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becky614
October 11, 2023
Question

Linking an open bill to a check number uploaded into QB

  • October 11, 2023
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

All of the sudden I can no longer automatically link a check that is manually entered into QB under a vendor (either one off as a "New Transaction" or through a batch upload) to an open bill through an overriding "Bill Payment" like I used to be able to. QB now wants to create a new "Bill Payment" with a new Bill Payment # (it used to be the same as the check #), which creates a third transaction. This is creating duplicate transactions, inflating my project costs by having both a bill and a check registered under a project, and making it impossible to tie costs to my bank transactions. 

 

Has anyone else discovered this issue recently? It seems like there is either an unintended bug or an update that was pushed into production in early October. 

2 replies

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ChristieAnn 11
October 11, 2023

Welcome to the QuickBooks Community, becky614. Let me provide details on how categorizing works in QuickBooks Online. I've also got steps to ensure you can match your entries on the program.

 

Beforehand, may I ask which bank account is the bill payment or checking coming from? I appreciate any further details so I can check if there's an ongoing issue or bug on our end. 

 

QuickBooks will automatically match your transactions once it detects entries with similar amounts and details. Otherwise, it creates a new transaction record for you and that's the reason the system wants to create a new bill payment. I recommend reviewing the manually entered entry into the downloaded one to verify if they have the same details.

 

Once verified that they contain the same info and QuickBooks still can’t find matches, I recommend finding the right one by using the Find other records option so you don’t get a duplicate record.

 

Here’s how:

 

  1. Go to the Banking menu and select the For Review tab.
  2. Choose the bank transaction to see more info about it.
  3. Review the info under “Record found.” This section shows records you already entered into QuickBooks that it thinks are a match for the downloaded transaction.
  4. Click the Find other records radio button. This opens the Match transactions window.
  5. Select the box to uncheck the recommended match.

 

After that, you can open this article to see additional steps to be taken to finish the process:  Fix bank transactions downloaded in QuickBooks Online. You may go to the Find the right match section.

 

Lastly, refer to this article if you need instructions on how you can reconcile your accounts to avoid discrepancies: Reconcile an account in QuickBooks Online.

 

You can always post here if you still have concerns about categorizing transactions in QuickBooks or other questions related to QBO. I'm here to help anytime, becky614. Take care and stay safe always.

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becky614Author
October 12, 2023

Hello - Thank you for the response. 

 

However I don't think that's actually addressing my issue. I am not having trouble linking a bank transaction, but rather linking a manually added check that was written outside the system, and is being logged in QB before it has posted and cleared the bank. 

 

I normally load bills from vendors. Write checks in my legacy AP system. Upload those outside checks into QB with a batch upload. And then link those checks to the bills they have paid. Once the real check clears the bank and posts to the bank transactions in QB, then I link the cleared check transaction to the "Bill Payment" that is created when you link the "placeholder check" to the bill.

 

The part of the process that has changed is linking the "placeholder check" - digital record of a written check yet to clear - to the bill it is paying off. 

 

Here are some photos to give you an idea of what's happening:

The final image shows the P&L view of a project for the bills I am using as an example. Until I can link the bills to the check with a bill payment, I have duplicate charges, overinflating my costs. I called in a few days ago and was instructed to instead of linking the the check and the bill into a bill payment like I always have, to instead start to create a bill payment by linking them, and then instead of saving it, click the "print checks" button at the bottom of the bill payment creation screen to add that payment to the check queue, and then just leave it in the check queue indefinitely. 


That solution only works to balance the cost and payment in the vendor account. It still, however, leaves two expenses in my P&L.

 

I don;t want to stop loading checks in as they are written, because then its harder to track uncleared checks and balance my account. If needed, I could stop loading the written checks, and just wait for them to clear the bank and post to the transaction record so they can be linked to the bill at that time. 

 

Please help. 

Thanks

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MirriamM
October 12, 2023

Hi there, becky614.

 

I appreciate all the information you provided as well as the screenshots. And I want to ensure your issue about linking an open bill to a check number in QuickBooks Online (QBO) is resolved.

 

To be sure we're on the same page, I'd like to verify how did you enter the check. Did you enter the check by uploading it using the Receipt feature? If yes, how did you review it? Did you create an expense or match it to the bill created? If not, did you enter the check by manually recording it in QBO? Then, adding the bill to the check? And you're not able to match the check number to the bill payment number? Any extra information is much appreciated.

 

We're looking forward to hearing from you.

J
jhl_sel
October 20, 2023

I have been having the exact issue. I use this feature almost daily and now it is not allowing it and creating the new bill payment. I contacted QB and had to have them do a screen share in order to explain what it was doing.  After they saw the issue they came back and said it was a new known glitch and added me to the issue. Hopefully it is resolved soon!! 

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becky614Author
October 24, 2023

That's great to hear it's not just me and hopefully isn't just getting brushed under the rug! I'm just a super small business, but this seems like a fundamental flaw that I assumed was impacting others. 

 

The best workaround I've come up with is to just not enter the checks that I've written and instead wait for them to clear the bank and show up in the bank transaction feed. Once they're there I can link them to an open bill and everything is fine. But this gives me no visibility to uncleared checks in QB which isn't great!

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