Negative bill displayed in the Pay Bills window

Thanks for posting in the Community, @Claudia11.

Allow me to chime in for a moment and help make sure that this is taken care of.

I agree with @Anonymous. The rebuild and verify data utilities are QuickBooks built-in diagnostic and repair tools that comb through, repair, and notify you of data damage within the file.

You can also check out this article for the detailed steps on how to run these tools: Resolve data damage on your company file.

That should help fix the error that you're getting. Please let me know how it goes by leaving a comment below. I'll be here if you need further assistance. Have a good one.

Thank you I will try to do that and I let you know if that was fixed

Thank you for your answer, I will try to do it, I will let you know if I could fixed

It doesn't fix the problem I still having in 

Vendor window, the balance is $199,016.09, which is correct

when I click "Pay bills" then in the Pay Bills window show the list of all the bills and they are ok, just that one show the negative amount -$365,086.61, and doesn't allow select it to make the payment.

The Balance at vendor window is correct, we already made $180,000 on payments, the original amount of the bill was $379,016.09, so it is correct the balance.

I don't know how it can be fix, thank you if anybody could help me.

Good evening Jen_D;

I had the same issue and the rebuild didn't work but removing and re-entering did :) 

Thanks

I ran into the same problem and the rebuild didn't work but the delete and re-enter did!

Thanks :smileyhappy:

Thank you for your answer, I am afraid to delete it an re-enter the bill, I have many other payments made since 2014 every month! what happen with those payments made every month? they are linked with the bill.

The problem started this year, so I have only 3 checks written without a linked to the bill

Ok Thank you, I need to figure out how it was created, I think it was entered like Journal Entry, and I need to review old record to see how it was created.

I have a question, What happen with the payments made for that bill, if I delete the bill?

Thank you.

Thank you for the response, @Claudia11!

Allow me to join in to this thread, share a few insights, and help convert your bill payment into a credit.

With this, here's how you can apply a credit to your unpaid bills:

1. Go to Vendors.
2. Select Pay Bills.
3. Choose one of your unpaid bills.
4. Hit Set Credits.
5. Under the Credits tab, select a credit.
6. Click Done.
7. Select Pay Selected Bills.

This way, your unapplied bill payments will be applied as a credit to your unpaid bills.

In addition, here's an article you can read to learn more about bills payment: Pay Bills in QuickBooks Desktop.

It'll be always my pleasure to help if you have any other questions about your bills and bills payment. Have a great day!

I tried to delete to the "unpaid" bill but it requires a password from when the journal entry was created (back in 2010) before I even worked here.  How do you get around that?

This could potentially be an issue of Target Chaining. 

The most common ways of identifying this issue:

• Open the Unpaid Bills report and look for old bills that are unpaid but should be paid
• Open the Vendors > Pay Bills screen and check for unpaid bills
• In the Chart of Accounts, check if the Accounts Payable account is extremely negative
• Open the Profit & Loss report and check for large balances in Uncategorized Income or Expense
• Open the Vendor Balance Detail and look for negative balances and/or bills showing under No Name
  
  

It is a current limitation in QuickBooks, not a bug. QuickBooks was designed for Small to Mid sized Businesses and this issue only occurs after the file has reached 2 GB or has over a million targets.

Make sure the Cache has been set correctly. 

If possible, restore a backup from BEFORE this happened, typically you should have a backup created right before the rebuild.

If you do, perform the following on your system where Quickbooks is Installed. This should prevent the target chaining issue from happening.

Browse to the respective QBW.INI file stored in

ProgramData: C:\ProgramData\Intuit\QuickBooks Version\

Add the following:
[DBSERVEROPTIONS]
InitialCache=4096M
MaxCache=0

Save the Ini File. 
Be sure Quickbooks is closed out completely as well. 
Restart Quickbooks.

You should be able to see what your current Cache is by clicking F2 and pulling up the Product Information window. Your current Cache will be in the bottom left hand corner. You want this to say "Unlimited". 

We have a negative bill in the pay bills window that was created by JE in a previous year.  I have tried to create a bill to offset, but I cannot click on the negative balance to offset the invoice. -So that did not work. 

I tried a JE.  That did not work either. 

Rebuild did not work either. 

Please let me know if there is any other way to resolve this.  We are running Desktop Contractor 21.0.

Greetings, @3973Acc. 

Thanks for joining in on this thread. It's always great to see a new face here in the Community. 

Since you're unable to offset the negative bill in the pay bills window, I suggest consulting with your accountant to see what the best options are. They'll be able to give you the advice you need for your business.

Let us know how the conversation goes when speaking with your accountant. We want to ensure you get this taken care of as soon as possible. Have a great day!

I'm not sure what this in regards to?

Hi there, LewisOil!

I've read the entire thread and your post 2 years ago. If your question is still related to the negative bill that you couldn't delete because it belongs to a closed period, we can do some steps about it.

