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Victoria_M
October 17, 2022
Question

Why Expense Shows as a Positive Number and Bill Payment as a Negative?

  • October 17, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

Attaching the screenshot.

1 reply

Nicole_N
Nicole_N
October 17, 2022

Hi there, Victoria_M.

I appreciate you posting in the Community. Let me provide you with information about expenses and bill payment reports. 

The Expense report shows up as positive, which indicates a debit. This means that more money is coming into the company, which increases the company's assets. This is an accounting-based procedure.

The Bill Payment List report shows the amount depending on the payment method you use. Choosing a bank method will appear as a negative on the report, while selecting a credit card payment will show as positive. 

On the other hand, making a payment using your credit card will increase your liability, and making a payment through your bank will decrease your asset.

For more information, you can refer to this article: How accounts are affected by debits and credits. It's also helpful if you plan to edit account balances using a journal entry.

You may find this article useful in case you want to customize reports: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

If you have any additional questions concerning reports, don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We're here to help all the time. Have a nice day!

V
Victoria_MAuthor
October 17, 2022

I understand the Dr. and Cr. part. It's just QBO is different from Desktop, and I am not able to run vendor transaction report the way I used to. 

What is the best way to run such report, so that I can see the correct total with expense and bill payments as negatives? Do I have to manually change it in Excel? This would be ridiculous if I need to run several dozen vendor reports. 

    Rainflurry
    Rainflurry
    October 18, 2022

    @Victoria_M 

     

    What is the best way to run such report, so that I can see the correct total with expense and bill payments as negatives?

     

    If you want to see the expense as a positive amount and the bill payment as a negative amount, you need to enter all expenses as bills (credits A/P) and then subsequently pay the bill (debits A/P).  If you enter transactions as expenses (as you did for the $630 expense from your screenshot), it will only show the expense posting and no payment.  That's because when you use the expense function in QBO (New > Expense), you are saying that you paid for the expense at the time you incurred it which bypasses A/P.  In QB Desktop, you record it as either a check or credit card charge (Desktop does not have the Expense function) but it posts to a vendor the same way.

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