How do I record accounts payable?

enter a bill from a vendor

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, @carbonbiomass. Let me provide you with more information on Accounts Payable in QuickBooks Online.

QuickBooks Online organizes Accounts Payable data for you so that you will always know how much you owe vendors and when your bills are due. You can easily print reports such as the Unpaid Vendors Report, the A/P Aging Report and the Vendor Detail Report so that you can efficiently manage Accounts Payable.

I've provided steps below on how to enter bills in your account:

1. Press on the +New button on the left-hand menu, then select Bill.
2. Fill out all the necessary information.
3. Hit Save and Close.

Here's an article that provides information on how to enter the payment for the bill.

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate and reach back out! I'm always here to lend a helping hand.

Hi Ashley,

I've just taken over the Quickbooks Online file and it has multiple accounts payable accounts in their chart of accounts. 

They have the regular Accounts Payable account.

Then they have Federal Corp. Taxes Payable and Provincial Taxes Payable accounts also set up as accounts payable accounts.

The bills they get from various suppliers got posted to the regular Accounts Payable account as they should be until October. And then from November onwards, all the bills are getting posted to Federal Corp. Taxes Payable account.

Quickbooks online doesn't give you the option of choosing the AP account like Quickbooks desktop does.

How do I go about fixing this to setup the regular AP account as the default AP account so that all the bills get posted to this account?

I reversed all the bills that were incorrectly posted and zeroed out the Fed. Corp. Tax. Payable account. Then I tried changing the account type to Current Liabilities instead of Accounts Payable. That didn't work as QBO doesn't let you change the account type of an account originally set up as an AP account.

Please help!

Thanks for joining the thread, @Baffled2.

I appreciate you for sharing the details you’ve done to isolate this issue. Rest assured I’m here to help and share with you some insights on how to manage your Accounts Payable (A/P) and fix this.

In QuickBooks Online (QBO), you can create multiple accounts in your chart of accounts. Since you have more than one A/P account, this makes the system disorganized resulting in posting to the wrong A/P account. To ensure your book is well organized, we recommend maintaining one A/P and one Account Receivable (A/R) account. 

You can also read through this article for more information in managing your A/R and A/P accounts: How to group Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable account types.

To get around this issue, let’s merge your Federal Corp. Taxes Payable account to the default A/P account. Let me show you how:

1. Go to your Chart of Accounts.
2. Locate your Federal Corp Taxes account.
3. Select the drop-down menu beside the View register link under the Action column and select Edit.
4. Change the Name and Detail Type of your Fed. Corp. Tax account to Accounts Payable (A/P) (make sure there are no sub-accounts when merging the two accounts). 
5. Click Save, then select Yes to confirm the changes.

You can also check this link for the complete guidelines: Merge duplicate accounts, customers, and vendors in QuickBooks Online.

When everything is good, you might want to read this article for future reference: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online. This link can walk you through the steps in matching your accounts effectively in QBO.

If you have other concerns or questions about supervising your accounts, tag me in your reply. I’d be more than happy to work with you again. Have a great day ahead and always stay safe.

I have the same issue except my predecessor set up individual sales tax payable accounts for each city instead of using the default sales tax payable account.  How can I merge all these individual accounts into one, default account?  Further, how did my predecessor map the sales transaction (and related tax) to these individual sales tax payable account when the product has been selected for taxing on a customer invoice?

Hello there, @DH69.

I'll help you how you can merge your accounts in QuickBooks Online.

Please note that we can no longer use the original account once the they are merged.

To merge these accounts:

1. Go to Settings ⚙ and select Chart of accounts.
2. In the account list, find the account you want to merge.
3. In the Action column, select the dropdown ▼ menu. Then select Edit to open the Account window.
4. Note: If you see the Edit category window instead of the Edit account window, you need to switch to accountant view before you can merge the accounts.
5. In the Edit account window, change the Account name to Services (or to the name you gave the Services income account, if you changed it).
6. Select Save.
7. When prompted whether you want to merge the accounts, select Yes.

 QuickBooks can calculate sales tax for you automatically on your receipts and invoices. Next, it notifies you when your tax payment is due, enabling you to file promptly and prevent late costs for quick and accurate filings. 

To effectively compute sales tax and returns, QuickBooks Online keeps track of your state's tax regulations. You can also include additional taxing authorities you pay if you charge sales tax outside of your state, see this article for your guide: Set up and use automated sales tax in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any more questions or concerns, I'm always here to lend a helping hand. Have a safe and productive rest of your day!

I see you want to add payable transactions to the same account with different dates, @Anonymous. I'll give you some ways to track it and walk you through the process. 

If you want to add payable transactions from your Chart of Accounts, you can manually add them and select the dates per transaction. Here's how:

1. Open the Accounting menu.

2. Click on Chart of Accounts.

3. Locate the account where the payables need to be added, then click on View register.

4. Click on the Add drop-down.

5. Choose what type of payable transaction you want to add.

6. Fill out all the necessary information, including the date.

7. Once done, click on Save. See the image below for reference:

On the other hand, see this guide if you want to enter bills, just like Rustler suggested: Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online. If not, kindly provide us with further information on what specific method you want to use. This helps us determine what we need to do.

For future use, feel free to review this module about managing Accounts Payable: Accounts Payable automation in QuickBooks Online

Don't hesitate to comment below in case you need more guidance with handling A/P or QuickBooks. I'm here to back you up as soon as I can. Keep safe always!

I have figured out how to put into A/P but  how do I enter Invoice numbers for each invoice and how do I have my use tax accrue for that invoice?  We just started this in July and we are so far behind that I haven't had time to watch a lot so really need the help!!

Hey there, @carla42.

Thanks for taking the time to follow along with the thread and sharing your concerns. 

QuickBooks will automatically assign invoice numbers to each invoice. However, if you prefer to enter your own invoice numbers, you can do that too. I've included some steps to enter custom invoices below. 

First, you'll need to turn on the custom transaction numbers feature. Here's how: 

1. Click on the Gear Icon and choose Account and Settings.
2. Tap on Sales.
3. In Sales form content, select Edit.
4. Turn Custom transaction numbers on or off.
5. Hit Save, then select Done.
   • 

Now you can key in custom invoice numbers from each invoice. Here's how: 

1. Open an invoice.
2. In the right-hand corner, key in a number in the invoice number box. 
   • 

That's all there is to it. You can see additional details about this process in Add custom transaction numbers to sales forms in QuickBooks Online. 

I see you also have a question about taxes. First, you'll need to set up your sales taxes. Once they are set up correctly, QuickBooks will calculate them for you. I've included a guide below with all the information you'll need to set up and use sales tax in QuickBooks Online. 

• Set up your sales tax in QuickBooks Online

Please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I'm always around to lend a hand. Take care!