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70Red
January 29, 2021
Question

entering statements received (ie utility bills) as bills instead of entering them date paid

  • January 29, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Working on a cash basis and new and working on last year's books I reconciled the year.  In reviewing the P&L statement it didn't look at all correct and I felt I knew where my errors where.  I entered some received statements as bills as they are bills to me.  I then entered others as as I paid them instead.  Looking down the expense page revealed the bills as unpaid and because they had been I ticked the box (the date was the day I did that as I wasn't aware how it would show) and the amount showed in the paid column.  However, that total has showed up the this months entries and I havent even touched this years books yet.  I was going to delete or void - what is the difference?please -   If someone understands my dilemma please advise as I am just about to start over again in a ledger.   If I delete or void? then are they going to again appear outstanding for last year?  I would like to redo them as having been paid on the date I did so - as an internal entry I thought I could do that.  Please advise and I apologize for being long winded.  

 

 

 

 

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1 reply

C
CaitlinOG
January 29, 2021

Hi 70Red, 

 

It's great that you're using QuickBooks Online to managing your business. I can tell that you've put a lot of time into getting these bills situated, and I can help shed some light on how to get this sorted out. 

 

To answer your first question, the difference between Deleting and Voiding transactions is that deleting completely removes an entry from your books, whereas voiding keeps a record of the entry. Both options will change the transaction amount to $0.00. You can learn more about voiding and deleting in this article: Void or delete transactions in QuickBooks Online

 

If you decide to void or delete any of these transactions, the next step is to make sure your reconciliations are still intact. You mentioned that you already had the prior year reconciled, so if you void or delete bills or bill payments, the beginning balance for your next reconciliation will be off by that amount. So if you delete and recreate the bills, you'd then need to manually reconcile the new bill entries since those reconciliations are already complete. This is done by going to the Chart of Accounts, locating the account that these transactions went through and clicking Account History. Once you're in the Account History screen, you'd then find the transaction that needs to be manually reconciled. Once you locate it, you'll notice a column which will either contain C for cleared, R for reconciled or be blank. You'll click on that box until it changes to R then click Save. The transaction will then be manually reconciled and keep your Reconcile screen balanced. You can learn more about entering and paying bills as well as fixing reconciled items in the following Community articles: 

 

 

If you're feeling unsure about completing this process alone, I encourage you to reach out to either an accountant or our support team outside of the Community for one-on-one assistance. You can invite your accountant to view your books through the My Accountant menu. If you're not currently working with an accountant, you can use the Find a pro to help option to search for a QuickBooks certified Pro Advisor near you. If you'd like assistance from our support team, you can connect with them using either of these options: 

 

Phone: Call 1-855-253-1536 from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.
Schedule a Callback or Chat: Click (?)Help in the upper right > type and enter "Contact support" into the QB Assistant > click Contact Us > explain your situation > click Let's Talk > choose Get a callback or Start a Chat. Support is available from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. ET.
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Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions! 

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