the bill. Here's how:

1. Open the newly created bill.
2. Click the Pay Bill button.
3. From the Pay Bills window, mark the bill you want to pay.
4. Select the Set Credits button.
5. From the Credits tab, choose the credits you want to use to pay the bill.
6. Click Done.
7. Review the Pay Bills details again.
8. Hit Pay Selected Bills.

You can refer to this article for more insights about to clear your vendors' open transactions: A paid bill or invoice shows on report or window of open transactions.

Keep me posted if you have other questions about managing your transactions in QuickBooks. I'm always here to help.

Hi @IamjuViel,

Thanks for your reply. However, this still doesn't solve the issue. There are no credits that show up for the vendor when I go to pay bills. The original bill wasn't deleted. I believe what happened is that a check was used to pay the bill from the Write Checks window instead of from Pay Bills, so the check was never linked to the bill and it's still showing up as open. The check has since cleared the bank and has been reconciled - so I need to link the cleared check to the bill. However, I do not have the option to change the expense account on the check, as mentioned above.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi there, @mechanicalflower.

Thanks for actively responding. I appreciate you for following the steps provided by my colleague, @IntuitLily, and @IamjuViel. 

Looking at your screenshot, it looked like the bill associated with it was deleted. Since this isn't true to you, you should see an open bill for this in the Pay bill section.

Now, let's check the box for the unpaid bills to show the available credits as shown in the screenshot below:

Then, use it to pay the bill as shown in the screenshot below: 

This will now link the cleared checks to your bill, and marked as paid. 

For future reference, read through these links to learn more about bill payments in QuickBooks Desktop:

• Pay bills in QuickBooks Desktop. It has a basic guide on how to apply the corresponding discount or credit for each payment you're going to make. 
• Use QuickBooks Bill Pay. This helps you pay your bills directly in QuickBooks Desktop and automatically records your payment so you'll have an accurate report.

Know that we're always delighted to help in any way we can if you have more questions. Stay safe. 

Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Accept as solution".

Hi @katherinejoyceO,

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately in my case there are no credits available for this vendor. 

Thanks for getting back to us, @mechanicalflower.

Let's run the Transaction Detail Report to see the available credit of your vendors and customers. 

1. Go to Reports, select Custom Reports, then Transaction Detail.
2. The Modify Report: custom Transaction Detail Report opens automatically.
3. On the Display tab, add the Open Balance column, then remove other columns when necessary.
4. On the Filter tab:
5. Select the  Accounts Payable account.

The Open Balance column is where you can see the unapplied or remaining credit of your clients.

Once done, you can follow the steps outlined by my colleague @IntuitLily on how to link the check to the bill.

Also, I'm adding this article on how to create, modify, and print checks. It provides steps and figures that will guide through the steps.

Keep in touch with me here should you need any additional assistance, I'm always around to lend a hand. Have a good one.

Thank you so much for working with me on this, @JoesemM.

I followed the steps you outlined, but there are still no credits showing up for this vendor. I attached a screenshot of the resulting report, with notes that will hopefully give you a clearer idea of what might be going on.

Thanks again for your help.

Welcome back to the Community, @mechanicalflower.

I appreciate you for following all the resolution steps provided by my peers and sharing the result.

You should be able to see the Total Credits Available for the transaction. Let’s view the transaction history for the bill payment check.

This is to check which transaction it’s applied to. With just a few clicks you can perform this task.

1. Go to the Vendors menu at the top to choose the Vendor Center.
2. From the list, click on the vendor’s name to open the Vendor Information page.
3. Tap the Transactions tab to see the bill payment check.
4. Right-click beside the entry to choose View Transaction History.
   
5. This will open a window showing the bill payment information.
   
6. In the Bills Paid section, check the bill and make sure it’s the right one.

If the entry showing in the Transaction History window is incorrect, void the bill payment check to unlink it.  The following guide provides detailed information when to remove a bill or payment check: Void or delete a bill or bill payment check.

Once don, recreate the transaction and apply it to the right bill.  If none of these suggestions work, I recommend you get in touch with our Technical Support Team.

They can access your company file and transactions in a secure space. Aside from that, our specialists have tools to help perform in-depth troubleshooting.

Once the resolution is available, they’ll guide you through the process on how to resolve the issue. Here's how to contact them:

1. Tap the Help section of the company file to see the contact details.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help to open the Have a Question window.
3. Press the Contact us link to see the Contact Us screen.
4. Click the Search for something else link to enter the issue or topic in the field box.
5. Hit the Search button to display the Start a Message menu.

