How to you enter an expense without any payment on it?

I appreciate the details you've shared, @Angie T. Let me share some insights for writing off some contribution or spillage.

If you want to write off an amount for an income transaction, we can create a credit memo to reduce the customer transaction balance. From there, enter the item and the amount (contribution) that you want to offset to an income transaction. You can follow one of the steps through this article that is relevant to your current situation: Create and apply credit memo or delayed credits in QuickBooks Online.

However, if you want to write off the amount of an expense transaction, you can create a vendor credit to offset the vendor balance. From the Vendor credit window, enter the category and amount that will offset the expense transaction. Please follow the steps in this article that correlate to your current status: Enter vendor credits and refunds in QuickBooks Online.

Using these two non-posting transaction types will only create an offsetting amount but does not necessarily create an expense transaction.

Additionally, you can visit this article for you to be able to learn how to run basic reports in QuickBooks Online: Run reports in QuickBooks Online.

 If you have any questions about entering an expense in QuickBooks Online, please feel free to reply to this post. I would be happy to help you out. Have a great day.

@Angie T 

You can only expense the cost of the food once so if it was recorded as inventory when purchased it, you can make an inventory adjustment or create a journal entry: debit COGS/Donation Expense/Spoilage, etc., credit Inventory Asset for your cost.  If you recorded the purchase of the food as an expense, then there is no additional entry to be made because you already expensed it.  You can't expense it when you purchase it and again when you dispose of/donate it.