QuickBooks 2011: The Missing Manual

Writing Checks Without Entering Bills

You might enter bills in QuickBooks for the majority of your vendor transactions so you can take advantage of early payment discounts or pay bills just before they’re due. But you’re still likely to handwrite a quick check from time to time to pay for an expense immediately. For example, when the person who plows your parking lot knocks on the door and asks for payment, he won’t want to wait while you step through the bill entering and paying process in QuickBooks—he just wants his $100. And if you write only a couple of checks a month, there’s nothing wrong with writing checks to pay your vendors without entering a bill in QuickBooks.

When you first use QuickBooks and want some guidance, use the Write Checks dialog box to make sure you enter everything you need. In no time, you’ll grow tired of all the clicking and handholding. At that point, you can switch to recording your checks in the QuickBooks checking account register. This section describes how to do both.

Note

Entering checks in the register is best reserved for paper checks that you write, but you can print checks you enter in the register: First, record the check. Then, right-click it and choose Edit Check to open the Write Checks window and, in the window’s menu bar, click Print.

Using the Write Checks Window

The Write Checks window is like a trimmed-down Enter Bills window. Because you’re paying immediately, there’s no need for fields such as Bill Due or Terms. For a payment without ...