As you purchase equipment, supplies, products, and services to run your business, you will receive bills that need to be paid.  Entering these bills in QuickBooks enables you to not only track information about your purchases, but also to pay these bills.  You can run reports that reflect your unpaid bills at any given point, and QuickBooks enables you to easily choose the bills you want to pay.  Depending on the payment method selected, you can prepare checks, record credit card payments, or send online banking payment instructions.

Follow these steps to enter a bill:

1. Choose the Vendors menu and choose Enter Bills.
2. In the Vendor field, choose or enter a new vendor.
3. Specify the Payment Method, Payment Account, and Payment Date.
4. In the Amount Due field, enter the amount of the bill.
5. Fill in the Date, Ref. No., Terms, and Memo fields as necessary.
6. For expenses (money spent to run your business, such as utilities), assign the bill to one or more expense accounts on the Expenses tab.  For items (products or services your business purchases), edit items that were entered from your purchase order or enter new items on the Items tab.
7. Click Save & Close or click Save & New to enter the transaction.

To pay a bill, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Vendors menu and click Pay Bills.
2. All outstanding bills are displayed.  To limit the number of bills displayed, click Due on or before and then click the due date for the bills you want to display.
3. Click Pay Selected Bills to complete the transaction.

Writing Checks vs. Paying Bills.  Do not use the Write Checks window to write a paycheck, pay your payroll liabilities, pay sales tax, or pay bills you’ve already entered in the Enter Bills window.  Refer to QuickBooks Guide: Writing Checks for detailed instructions on how (and when) to make these payments.