How to Pay Bills in QuickBooks Online

How to Pay Bills in QuickBooks Online: Video

            This video lesson, titled “How to Pay Bills in QuickBooks Online,” shows you how to pay the bills you have entered in QuickBooks Online. This video lesson is from our complete QuickBooks Online tutorial, titled “Mastering QuickBooks Online Made Easy.”

Overview:

            To pay bills you entered in QuickBooks Online, hover over the “+ Create” button in the Navigation Bar. Then click the “Pay bills” link under the “Vendors” heading in the menu that appears to open the “Pay Bills” window. This window shows the bills you entered.

Select the Payment Account, Set the Payment Date, and Set Check Numbering:

            To select the account from which funds are drawn to pay the bills, use the “Payment account” drop-down at the top of the window. The selected account’s current balance appears below it. Then enter the date of the bill payment into the “Payment date” field. To print the bill payment checks later, check the “Print later” checkbox. Alternatively, to enter the starting check number to record checks already created, uncheck the “Print later” checkbox and then enter the starting check number into the “Starting check no.” field.

Filter the List of Bills, if Needed:

            Bills for the last 12 months appear in a list in this window. To filter the bills, click the “Filters” button at the top of the list. In the drop-down that appears, you can filter the bills using any of the additional drop-downs that appear. To only show overdue bills, check the “Overdue status only” checkbox. To apply the filter, click the “Apply” button in the drop-down menu. To reset the filters, click the “Reset” button, instead.

            After applying a filter, the currently-applied filters appear to the right of the “Filters” button. To remove a filter, click the “X” by its name. Alternatively, to remove all filters, click the “Clear filter / View all” link.

            The list of bills shows a checkbox column, and “Payee,” “Ref No,” “Due Date,” “Status,” “Open Balance,” “Credit Applied,” “Payment,” and “Total Amount” columns. You can click the column headings from “Payee” to “Open Balance,” excluding “Status,” to sort the list of bills by the column’s values in either ascending or descending order. The sort order changes each time you click the same column heading.

Select the Bills to Pay and Check the Payment Amounts:

            To select a bill to pay, check the checkbox to the left of the bill. To select all the bills, check the topmost checkbox in the column of checkboxes to the left of the “Payee” column heading. To de-select all the selected bills, click it again after it is checked. The “Total payment amount” for all selected bills appears below the “Total Amount” column and in the upper-right corner of the page.

            After a bill is selected, the bill’s full amount appears in its “Payment” column. To make a partial bill payment, enter a smaller amount into the “Payment” field for the selected bill. The bill will still appear within the “Pay Bills” window later, but its “Open Balance” changes to reflect the partial bill payment.

Save, Print, or Schedule the Bill Payments:

            To cancel the bill payments, click the “Cancel” button in the toolbar at the bottom of the page. To save the bill payments and/or possibly choose another action, too, click or select a choice from the drop-down button at the right end of the toolbar. The choices are “Save,” “Save and print,” “Save and close,” and if online bill payment is enabled through QuickBooks Online, “Schedule payment(s).”

            To create the bill payment checks and mark the selected bills as paid, click the “Save” command. To open the “Print Check” window and show the bill payment checks, click the “Save and print” command. This list also contains any other types of checks waiting to be printed, too. To create the bill payment checks, mark the bills as paid, and close the “Pay Bills” window, click the “Save and close” command. To schedule the actual bill payments through QuickBooks Online if enrolled in the service, select the “Schedule payment(s)” command.