Oh, the dreaded task of paying bills. No one likes to tackle this tricky task, but if you are working with QuickBooks, you are already ahead of the game! Especially when you consider the alternatives of using spreadsheets or manual methods, like pencil and paper. Who has time for that?
There are 3 primary methods for entering expenses into QuickBooks:
- Recording accounts payable
- Entering credit card charges
- Inputting debit transactions from your bank account.
QuickBooks, Canada’s number one best selling accounting software for business, helps make the process of entering expenses fast, easy, and most of all stress-free!
1. Entering & Paying Bills (QuickBooks Desktop)
Choosing the “Enter Bills” function in QuickBooks is a way of recording accounts payable. This allows you to record a bill, and pay it at a later date, a common practice for most small businesses. Using this method enables you to capture billing information, such as billing dates and reference numbers. You also have the option to create a credit with this function and apply it to a bill at a later time.
Once the bill has been entered into the system, choose “Pay Bills” to complete the payment in QuickBooks. This function provides a variety of options for paying your bills. Here you can choose to pay one bill or multiple bills, pay the bill in full or apply a partial payment, leaving the outstanding amount to be paid at a later date. Depending on how many payment methods you have set up in your system, bills can be paid by cash, cheque or credit card.
2. Write Cheques (QuickBooks Desktop)
Another method of entering expenses in QuickBooks is through “Write Cheques”. This method is best when there is no connection to a bill, and you are working directly from a bank statement. This is an efficient way of processing transactions such as manual cheques, debit transactions, and automatic withdrawals.
3. Credit Card Charges (QuickBooks Desktop)
The third form of entering expenses into QuickBooks is entering credit card charges. Use this method when working through monthly credit card statements. Input vendor information, amount, date of transaction, etc. Enter transactions individually to ensure your QuickBooks file matches your credit card statement at the end of the month.
For more information and best practices on managing your small business, accounts payable and paying bills in QuickBooks, contact us at The Art of Accounting. What makes The Art of Accounting so good at QuickBooks? We use QuickBooks for our business, for our clients businesses, and we teach people how to use QuickBooks. Learn more by contacting Gisèle Doucet or Kim Bell today! We are looking forward to chatting with you.
Next month we’ll be sharing information and best practices on generating invoices and receiving payments.