Pay a bill with a check

How does the Pay Bills window work?

To do this task

1. Go to the Vendors menu and click Pay Bills.

   What if I don't see all my bills?

   • If you don't see the bill you want in the Pay Bills window, it might be because you still need to enter the bill in QuickBooks.

   • If you have entered the bill, and you selected the "Show all bills" option in the Pay Bills window, you might need to scroll to find your bill.

   • If too many bills are listed, you can narrow down the entered bills by selecting Show bills due on or before and specifying the due date for the bill, or a later date. For example, if the date in the field is May 1, any bills due after May 1 will not be listed. To list a bill due on May 5, you must enter May 5 (or a later date) in the field.

   • If you still don't see a bill you entered:

     1. Go to the Reports menu and click Vendors & Payables.

     2. Click Transaction List by Vendor to see if the bill has already been paid.

2. If you have more than one accounts payable account, choose the one that you want to use to pay these bills.

3. Select the bills that you want to pay.

   Select only those bills that you want to pay with the specified Payment Account, Payment Method, and Payment Date settings.

   Do I have enough money in my account to pay the selected bills?

   When you select a bill, compare its Amt. To Pay column against the Ending Balance for the selected Payment Account. If the Ending Balance is a negative number, you do not have enough money in the account to pay all of the bills that you've already selected.

   To select a bill to pay

   1. Click in the column next to the bill.

   To select all bills in the list

   1. Click the Select All Bills button.

   To unmark all bills and start over

   1. Click the Clear Selections button.

   You can change the order in which the bills appear in the list.

   To change the order in which QuickBooks lists the bills, select one of the choices on the Sort Bills By drop-down list.

   Due date	Lists the bills by their due date, oldest first.
   Discount date	Resorts the list so that bills for which you'll receive an early payment discount appear first. The dates by which you must pay to receive a discount appear in the Disc. Date column.
   Vendor	Lists the bills alphabetically by vendor.
   Amount due	Lists the bills by amount due, largest first.

   What if I just want to pay part of a bill?

   To pay only part of a bill now, find the bill in the list and enter the amount to pay in the Amt. Paid column.

4. Set any discount or credits that you want to apply to the bill.

5. Click the Payment Method drop-down arrow and choose Check.

6. In the Payment Method section, select whether you want the check to be printed from QuickBooks or whether you're paying with a hand-written check or debit card.

   • If you plan to print this check from QuickBooks, select the To be printed checkbox. QuickBooks will prepare a check for the vendor and add it to the list of checks to be printed. You'll have a chance to print the check at the end of this task.

   • If you plan to hand-write the check or if you're using a debit card, select the Assign check no. checkbox. When you record your bill payment after completing this form, you'll be prompted to enter check numbers and dates.

7. Click the Payment Account drop-down arrow and choose the account from which you want to pay the bills.

8. QuickBooks automatically enters today's date in the Payment Date field. This is the date that will appear on your printed checks. You can change this date if necessary.

9. Click the Pay Selected Bills button to record the bill payment.

   The Payment Summary window opens to show the bills you successfully paid, and if you selected the To be printed checkbox, to give you a chance to print checks.

   The Payment Summary window is displayed after you click Pay Selected Bills in the Pay Bills window. It shows you the bills that you successfully paid and provides easy access to pay more bills or print checks.

   Look over the information in this window to see if you need to take any further steps.

   To print checks

   If your payment method in the Pay Bills window was a check to be printed, a Print Checks button is displayed in the Payment Summary window.

   1. Click Print Checks to display the Select Checks to Print window.

   2. Select the check (or checks) you want to print, and click OK.

   To find or change a bill payment

   You can find your bill payments in the Vendor Center, and edit them if necessary.

   1. Find the bill payment.

      1. Click the Vendors icon.

      2. If you know the vendor's name, select the vendor on the Vendors tab, then click the Show drop-down list and choose Bill Payments.

         Otherwise, click Bill Payments on the Transactions tab to get a list of bill payments for all vendors.

      3. (Optional) Use the Filter By and Date drop-down lists to narrow down the set of bill payments displayed.

      4. Double-click the bill to open it.

   2. Make the necessary changes to the payment.

   3. Save the bill payment.

   To send Direct Deposit payments

   If your payment method in the Pay Bills window was Direct Deposit:

   1. Click Send Direct Deposit to view the payments that are queued to be sent to the Direct Deposit service.

   2. Click Send to send them.

   If you don't want to send the direct deposit transactions now, you can view and send them later by choosing Send Direct Deposit from the Vendors menu.

   Note: You must have Purchases and Accounts Payable permission to send direct deposit transactions.)

   To send online payments

   If your payment method in the Pay Bills window was Online Bank Pmt, QuickBooks sent the payment instructions to the Items to Send list in the Online Banking Center.

   When you're ready to send the online vendor payment instructions:

   1. Open the Online Banking Center.

      Go to the Banking menu and click Online Banking, and then click Online Banking Center.

      Note: The Online Banking Center command is available only when you have at least one QuickBooks account enabled for online banking.

   2. Click Go Online.

   Why are some payments listed in bold?

   If a payment is listed in bold in the Payment Summary window, it means the bill was paid entirely with discounts or credits. You will not be able to find a bill payment transaction for such bills. You can, however, view the bill's transaction history to see the discounts and credits. You might want to let your vendor know that you paid with discounts and credits.

   To view the bill's transaction history

   1. Find the bill.

      1. Click the Vendors icon.

      2. If you know the vendor's name, select the vendor on the Vendors tab, then click the Show drop-down list and choose Bills.

         Otherwise, click Bills on the Transactions tab to get a list of bills for all vendors.

      3. (Optional) Use the Filter By and Date drop-down lists to narrow down the set of bills displayed.

      4. Double-click the bill to open it.

   2. Click the History button at the top of the Enter Bills window.

   To let a vendor know that you paid a bill entirely with discounts or credits

   Print a Transaction History report:

   1. Find the bill.

      1. Click the Vendors icon.

      2. If you know the vendor's name, select the vendor on the Vendors tab, then click the Show drop-down list and choose Bills.

         Otherwise, click Bills on the Transactions tab to get a list of bills for all vendors.

      3. (Optional) Use the Filter By andDate drop-down lists to narrow down the set of bills displayed.

      4. Double-click the bill to open it.

   2. Go to the Reports menu and click Transaction History.

   To pay bills that weren't processed

   On rare occasions, the Payment Summary window might indicate that there was an error recording a particular payment. In such a case, QuickBooks stops processing all the selected bill payments after the payment in error.

   1. Click Pay More Bills.

   2. Record the bill payments again.

   See also

   • Paying bills

   • Paying vendors by direct deposit

10. To print checks, click Print Checks in the Payment Summary window. If you prefer to print checks later, go to the File menu, choose Print Forms, and then click Checks.

See also

• Assigning check numbers

• Setting a reminder to pay bills

• Automatically applying discounts and credits to bill payments