I entered an expense and that expense was paid from my checking account -- how can I match this expense without bill pay?

Not to worry, @bklineman29. I'll help you get a better grasp on handling your bills and expenses in QuickBooks Online.

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), there are three ways to track your expenses: Bill, Check, or Expense.

If you purchase and receive a product or service you'll be paying for later, use the Bill feature. Later, when you settle what you owe, you record a bill payment against that bill. With Online Bill Pay, you can pay your bills directly and hassle-free from QBO. You may also remove transactions from this online payment option.

When you purchase a product or service for your business and pay on the spot, you may enter them using Check or Expense. When using these options, items are already marked as paid. Thus, you won't need to enter a bill payment using Online Bill Pay.

You may also connect your checking account to QBO bank feeds. This saves you time as you don't have to enter anything manually. 

Here's how to connect your checking account:

1. Go to the Banking menu or Transactions menu.
2. Select Connect Account on the landing page, or select Connect account or Link account if you've already created an account.
   
3. Search for your bank. You can connect most banks, even small credit unions.
4. Click Continue. Then enter the username and password you use for your bank's website in the pop-up window. It may take a few minutes to connect. You'll see onscreen instructions if your bank requires additional security steps.
5. Select the accounts you want to connect (savings, current, or credit card) to QuickBooks. You should see all of your accounts tied to your financial institution and can connect as many as you need.
6. For each account, choose the account type from the dropdown. Choose the account type that matches your chart of accounts in QuickBooks.
7. Select the date range for the download. Some banks download the last 90 days of transactions, others go back as far as 24 months.
8. Click Connect.

Once linked, transactions will download and categorize. It looks for and tries to match them with entries you've already entered into QuickBooks. All you have to do is approve the match or add it to create a new record. 

After that, QuickBooks marks them as "C." This means they're ready to be reconciled. When you next reconcile your bank account, the transactions are already selected, speeding up the bank reconciliation process.

Finally, this article is for you to make running your business efficient and easy using the program: Getting Started in QBO.

Let me know if you need any further assistance with navigating QuickBooks Online tools. The Community is always here to help.

@LieraMarie_A Thank you for your response however, most of this information I know and have set up.  I have simple start so cannot create Bills (I do not understand why).  But regardless this is my American express bill/payment. On the desktop version I entered it as a bill and then matched the payment from my checking account easy peasy.  I categorized all the expenses (from the bill) and then match the bill to my check payment. With online I can't create it as a bill so I created it as an expense and now I need to know how to match(reconcile/paid) the expense to the check payment from my bank account

Good morning, @bklineman29. 

Thanks for coming back with more information about your situation with matching transactions. 

There are multiple reasons why these transactions wouldn't match. However, you should be able to match these transactions. I recommend going through the tips on this guide to get these matched up as soon as possible: 

Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online

If you provide us with screenshots of both transactions and the screen when you're trying to match them, then we can get a better idea of why these aren't working together.

These detail will help us determine the best solution for your business. I'm only a post away if you need me again. I'll be waiting for your response!