Paying bills

Selecting what to pay, choosing a payment method, what posts when, and the controls that keep a payment run from paying the wrong party.

How-toFor Bookkeepers, Business owners, Firm staff

Running a payment batch

1
Open Bill Pay and review what is due.
Sort by due date. Paying by due date rather than by whoever chased hardest is what makes terms worth negotiating.
2
Select the bills to pay.
Partial payments are supported where a bill is disputed in part — pay the undisputed portion and leave the rest open with a note.
3
Choose the funding account.
Confirm it has the balance. A returned payment costs a fee and a relationship.
4
Choose the method per vendor.
Electronic payment where the vendor has provided details; check where they have not.
5
Review the batch total before submitting.
This is the last cheap moment to notice that a bill was selected twice or an amount is an order of magnitude off.
6
Submit, and record the confirmation.

Controls worth keeping

Separate the person who enters bills from the person who releases payments.
Verify any change to a vendor's payment details by phone, using a number you already had.
Cap the batch total, so an error cannot become a catastrophe in one click.
Reconcile the bank account promptly — an unauthorized payment is only caught by someone comparing to the statement.
Review new vendors' first payments personally.

After the run

Payments appear in the bank feed within a day or two and should be matched to the payment records, not coded as new expenses.
Checks stay outstanding until presented, and appear as unticked items in reconciliation. That is correct.
A failed or returned payment reopens the bill. Find out why before resubmitting — the usual cause is stale account details.
Remittance advice tells the vendor what the payment covers, which prevents them applying it to the wrong invoice and chasing you for one you already paid.

Common questions

Can I schedule payments for a future date?

Yes. Scheduling by due date is the point of a payment run — it lets you hold cash until it is genuinely due without risking a missed payment.

How do I record a bill I paid personally or by card?

Enter the bill as normal, then record the payment from the account that actually paid it — the credit card account, or an owner contribution account if it was personal funds. The expense still belongs to the business.

A payment went to the wrong vendor.

Void the payment in Books so the bill reopens, then pursue recovery with the bank or the recipient. Voiding records what happened; it does not retrieve the money, and the two are separate problems.