How to Pay a Bill with QuickBooks 2010
If you use QuickBooks 2010 to keep track of the bills that you owe, you tell QuickBooks to display a list of these unpaid bills that you’ve already recorded — and then you pick and choose which bills QuickBooks should pay and the bank account from which QuickBooks should write the check.
1
Choose Vendors→Pay Bills.
QuickBooks displays the Pay Bills window. You use the Pay Bills window to describe the payment that you want to make.
2
Select a Show Bills radio button at the top of the window to identify what you want to see.
If you select the Due On or Before radio button, enter a date in the text box to show only those bills that are due on or before that date. To see a list of all the bills that you have to pay, select the Show All Bills radio button.
3
(Optional) Select the order that QuickBooks uses for listing your bills from the Sort Bills By drop-down list.
For example, you can sort bills by due date, discount date, vendor, and amount due.
4
Select the bills that you want to pay by clicking the check column.
The check column is the leftmost column in the list of unpaid bills — it’s headed by a check mark. To deselect a bill, click the check column again. QuickBooks removes the check mark.
5
(Optional) Review a specific bill by clicking the bill in the list and then clicking the Go to Bill button.
QuickBooks displays the Enter Bills window with the bill information. To close the Enter Bills window, click the Close button.
6
Click the Set Discount button if the bill includes a discount.
QuickBooks displays the Discount and Credits window with the Discount tab open.
7
Enter a discount amount for the bill.
You also enter the discount account, which gets credited for the reduction.
8
If you want to apply a credit to the bill, click the Set Credits button.
QuickBooks displays the Credits tab of the Discount and Credits dialog box. The Credit tab lists any credit memos from this vendor.
9
To apply a credit memo to the amount due a vendor, click the Set Credits button.
QuickBooks marks applied credits by placing a check mark in the marked column.
10
When you complete your work with the Discounts and Credits dialog box, click the Done button.
The dialog box closes, and you return to the Pay Bills window.
11
From the Payment Account drop-down list, select the bank account to be used for making payments.
The ending balance for the bank account appears below the Payment Account drop-down list.
12
From the Payment Method drop-down list, select the payment method.
If you want to pay your bills by check, for example, select Check. Assuming that you’ll print the checks in QuickBooks, select the To Be Printed radio button (otherwise, select the Assign Check No. radio button to have QuickBooks assign the next consecutive check number). You can also pay bills by other methods, such as by credit card and by online payment (if you’re set up for online payment or online banking).
13
Select the payment date that you want from the Payment Date drop-down list.
The payment date entry interacts with the payment method entry. The payment date that you set, for example, affects when an online payment gets made.
14
After you select the bills that you want to pay and describe how you want to pay them, click Pay Selected Bills to pay the selected bills.
QuickBooks records the payment transactions in the bank account to pay the selected bills, and the Pay Bills window closes.
You still need to print any unprinted checks necessary to pay bills if you're using checks to pay the bills. You also need to transmit any online payment instructions necessary to pay the bills if that’s how you’ve chosen to pay the bills. If you’re going to hand-write checks, you obviously need to hand-write the checks and then mail them out.
Accounting Glossary
accounting equation
The equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity, which demonstrates the two-sided nature of accounting and is useful for explaining the concept of double-entry accounting (or double-entry bookkeeping).
Accounting Glossary
accounting period
The time period for which financial information is being tracked in a business, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Accounting Glossary
accounts receivable
An account that records the amounts that customers owe to a business.
Accounting Glossary
adjusting entry
A correction made to a bookkeeping account that adjusts for accounting errors or other necessary changes at the end of the accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
cash flows
Used to describe the source or sources of cash or how cash is used.
Accounting Glossary
Chart of Accounts
A list of all the accounts used by a business, including what types of transactions go into each account.
Accounting Glossary
debit
An accounting entry that increases an asset or expense account, and decreases a liability or income account.
Accounting Glossary
dividends
A portion of a company’s profits paid by share of common stock on a quarterly or annual basis.
Accounting Glossary
FASB
Financial Accounting Standards Board. FASB is the highest-ranking authority in the private (non-government) sector of the U.S. for making pronouncements on GAAP and for keeping accounting standards up-to-date.
Accounting Glossary
Federal Unemployment Tax
In the U.S., the fund that used to be known simply as Unemployment. Employers contribute to the fund, and states also collect taxes to fill their unemployment fund reserves. (The acronym FUTA means Federal Unemployment Tax Act.)
Accounting Glossary
fidelity bonds
A type of insurance — typically carried by employers for their employees — that helps guard against theft and reduce the risk of loss.
Accounting Glossary
FIFO
First-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold in which a business charges out product costs to cost of goods sold expense in the chronological order in which the goods were acquired.
Accounting Glossary
fungible
Describes a product that is interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable from another product.
Accounting Glossary
General Ledger
A summary of all of a business’s accounts and transactions.
Accounting Glossary
IASB
International Accounting Standards Board. The IASB (based in London) is the main authoritative accounting standards setter outside the U.S.
Accounting Glossary
Journals
The location in which bookkeepers keep records (in chronological order) of daily company transactions.
Accounting Glossary
LIFO
Last-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold that selects the last item you purchased first, and then works backward until you have the total cost for the total number of units sold during the period.
Accounting Glossary
LLP
Limited liability partnership. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals in which all the partners have limited liability.
Accounting Glossary
PC
Professional corporation. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals who otherwise would have to operate as an unlimited partnership liability.
Accounting Glossary
petty cash
A cash account that businesses keep on hand for unexpected expenses.
Accounting Glossary
revenue
Monies that are collected in the process of selling a company’s goods and services.
Accounting Glossary
salvage value
The amount that an asset is worth after it has been fully depreciated.
Accounting Glossary
statement of cash flows
A financial statement that summarizes a business’s cash inflows and outflows during an accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
transactions
Economic exchanges between a business or other entity and the parties with which the entity interacts and makes deals.
Accounting Glossary
worker’s compensation insurance
A type of insurance carried by employers that covers its employees in case they are injured on the job.
Share This
