QuickBooks Online For Dummies, 2026 Edition, 10th Edition

Chapter 3

Bagging Expenses, Chilling Bills, and Paying the Tabs

IN THIS CHAPTER

Managing your go-to vendors

Recording bills and vendor credits

Running a business has a lot in common with a trip to the grocery store. You have your regular stops (vendors), hot foods that need to be dealt with right away (expenses, checks, and credit card charges), refrigerated items you can put on ice for later (bills), and the occasional return or refund when something doesn’t work out. This chapter walks you through how QuickBooks tracks all these transactions so that nothing spoils and your books stay fresh.

Accounts payable — A/P for short — refers to both a balance sheet account and a process. As an account, it tracks what you owe vendors for goods and services you’ve received but haven’t paid for yet. As a process, it’s how you enter those bills and later record the payments. Tracking payables helps you stay on top of what you owe and keeps your financial reports accurate, especially if you use accrual accounting.

Managing Vendors

John Donne famously said, “No man is an island,” and the same holds true for businesses. Every business relies on outside providers. In grocery store terms, ...