How Can You Track Accounts Payable In Quickbooks Online?

If you are in a business that buys most of its inventory and services from its suppliers on credit, accounting for Accounts payables is essential. QuickBooks Online would allow you to know exactly to whom you owe money as well as the exact times when you need to make the payments. Below is an outline of how to track accounts payable in QuickBooks online:

Set Up Vendors

The first one to be done is the creation of a vendor profile for every company or person you buy from on credit. Here’s how:

1. On the left side of your screen, move to Vendors and click on New Vendor.
2. Proceed to enter the vendor name, the vendor’s address, phone number, and all the contact information the business may have.
3. If you are creating a vendor part-way through the fiscal year, record the amount you owe the vendor as the opening balance.
4. Online-only – When do you have to pay that vendor after you have received an invoice? Terms familiar are Net 30 or even Net 60 days.
5. Click Save.

Do this for every vendor who you would like to make entries in your QuickBooks Online account. Keeping comprehensive records of vendor information can be useful in a company when dealing with accounts payable.

Enter Bills

When you receive an invoice from a vendor for goods/ Bookkeeping Services purchased on credit, you need to enter it into QuickBooks Online as a bill:

1. Click on Expenses in the left-hand pane, choose Vendors, and then select Enter Bills.
2. Highlight the name of the vendor from whom you received the bill.
3. Key fields from the bill should be inputted which include the transaction date, invoice no, amount to be paid, and the account type the bill should be submitted to.
4. If you would like the documentation to be attached to QuickBooks, please attach a copy of the vendor bill/invoice.
5. Click Save and Close.

Recording bills as they come in increases the accounts payable balance and also avoids missing out on bills that go unpaid.

Set Up Recurring Bills

In the case of regular expenses, which include expenses that are due to vendors, as a fixed amount for instance monthly rent or subscription fee, you can make use of repeating bills instead of having to enter them monthly. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to the transactions section and go to the recurring transactions where you choose Schedule New Transaction.
2. Select how often and when to generate reports, as well as the specific details of each transaction such as the vendor, the total amount, and account.
3. Scheduled for each month when QuickBooks enters the recurring bill.

Having such a tool, you will not forget ever to record recurring expenses in your books.

Review Aging Reports

The most important type of vendor report that should be updated regularly is the ‘A/P Aging Summary’ report under ‘Reports’, the ‘Vendor’ subcategory. Unpaid bills are shown in this report with a grouping of the days past due to help you handle payments as required.

Balancing aging accounts payable ensures that the firm does not incur extra fees that would have been avoided if payments were made in due time while keeping good relations with suppliers.

Prioritize Vendor Payments

Whenever there are due bills every company, organization, or individual has to determine who is paid first. In this case, you have to base it on the relationships, contracts, and aging reports. QuickBooks Online makes it easy to record payments:

1. Navigate to Transactions, then go to Vendor Payments.
2. Choose which bills/invoices you want to pay for each vendor to mark it as being paid.
3. Adjust the payment amount if necessary, but keep in mind that this can change the dynamics of the work process.
4. Choose a payment date and pick a payment option.
5. Click Pay Selected Bills.

Whereby payments shall be deducted from your bank account and added to your accounts payable account.

Analyze Payment History

QuickBooks Online has helpful reports to analyze your historical accounts payable information too:

- Another report is the Unpaid Bills Detail which indicates all of the still unpaid bills.
- To further details of the Vendor Balance, the Vendor Balance Detail splits the amounts owed to a particular vendor.
- The Paid Bills list keeps a record of all the bills that have been paid.

These are the reports to confirm your books are correct and know how much cash is available to meet your payment needs.

The next step is to set the bill due date and the discount date alerts.

With QuickBooks, you can decide when you should be notified of the due dates of the bills and other available vendor rebates. On the home page, navigate to Transactions > Recurring Transactions, and then click on the Edit link beside any selected bill. Head to the Settings tab:

- “Warn me when the bill is overdue” should be ticked, and the date threshold should also be chosen.
- In the Advanced settings: set up the Warn me about available discount option and choose the level of the discount percentage and the date to be informed about the available discount.

Enabling alerts saves you from missing crucial deadlines and enables you to take advantage of cheaper prices by paying vendors early.

Pay Yourself

Bear in mind that the owner taking a draw as fully translated as writing a vendor check. Expenses > Owner’s Draw captures the movement of funds from the business accounts toward the proprietor’s accounts. This will make all your financial statements portray the actual and complete status.

Account payable management does not need to be so complicated with the right software on hand. It comes to QuickBooks Online which offers the visibility and controls that you require. Follow these best practices, and report on some key aging reports frequently, and your business will be in good standing with your vendors, and you will be sure about money out there awaiting collection. Please feel free to ask any of the other questions you may have!