Entering bills in QuickBooks Online: How to guide

QuickBooks allows easy entry of bills and expenses. This is an important task for businesses. It helps to provide a complete picture of the state of the business and its finances.

Entering a bill as soon as it is received is good practice. The bill can then be marked as paid when appropriate.

This short guide looks at how you enter bills and mark them as paid in QuickBooks – whether they are paid manually, through Wise Business, or another source.

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How do I enter bills into QuickBooks?

Entering bills in QuickBooks Online or Desktop is straightforward.

There are several advantages to entering bills in QuickBooks promptly. It will help keep accurate records, ensure reminders and prompt payment, and show an accurate picture of business finances.

To add a new bill in QuickBooks Online, follow these steps:

• Select + New and Bill.
• Choose the appropriate vendor/supplier from the Vendor dropdown.
• Enter all bill details – Terms, Bill date, Due date, Bill number, the category/categories, the amount for each category, and if each line is taxable.
• If any particular line is billable to a customer, check the Billable checkbox and enter the customer name.
• If there’s a markup percentage, enter that as well in the Markup % field.
• Ensure the bill total amount is correct.
• Select Save, Save and new, or Save and close to save the new bill.¹

How do I mark a bill as paid in QuickBooks?

There are different processes to follow depending on whether the bill was paid via cash, card, or check.

For bills paid by cash, card, or transfer, the simplest way to mark bills as paid in QuickBooks is as follows:

• Select + New in the main panel.
• Under the Vendor menu, select Pay bills.
• In the list that appears, choose the bill to be marked as paid.
• In the Payment account dropdown at the top of the screen, select the account you used to pay the bill.
• Enter the required details for the payment – including the payment date, amount, and starting check number (this is optional).
• To complete and mark the bill as paid, select Save or Save and close from the Schedule payment online dropdown.

For a bill paid by check, follow these different steps to mark the bill as paid:

• Select + New in the main panel.
• Select Pay bills.
• Select the account from which the bill was paid in the Payment account field, and then select the Payment date.
• If necessary, click on the Payee column header to sort the bills by payee.
• Select the bill(s) that was/were paid and if necessary, apply a credit or change the amount of each bill being paid in the Payment field.
• Select Save or Save and close to complete and mark payment.

Automatically sync bills from your business account to QuickBooks with Wise

QuickBooks and Wise can be automatically linked for easy bill management and payment. This is a great time-saving, accurate solution for anyone with a Wise Business account.

Once linked, unpaid bills will show in real-time. They can be viewed and paid from the Bills page in Wise. International bills will always be paid at the real mid-market rate when you use Wise Business. You can even save up to 19x compared to PayPal!

Bill payments will be synced, matched, and categorized in QuickBooks. This ensures that accounts are up to date and is much faster than entering manually. It also makes regular reconciliation easier.

Get a Wise Business account today

This piece has been written in collaboration with Esther Friedberg Karp, an esteemed bookkeeper, QuickBooks ProAdvisor, and founder of CompuBooks. Esther Friedberg Karp, MBA, is an internationally-renowned trainer, writer, business consultant, and speaker with advanced certifications in both QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online. She has been named twice to the list of Insightful Accountant’s Top 10 QuickBooks ProAdvisors worldwide, with the titles “Top International ProAdvisor” and “Top Trainer/Writer ProAdvisor.”

Sources checked June 17, 2022.