Using the Bill Pay tool in QuickBooks Desktop is a no-brainer because it can help ensure that your bills are paid accurately and on time.
While the principles of accounting have remained the same for hundreds of years, the way we do bookkeeping has improved immensely in the past thirty years, thanks to advancements in accounting technology.
These days, making and receiving payments is more convenient than ever, although you still need to track when your bill payments are due. That's where QuickBooks Desktop can add more automation to your accounting practices.
QuickBooks can prevent many of the common problems associated with fulfilling your accounts payable obligations, such as late payments, duplicate invoices, and human errors. Your accounting software can help you better manage bills when they come in, remember upcoming due dates, and either mark the bills as paid or pay them online directly from the software. Let's discuss three ways QuickBooks Desktop can automate your AP tasks in 2024.
1. How to Set Bill Payment Reminders
First, let's set up Reminders for all of your bills to help prevent missed payments in the future. Open the Edit menu and select Preferences, then Reminders. Click the My Preferences tab and check the box before Show Reminders List when opening a Company file. Then click the Company Preferences tab.
You can tell QuickBooks how much notice you want for paying bills.
Bills to Pay can be found near the bottom of the list. Click in the columns to request a Summary or List of upcoming bills and indicate the number of days in advance you'd like to be reminded that payment is due in the field that precedes days before due date. Click OK when you’re done with this window.
TIP: Reminders can be set for all kinds of actions you want to schedule, such as printing checks and recording inventory! Contact us if you want help implementing the Reminders feature in QuickBooks Desktop for any purposes besides bill pay.
2. How to Enter Bills in QuickBooks Desktop
Recording upcoming bills in QuickBooks Desktop can help prevent common accounting errors associated with manual bill management, like duplicate payments or overlooked due dates. And once you enter your bills into QuickBooks Desktop, you'll have the ability to pay them directly from the accounting platform.
Open the Vendors menu and click Enter Bills. Referencing a bill you'd like to record, select a Vendor from the drop-down list in the window that opens. You'll need to complete the fields in the top half of the window, which include Date, Terms, and Amount. The other fields are optional or will be filled in automatically. Tick the box in front of Bill Received, if applicable. If you want to attach a record of the bill to this transaction (which we recommend), you can upload a PDF or image by clicking Attach File in the toolbar.
The Enter Bills window
Let's move on to the bottom half of the window, which will display a table with two tabs. If your bill is for an expense, such as a utility bill, ensure the Expenses tab is highlighted. If it’s for products, click the Items tab. The Amount field will be filled in, but you must select an Account. If the bill is for products or services you’ve purchased on behalf of a customer, you have the option to select the correct customer or project from the drop-down list below Customer: Job and tick off the Billable field. When you’ve finished, save the bill.
TIP: If you haven't automated the process of invoicing customers for expenses accrued on their behalf, reach out to us! We can help you establish a more streamlined workflow.
3. How to Use the Vendor Center in QuickBooks Desktop
How do you find the bill you just entered? Open the Vendors menu and select Vendor Center. With the Vendors tab highlighted, click on the correct name to open their information window. The bill you just paid should be at the top of the list, along with any other transaction associated with that vendor.
Vendor records give you a comprehensive look at your history with each vendor. Right-click on a name to see what your options are there, as pictured below. If a particular vendor is very active and this list grows too unwieldy, click the down arrow in the Show field in the upper left. You’ll be able to view individual transactions by type.
Right-click on a transaction to view your options there.
TIP: If you’ve never explored a vendor record, we have a detailed tutorial here to help you get started.
4. How to Access Your Bills More Easily By Using QuickBooks Desktop
Now that you have bills entered and reminders scheduled, you can accomplish Accounts Payable tasks with greater ease and speed. When it’s time to pay a bill, there’s no shuffling to find a piece of paper or scrolling through your inbox; instead, it just takes a couple clicks within QuickBooks.
Stay tuned for our next article, where we'll discuss how to pay bills from QuickBooks Desktop and leverage the Bill Tracker, which can offer a bird's-eye view of your AP's current status.
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