You can bookmark the Fixing Accounts Payable Errors in QuickBooks article for future reference. It contains tips on how to resolve account payable issues.

Please know the Community has your back. If you have any other concerns, post a comment below. I’ll pop right back in to assist further. Have a good one.

You are awesome!  This is perfect!

Here is my response to this common problem:

Attaching a bill to a payment after reconciliation (DESKTOP)

The need for this procedure arises when a payment has been entered and reconciled before it is attached to a bill. The payment is reconciled but the bill is not so the bill persists in the Pay Bills list after the corresponding payment has been entered. The bill appear unders “Home > Pay Bills.” The payment appears under the vendor’s name under “Vendor Information”

1. Open the payment (either Cheque or Credit Card charge).
2. Change the Account to “Accounts Payable” and enter the Vendor’s name under Customer/Job.
3. Change the TAX to no tax (E) and Amount to the total amount. Save and close.
4. Open “Home > Pay Bills” and scroll to the Vendor name. Check the box to the left. (The Vendor name must be in the list because the bill is unreconciled.)  
5. Select the vendor (Click the box) and Choose “Set Credits” (third button below).
6. In the Set Credits box, choose the credit item created in steps 2 and 3 above. And click “Done”
7. Ensure the Vendor name line is selected and the check box checked. Click “Pay Selected Bills”.
8. Under Home > Vendor Information <the vendor> check that the payment (Check of Credit Card Charge) is “CLEARED” and that the bills are “PAID”.

Thank you for this clear explanation. It was perfect!

I am having this same issue right now.  I was behind on entering bills so I just wrote a check and put it to a "clearing account".  Same as you, the original check is now cleared and here is what I did. 

• Be sure to take note of the exact amount and date it was paid.
• Enter the bills as you would normally
• Go into pay bills and pay bills and choose "assign check number"  Yes, this will create a duplicate check number.
• Then to into your check register.  (I sort by amount)  You will see both the original check and the check with the proper bills linked to it.
• Make a check mark in your register to clear the new check.
• Delete the original check from the register.

Even though you have reconciled, you are replacing the exact amount of the check with one that is linked with the bills and it has cleared, so it will not effect your reconciled bank account at all.

I hope this helps.  I have been doing this all day trying to play catch up :-)

This is the best method.  Thank you for your clear and accurate response.  I have used this method with success several times now.

Good morning.  I had this same issue and was able to correct it to reflect the paid amount to the vendor. I made a deposit payment in March, did not receive the bill until July.  

Right Click and select to edit the transaction

Make sure the date of the bill is before the payment.  

In the column, "Account", change to Account Payable

In the column, "Customer Job", make sure the vendor is reflected.  

That is how i did it and it worked and showed a zero balance. 

Hope this helps. 

I have several vendors that checks were written for, in the write checks app.  They do appear as credits on the unpaid report, along with the actual invoice.  When I try to attempt to pay the open invoice, in pay bills, this credit does not appear in the set credits??

Thank you RandyRN

The accounts payable will not let me put the Vendor name in the account column.  I am sending a screenshot of the error message.

Thanks for joining this thread, @sweetsue1010. Let me share some information about credits in QuickBooks.

Let's make sure to select your Accounts Payable account for your deposit so you can successfully record your vendor's credit. This way, it'll be also recorded as an available credit to be applied as payments for your bills. 

Here's how:

1. Select Banking and click Make Deposits.
2. Under RECEIVED FROM, choose your vendor.
3. On the FROM ACCOUNT column, select your Accounts Payable account.
4. Enter the amount of your vendor's credit.
5. Click Save & Close.

Then, link the deposit to your vendor's credit:

1. Proceed to Vendors and choose Enter Bills.
2. Select Credit and choose your vendor.
3. Select the account or item of your vendor's credit.
4. Enter the amount.
5. Lastly, click Save & Close.

Once done, you can now successfully pay your bills with the vendor's credit you just recorded. For more information, you may check out this article: Record a Vendor Refund in QuickBooks Desktop.

Additionally, let me share this relevant resource you can utilize for your future tasks about recording your vendor's credit: Transfer and Apply Credit from one Vendor to Another in QuickBooks Desktop.

Feel free to comment below if you have further questions about paying bills and recording credits in QuickBooks. I'm always around to help. Keep safe!

When I click "Set Credits" I get the attached error. I do not use QB bill pay and I'm not trying to.