vendor payment

@Luna1383  I am not clear on why you used A/P in the Journal Entry (JE). If they gave you a refund for a payment you did not owe them, there seems to be no reason to re-assume a debt to them.

Using the relevant Insurance Expense in place of the A/P account in the JE would have sufficed.

If you owed $336.97 to them, a bill should have been created for said $336.97 payment to be applied to.

Maybe I'm missing something, though.

I'm sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself well. Initially, an invoice for this expense was created for the total amount of the insurance, $5,493, and monthly payments are being made. A payment of $361.97 was made on 05-18-24, and subsequently, we received a refund of this amount on 06-06-24. Since the payment made in May had already been reconciled...I made a journal entry for this refund received: Dr. Bank $361.97 / Cr. A/P $361.97 so that it would appear again in my vendor account as a debt, increasing my payable amount for the vendor. 

Subsequently, a new payment of $336.97 was made on 06-11-24, which needed to be applied to that journal entry. When I made the payment, I wrote a check and applied it to the journal entry of $361.97. It was applied, but when I checked the journal entry in the vendor account, it still shows the entire amount of $361.97 as an open balance. I don't understand why the amount wasn't reduced, as I applied the $336.97 payment to this journal entry.   Currently, the original invoice has an outstanding balance of $1,355.63 due to the payments already made to this invoice. Including the journal entry I made for $361.97, the debt increases to $1,717.60.

I'm sorry, maybe I didn't explain myself well. Initially, an invoice for this expense was created for the total amount of the insurance, $5,493, and monthly payments are being made. A payment of $361.97 was made on 05-18-24, and subsequently, we received a refund of this amount on 06-06-24. Since the payment made in May had already been reconciled...I made a journal entry for this refund received: Dr. Bank $361.97 / Cr. A/P $361.97 so that it would appear again in my vendor account as a debt, increasing my payable amount for the vendor. 

Subsequently, a new payment of $336.97 was made on 06-11-24, which needed to be applied to that journal entry. When I made the payment, I wrote a check and applied it to the journal entry of $361.97. It was applied, but when I checked the journal entry in the vendor account, it still shows the entire amount of $361.97 as an open balance. I don't understand why the amount wasn't reduced, as I applied the $336.97 payment to this journal entry.   Currently, the original invoice has an outstanding balance of $1,355.63 due to the payments already made to this invoice. Including the journal entry I made for $361.97, the debt increases to $1,717.60.

@Luna1383  I am still not following your situation, but for the purposes of your question, I suppose it doesn't matter.

Your issue seems to be that you are trying to use JEs to fix this situation when you'd be better off with credit memos and otherwise working within the vendor system. JEs are great, but QB's internals don't always interact with them the way you would think.

I don't have anything else of value to add here, but I'll tag a couple of the heavyweight users, see if they have anything to add. Good luck.

@BigRedConsulting @Rainflurry 

Thank you very much. The thing is, this refund needed to be added as a debt again because when the payment was made and reconciled, the original invoice's outstanding balance was reduced. For this reason, I need to add it back as a payable debt. I apologize if I haven't explained myself well.

@Luna1383 

"When I made the payment, I wrote a check and applied it to the journal entry of $361.97. It was applied, but when I checked the journal entry in the vendor account, it still shows the entire amount of $361.97 as an open balance. I don't understand why the amount wasn't reduced, as I applied the $336.97 payment to this journal entry."

Go to the 6-11-24 check for $336.97 and double-click on it.  Click on the Reports tab at the top, then click on Transaction History.  Under "Bills Paid", do you see the journal entry listed?  I'm guessing not because if you had made a payment of $336.97 and applied it to the journal entry of $361.97, QB would have created a $0.00 bill payment because the credit created by the check was less than the journal entry.  If you can post a screenshot of the Transaction History, that would be a big help.  

@Luna1383 

The Vendor Open Balance report you posted shows the payment was applied to the journal entry (JE) so everything is working properly, except the erroneous amount in the open balance column under the vendor.  QB struggles with JEs sometimes as they are not the preferred way to make entries.  Anytime you can use a form (invoice, bill, credit memo, etc.) instead of a JE, it's best to do so.  I have random instances where JEs don't even show under the vendor.  In the future, for situations like this, it's best to create a bill and on the Expense tab, enter your bank account.  That will do the exact same thing as a journal entry that debits cash and credit A/P but QB will handle it better.  

Good Morning

Thank you very much for your help.  I am sending the transaction report.

Thank you very much for everything @Rainflurry   

I sincerely apologize. So, from now on, is it better not to use JEs in QB? And as you said, it's better to use any other document (invoices, checks, credits, etc.). Just to clarify if I understood correctly. Thank you very much again.

Good morning.

Thank you very much for recommending me to @Rainflurry & @BigRedConsulting    

Have an excellent day.

I sincerely apologize, I forgot to ask you. Will the erroneous amount in the open balance column under the vendor affect the vendor's account or my accounting? Do I need to change anything? Should I leave it as is? Thank you very much.

RE: It [a bill payment check] was applied [to the journal], but when I checked the journal entry in the vendor account, it still shows the entire amount of $361.97 as an open balance. I don't understand why the amount wasn't reduced, as I applied the $336.97 payment to this journal entry. 

It's probably just the way Journals are represented in that view on the Vendor record's history. Generally Journals aren't A/P transactions or thought of as being 'payable' or as paying bills.

This is a reason to use Bill Credits when you get a vendor credit instead of Journals, as @FishingForAnswers suggested.

@Luna1383 

"So, from now on, is it better not to use JEs in QB?"

Use JEs only when necessary.  Using bills/vendor credits are best when you want to credit/debit A/P and invoices/credit memos when you want to debit/credit A/R.  JEs always work to post to your general ledger but QB can get confused by them when running reports.  Also, QB cannot differentiate cash vs. accrual using JEs - they will show on both reports.      

@Luna1383  RE: So, from now on, is it better not to use JEs in QB?

I agree with @Rainflurry 

I'd answer this way:

- Short answer: Yes, it's better.

- Long answer:

Some accounting events ('transactions') are naturally recorded as Journals in QuickBooks. For example, if you use account registers to record transactions in asset or liability accounts, those transactions become Journals. You might record interest expense in a loan account this way, by adding it to the account's register.

Additionally, QuickBooks sometimes creates Journals as a result of some scripted feature such as receiving a payment for multiple Customer:Jobs at once, or entering adjustments of one type or another.

All of the above works well.

However, it is best to avoid using the Journal form to record any transactions that use A/R or A/P accounts. Doing so can cause all sorts of usability issues, such as when things look weird in reports or on statements, and also can cause actual real problems for some reports and other features, which don't correctly work with Journals. (They might be exuded from a report, for example, leading to incorrect conclusions when viewing the report).