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September 16, 2022
Question

Bills as deposits

  • September 16, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 7 views

We recently switched from desktop when I was hired. The previous users always entered bills paid by entering them all as checks. I however enter them as bills, then mark as paid once paid. Is it normal for bills to show up in the chart of accounts as deposits. It says "bill" in type, but it shows the amount in the deposit line. I'm no accountant. I do know that it's all about zeroing out, but this just doesn't make sense to me. It raises the balance to then deduct the balance which looks like the money wasn't deducted from the account. I'm very confused. Please explain. Thank you!

1 reply

Adrian_A
Level 8
September 16, 2022

Hi msmith717,

 

I'm here to clear up your confusion about recording bills and payments. 

 

In QuickBooks, you can record a bill for any services or items received that you will pay for later. Then, check and expenses are for services or items paid on-the-spot.

 

Since you enter them as Bill, the payment will show as PAYMENT on the bank register page. In your case, the payment reflects on the DEPOSIT column maybe, because you enter it as a bank deposit. You may have selected the same account on the Bank Deposit page and on the Add funds to this deposit section.
 

 

When paying bills, you can use the Pay bills feature. Then, select the corresponding bill and enter the PAYMENT you received.

 

You can check this reference for the detailed steps when paying bills: Pay bills in QuickBooks Online.

 

I've also added this article that has detailed information on the difference between Bills and Checks: Learn the difference between bills, checks, and expenses in QuickBooks Online.

 

Keep me posted whenever you have other concerns with recording bills.

September 16, 2022

Thank you for your help. However they were definitely entered as bills, I triple checked. I thought perhaps I entered them wrong. But they are entered correctly. Is it normal for bills to show up in the deposit column of the registry? 

MaryLandT
Level 10
September 16, 2022

Thanks for getting back to us, msmith717-yahoo.

 

A bill shouldn't show as a deposit since it's your payables, not income. You'll want to check the category of the item you use on the bill.

 

The item or product has an Expense account you use to track the cost of things you sell. Let me show you how to check this.

 

  1. Go to Get paid & pay or Sales, then select Products and services.
  2. Find the product or service on the list and select Edit in the Action column.
  3. Go to the Expense account ▼ drop-down, then select the account you use to track the cost of things you sell.
  4. When you're done, select Save and close.

 

Also, when you record the payment, make sure to select the correct bank from the Payment account drop-down when you paid the bill.

 

You can delete the bill and its payment after updating the category of the item. Then, enter again the bill and its payment.

 

In addition to this, you can enter bill payments directly into the bank register. Check out this article on how to do it: Manually add transactions to account registers in QuickBooks Online.

 

Get back to me if you have follow-up questions by commenting below. I'm always around to provide the information that you need.