Why Does a Paid Bill Show ‘Unpaid’ Status?
When you pay a bill in Quickbooks, it should change the status to “paid.” There are times, however, when bills remain in open/unpaid status even after writing the check in the Quickbooks Write Checks feature. Therefore, you’ll need to perform a few additional steps to keep your books in order.
Remove the Bill
One solution is to remove the bill that’s in open/unpaid status while leaving the Write Checks entry in place. According to Intuit, however, you should only use this option if you don’t need all of your payment data to publish on Accounts Payable.
Link Check to Bill
A second solution is to link the check to the bill. Assuming you’ve already reconciled the check, you can link it to the bill. You can’t, however, delete the check without it affects previous reconciliations. Nonetheless, it’s perfectly fine to link it to the bill. Here are the steps to linking your check to the bill.
Log into your Quickbooks account and change the Expense to Accounts Payable. Next, open the “Customer: Job” drop-down menu and select the respective vendor’s name, followed by “Save & Close.” You aren’t out of the woods just yet, though. There are still several additional steps you’ll need to take to link the check to the bill.
Next, you’ll need to pay the bill by accessing the “Vendors” menu > “Pay Bills.” From here, choose the appropriate bill that corresponds with the check and choose “Set Credits.” Click the box so a check appears on the credit, at which point you can change the amount of the credit. When you are finished, click “Done,” followed by “Pay Selected Bills.” After doing so, the bill should display as paid status. You can check your transaction history to verify this information, at which point the bill should show the regular check as the payment method.
Remove the Check
A third option is to remove the check and pay the bill. Before proceeding, however, you should back up your company file (that’s always a good idea). After backing up your company file, access the Check Register > Banking > Use Register > choose the bank account you used to write the check and click “OK.” From here, find the check you accidentally created, making a note of the details. Now, go back and access the Pay Bills window to remove the check and pay the bill.
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!