How to pay bills in QuickBooks

Pay bills works with bills that are already recorded. If the supplier's bill isn't in QuickBooks yet, add it first, either by typing it in from + New or by uploading the file on the Bills page. To see what's waiting to be paid, open the Unpaid tab of the Bills page, which Intuit points to for a view of what's leaving your account this month.

Work out which account the money is coming from. QuickBooks can record a bill payment made by cheque, by credit card or in cash, and the Payment account field is where you choose the account the money comes from. Choosing a transaction or savings account also gives you a Reference number field for the payment.

Know the date you paid and how much went to each bill. Every ticked bill has its own Payment amount, so if you're not paying a bill's full balance, or a supplier credit is being used against it, have those figures ready to enter on its line.

1. From your Dashboard, go to Expenses & Pay Bills.
2. Select Pay bills.
3. Open the Payment account dropdown and choose the account the bills are paid from.
4. If it's a transaction or savings account, type a Reference number if you want one on the payment.
5. Choose the Payment date.
6. Tick the bill you're paying. To pay more than one in the same run, tick each of them.
7. Check the amounts on every ticked line, and change the Payment or Credit Applied figure where it isn't right.
8. Select Save.

Saving records a bill payment against each bill you ticked, for the amount on its line, out of the account you chose and dated with the payment date you set. Any Credit Applied figure you left on a line counts towards that bill too.

Payments can be voided after the event, and QuickBooks keeps a trail when that happens. To check a payment's history, go to Settings ⚙ and select Audit log. Narrow the entries with the User, Date Changed or Events dropdown, find the transaction, and read the History column to see when it was voided and the reason given.

Intuit says paying through Pay bills is what closes a bill you entered and brings the supplier's balance down. Any bill still owing stays on the Unpaid tab of the Bills page.

No Reference number field? Check the payment account. Intuit offers that field when the money comes from a transaction or savings account.

A bill you expected isn't there to tick? Pay bills can only pay bills that have been entered, so check it was saved as a bill. For a bill you uploaded as a file, Intuit's order is to check and verify the details QuickBooks pulled out, then pay it.