How to connect a visa charge that was reconciled to a previous bill

Question

Hello,

I was hoping someone could help me. I am new to this position and I am currently trying to reconcile 2020 for my employer. For background knowledge, we use ReceiptBank (now Dext) to upload receipts and we use QuickBooks Enterprise Desktop.

I have noticed there are times that a credit card receipt is uploaded to ReceiptBank, not marked as paid, and then synched to QBE as a bill (instead of a credit care charge). There are times when there is a credit card payment AND times where the credit card specifically links to the bill. I’m sure that the ‘bill payment’ is the correct way so that there is a path of bill and then payment, and moving forward that is how it will be done. My question is more for the transactions that I see where there is a bill, and then there is a credit card payment, but they aren’t specifically linked. Does this still reduce the ‘bill’ technically, even if it’s not specifically linked to the bill?

For example, let’s say there is a $500 charge from the vendor Bell. This is input into ReceiptBank, not marked paid, and so it goes into QBE directly as a bill.

Scenario #1: When reconciling the account someone notices the charge is not there and inputs a credit card charge of $500 to Bell (not connected to a bill).

Scenario #2: When reconciling, someone notices the bill for Bell, goes to “Bill Payment” and attributes $500 from the Visa to the bill. Now this shows as a charge on the Visa for reconciliation.

Do both these scenarios have the same outcome of the vendor Bell being reduced by $500? Or will Scenario #1 cause problems because the charge wasn’t directly connected to the bill? I would say 90% of the credit card looks like scenario #1 due to the fact that there were either multiples of the charge/bill or simply that there was no receipt to connect it to.

A secondary question then would be, is there a way to connect a credit card charge to a bill after both have been created?

LauraAB · Answer

Hi there KwickBeuks,

I appreciate the time you've taken to describe what you're seeing in the books you've taken on for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. I can see why this would be a potentially confusing situation to deal with and I'm glad you're reaching out to make sure you have the correct steps. I can help you with this.

First, I'd like to say that I notice you've also made a few posts to the US QuickBooks Community forum. If you're using a US version of the software, please head on over to that forum to make sure you get the right steps for handling this. There are often some differences in functions between US and Canadian versions of the program, so it's ideal to make sure you have the correct direction. You can get to that section by using the hyperlink I added above or by selecting the flag at the top of this page and choosing the US one.

For the Canadian version of the software, here's how it works. Bills and credit card charges are two separate transaction types that don't "talk" to each other and cannot be linked. Although adding the credit card charge will calculate to the vendor profile, there will still be an unpaid bill balance to contend with. I'm sure you're seeing it in your company file, but here's a visual reference from a sample file of what I mean.

Since there isn't a way to link the two transactions, there may be a few different ways to approach this. One option you can consider is to void or delete the bill transaction so that you're only left with the credit card charge. That way, you still have the entry to the vendor, but you only have it once instead of twice for the same data. The other option would be to delete or void the credit card charge instead and then proceed to pay the bill transaction.

In choosing which option to go with, you'll want to consider things like if the transaction is reconciled. For instance, a bill wouldn't be reconciled because it's not a payment transaction, but a credit card charge might have been reconciled in the books already. In that case, it may be easier to go with the first of the two options I just mentioned.

If you're not an accountant yourself, I recommend working with one to determine the best option for the books. To find an accountant to work with, you can consider our Find an Accountant page which takes you to our directory of QuickBooks-certified professionals near you.

I hope this has been helpful for working through this situation. All the best to you!

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