Aside from running the verify and rebuild utilities, which is appropriate for cases like this, you can ask your admin user to set a new closing date password. This way, you can use it when deleting the bill. However, please back up your company file and ask for advice from your accountant first to be sure your books are correct.

Set a new closing date password:

1. From the Company menu, select Set Closing Date.
2. Select Set Date/Password.
3. Enter a Closing Date and Closing Date Password.
4. Select OK to close the window.

If you have a different question, please provide more details. The QuickBooks Team is always available to continue helping you.

I also read the entire thread from 2 years ago to find a solution for a same issue I am facing. 
I have an unpaid bill from a closed period( 5 months ago) that I want to get rid of. I do not want to delete it because I do not want to disturb the previous Financial Reports. I want to know if there is an alternative way to handle this. Any help is appreciated.

I know a method for getting rid of those unpaid bills in QuickBooks Desktop, VM15.

To balance your financial data, we can create a journal entry for the current period and link the transaction to your unpaid bills. I recommend consulting with an accountant if you are unsure which accounts to debit and credit.

Here's how to create journal entry with sample screenshots:

1. Click Company at the top menu bar and choose Make General Journal Entries.
   
2. Fill out the fields to create your journal entry. Make sure your debits equal your credits when you’re done.
   
3. Hit Save & Close.

After that, you can use the journal entry to pay off any outstanding bills. We can follow the steps in this article: Pay bills in QuickBooks Desktop.

You can also read the following article: Expenses and vendors. This will provide us with links to help us manage your company's expenses and other vendor transactions.

I'm always available if you have any further questions or concerns. I wish you and your company continued success! 

Maybe I'm missing something, but nothing in this thread has worked. I have a vendor with a zero balance that shows on the AP aging report. First of all, I'm not sure why that would even happen, but more importantly, that vendor shows up in PAY BILLS with a negative bill amount. You cannot select it because of this, so there is no way to apply a credit to it and zero it out. There were JE's done in previous periods that created this negative bill. We have ran verify data and rebuild data multiple times with no results & no changes. Creating yet another JE will not help because the bill is still showing up as negative in PAY BILLS. How do you fix this?

Thanks for joining the thread, MHJ17. Let's navigate together to figure out your aging reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

Rebuilding your file will not work because this is not a data issue. You may have made a bill that has triggered the balance report. If possible, please provide us with screenshots of both the bill and the journal entry that you created. This will help us find the appropriate solution to resolve the issue.

If you're unable to offset the negative bill in the pay bills window, I suggest consulting your accountant for the best course of action. They'll be able to provide you with the advice you need for your business.

In the meantime, we can do these steps to set a new closing date password. By doing this, please note that creating a backup of your company file ensures your books are corrected.

Here's how to set a new closing date password:

1. From the Company menu, choose Set Closing Date.
2. Select Set Date/Password.
3. Enter a Closing Date and Closing Date Password.
4. Click OK to close the window.

Additionally, please check these links which will show you how to fix customer and vendor balances, as well as AR and AP balance issues:

• Resolve AR and AP balances on the cash basis Balance Sheet
• Write off customer and vendor balances

If you have additional concerns about your pay bills, feel free to reply below. I'm always here to assist you.

Accessing the closed period is not an issue, deleting or changing JE's is an issue. Several JE's were created for prior periods in lieu of entering individual transactions when we switched to QBs in 2020. These JE's created a bill with a negative balance due. A negative bill in PAY BILLS can not be selected. Every suggestion made we have tried without solving the issue, so the negative bill will just sit in PAY BILLS. The vendor in question has a zero balance due and was made inactive, but still shows up on the aging report. Why do the aging reports show inactive vendors/customers at all?

Changing the JE will mess up that period (Nov 2019) and every period thereafter, so that is not an option. Verify & rebuild data shows no issues. I am an accountant and I've consulted other accountants. This is not an accounting issue, it's a QB's issue. JE's created a NEGATIVE BILL TO PAY, but a negative bill cannot be selected in the PAY BILLS WINDOW!   A lot of other users seem to have this same issue, so maybe QBs needs to research how and why this is happening at all. 

If anyone else has figured out how to clear this, please let me know!

It seems like you've encountered challenges with QuickBooks regarding negative bills and inactive vendors affecting aging reports. I'm here to help you connect with the best person that can help you.

Since you've already consulted with other accountants and explored various suggestions without success, it is best to connect with our QuickBooks Desktop Support, as it may require assistance from our Customer Care Team. Contact them for further guidance. They also have tools like screen sharing, guiding you through the process and identifying the cause of this issue.

Here's how you can reach them:

1. Open QuickBooks.
2. Go to the Help menu at the top.
3. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
4. Type Contact Us in the search box. Then, click on Contact Us at the bottom.
5. Select the way you wish to connect with support.

Please refer to this article for additional details: Contact QuickBooks Desktop Support.

You can utilize this article for future reference: Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop.

For additional QuickBooks-related concerns, don't hesitate to post them here in the Community. We're always available and willing to lend a hand to your queries. Have a great day ahead.