How do I enter a bill into QB after it has been paid? Payment was made without an invoice and now I need to enter this Inv. How do I do this correctly?

You don't need use Enter Bill at all, unless the date of the bill and the date of the payment are different, and you are on Accrual Basis for accounting. The Enter Bill process allows you to enter something you do NOT intend to pay until a later date.

You go directly to Write check for Checks, Debit cards, and Cash. You use Enter Credit Card Charge when you bought something and already put it on the charge card.

You don't have to enter Bills after the fact, in nearly all cases. If you are Prepaying supplies, that is tracked as an Other Asset and applied to the bill, later.

"I notice that when I'm entering the bill and selecting it to pay without printing a cheque, it now sits waiting for me to print.  So every time I try to pay a different bill for a different vendor, I have to uncheck those sitting waiting for cheque to be printed."

That is because you are confusing Not Printing with Not Creating. You Created another check; it just hasn't been printed and is seen in the checking account register. If you also entered your own check previously, you now have that expense entered twice: The detail on the check and the detail on the Bill; plus the Bank has two checks for the same expense.

Never Entered Data Twice, using two different methods.

"Oh okay...I was told by the last person here to do this and it didn't sound correct to me.  So now how do I reverse this?  Should I just delete what I have entered into QB?"

You simply need to make sure your Expenditure details are on the Check or Credit card, or the Enter Bill. You don't want these details on more than one transaction.

And I don't know if you are a cash or accrual basis entity.

"It should correct itself after i have deleted it right?"

Delete anything you don't need. Confirm everything you are keeping has the right details.

@SkinnyRaven 

@qbteachmt 

@teresa3 

Can anyone help me?

i'm making a payment to a vendor before i entered the bill because i didn't receive it yet. how should i enter the payment so that it should be linked to the bill, once i receive it?

You can create a Check to record the payment that you made, Z Zee.

Then, make sure to use the Accounts Payable account in the Expense tab so you can link it to the bill in the future. Here's how:

1. Go to the Banking menu and select Write Checks.
2. Proceed to the Expenses tab and select the Accounts Payable account.
3. Enter all other details of the payment.
4. Click Save and close.

Then, follow these steps once the bill is recorded and you're ready to mark it as Paid: 

1. Go to the Vendors menu, then select Pay Bills.
2. Select the bill connected to the check.
3. Click Set Credits, then go to the Credits tab.
4. Put a check on the credit or the payment that you made. 
5. Select Done, then select Pay Selected Bills.

Please see these articles for more details: 

• Bill Shows as Unpaid After Writing a Check in QuickBooks Desktop
• Record Vendor Prepayments or Deposits for Prepaid Parts or Services

You might also be interested in running vendor reports to quickly the transactions. Here's an article as a reference: Customize Vendor Reports.

I'd be happy to help if you need anything else. Just reply to me or post more questions and we'll take care of them.  

@JenoP 

Thank you for your helpful response.

when trying to follow your steps, i created a check but it only let me enter a vendor name by customer/job name and i need to enter a job/ customer name in order to track all transactions for this specific job.

any advice?

Thanks for getting back with the Community, Z Zee.
 

When creating your check, you can enter the customer/job name in your Memo field. 

You can also find many detailed resources about using QuickBooks in our help article archives.
 

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any additional questions.

I got a notification that someone used my name :)

"and i need to enter a job/ customer name in order to track all transactions for this specific job.

any advice?"

There is no Job Tracking this payment, because you have not yet bought anything for that job. Throwing money at the supplier is a Prepayment. Also, putting it as AP creates negative AP, or backwards liability. You should check with your own accountant if you are supposed to post it as Vendor Prepayment (your Other Asset) and not backwards Liability (AP).

Right now, this is just a part of Banking and not the actual purchase. Later, when you make the entry for job tracked details, you will want to enter the Gross, then this prepayment will reduce that to Net new money to be paid. Job Track the Gross entries.

If you want to show what you are paying for and job track that, such as, Half of roofing materials and Half of electrical labor, you would make a PO. Swap quantity and Rate, so that Rate is always $1.

Now make a bill from that PO, as Partial Amounts. That's how you Job Track that something for a job, under contract with that supplier, is being partially fulfilled (paid for) and it reveals if they overbill you.