why is balance in Expense/Vendor (QBO) always $0?

Let's get your balance to show up correctly on your vendor screen, oceanbeachesglass.   

To get this sorted out, we can track the discrepancy to make sure the vendor balance is fixed by running a vendor report. To ensure all bills are paid properly to the correct account. 

To do that, follow the steps below: 

1. Click Reports, then enter Vendor Balance Detail Report. 
2. Tap the Customize and filter the specific vendor name.
3. Press Run report.  
4. On the report, if there's an unpaid bill, it will show a positive balance.
5. Double-click the bills listed there and see if there's anything that doesn't have a payment properly linked to it.

If all bills are paid properly accounted to the correct account, let's open your QBO account using incognito/private window. This will help us check if this is a browser-related (cache and cookies) issue. Once everything is working, you can switch back to the main browser and clear the cache or use other supported browsers if the same thing happens.  

You can check out these article below about, paying bills and handling vendor credits in QuickBooks Online for your future reference: 

• How do I handle vendor credits and refunds?
• How to enter and pay bills?

Please feel free to let me know how it goes, as I want to make sure that everything is working fine on your end. Have a most pleasant day.

Thanks for the response, Ailene.

It looks like the bottom line is that QBO does not maintain a Running  Balance for Vendors, is that correct?

I followed your process to the letter, and all I'm able to get is a CURRENT Balance.  I can add a Bill, and I see a balance for that Bill.  If I pay that Bill, ALL values for Balance return to zero.  

Why wouldn't a Running Balance be available for a Vendor the way it is in virtually every other function in QBO?  What I need is to see WHEN a Balance went off, not just to see AT THIS TIME that the Balance is off.

Is there really no way to do this in QBO?    

Thanks for the additional info, @oceanbeachesglass. 

I appreciate you for following the steps that my colleague mentioned above. Allow me to chime in the thread and provide additional information. 

Your vendor's balance went off once there's an additional entry that will be added.

I've also added the following article for more details about managing vendor credits and bills in QBO:
 

• Enter and manage bills and bill payments in QuickBooks Online
• Enter vendor credits and refunds in QuickBooks Online
   

Please feel free to post a response below if you need anything else or if you have clarifications about your concern. I'll be happy to help you. Take care!