Note: This article assumes you do NOT have the “Automatically apply bill payments” setting turned on in your QuickBooks company settings.

If one of your vendors currently has a credit (negative) balance in your books, then let’s create a new bill and then apply this open credit balance to it:

1. Find your vendor (with the credit balance) and click on “Create bill”
2. Create the new vendor bill then click on Save and Close.
3. Now go back to your vendor list and locate this same vendor, but this time:
   1. Click on either “Make Payment” or “Mark as Paid” from the right-side drop-down menu (from either the vendor list or from the vendor bill itself).
4. Within the Bill Payment screen, be sure the Payment date is set to either the same day or after the new bill date, then in the Reference No. field, type in the word “apply”.
5. Now go directly to the “Payment” field which is directly to the far right side of the new bill you are wanting to apply the credit to and:
   1. Type in a payment amount that is EXACTLY the same as the credit amount you want to apply.
6. You will now notice some very important payment details on your Bill Payment screen:
   1. The “Amount” field towards the top on the right side has changed to 0.00.
   2. The “Amount to Credit” towards the bottom on the right side has also changed to 0.00.
   3. Both the bill and corresponding credit(s) are now check-marked: amount of the bill equals exactly the amount of the credit(s) being applied.
7. Click on Save and Close.
8. If you process either an Accounts Payables Detail report or an Unpaid Bills report, you will see this open credit balance no longer exists.

Note: AccuraBooks is a bookkeeping firm only, so please consult with your C.P.A. for verification and clarification about the contents of this article.