While QuickBooks can be a beneficial tool in managing business, unfamiliarity with the accounting software can make it challenging to understand all its tools, from scheduling vendor payments in real time to effectively using QuickBooks Enterprise or QuickBooks Online Advanced. While Intuit offers assistance, you must go through many pages of information, sifting through details about ap automation, chart accounts, and more.
To help navigate the process, Fourlane put all the information about using QuickBooks for Vendors in one place. This comprehensive overview will guide you through everything from managing vendors QuickBooks style, to keeping your cash flow steady, applying credits, and organizing your vendor list for optimal spend management. With these instructions, you can create vendor records properly, strengthen vendor relationships, and streamline tasks like invoice processing, purchase approval, and check review plan steps.
How to Customize Vendor Center
When a business works with multiple vendors, it’s crucial to keep each vendor’s information separate from one another to avoid confusion or payments going to the wrong vendor. QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Online each offer different interfaces, but both can use custom fields and vendor dropdown menu options to help with vendor management in real time.
Thankfully, creating Vendor IDs is easy. To create a Vendor ID, you must start with:
- Creating a custom field and naming it (most people use generic names like “Vendor ID”)
- Picking what forms you want this ID to appear on (like expenses or bills)
Once completed, do the following:
- Go to “Expenses” and click on “Vendors.”
- Pick which vendor you want to have an ID for.
- Click “Edit.”
- Enter the ID in the “Vendor ID” custom field.
Don’t forget to save your work! By utilizing custom fields, you can quickly reference important data when you enter vendor or customer vendor information without scanning every vendor screen. This setup also allows for better organization when looking at your vendors list, enabling mid check review or support mid check if needed.
How to Create a New Vendor
Have you made some new vendor contacts? Inputting their information won’t take long—especially if they’re already part of the QuickBooks Network. To add a vendor’s information, you must do the following:
- Go to “Expenses.”
- Choose “Vendors.”
- Click on “New Vendor.”
- Add all of the new vendor’s information.
- Save once all the information is entered.
While entering the vendor’s information, you may notice that their information auto-generates. Auto-generation means the vendor is part of the QuickBooks Network. If that’s the case, clicking Save will send an invitation to that vendor.
If the vendor accepts the invitation, hidden information like their email address and phone number will appear in the vendor profile. Additionally, whenever the vendor updates their QuickBooks information, your information about this vendor will automatically update to match in real time. This process can help with managing vendors QuickBooks style, ensuring payment terms and vendor relationships remain transparent.
It’s essential to note that the vendor profile will not automatically update if you add additional information. Consider adding details like payment terms or relevant custom fields that can tie into your chart accounts. Over time, this helps enhance vendor management and spend management through online QuickBooks or QuickBooks Desktop.
Adding More than One Vendor Simultaneously
You can also enter multiple vendors into QuickBooks:
- Enter the vendors’ information into a spreadsheet.
- Click on “Input Vendor” in QuickBooks.
- Attach the spreadsheet.
- Click “Next.”
- Map the spreadsheet fields to the QuickBooks fields.
- Click “Next.”
- Review the information and ensure everything matches.
- Click “Import.”
Then you’re done. All the vendors will be part of your list. This is especially helpful for quickly updating your vendor dropdown menu, improving ap automation or invoice processing, and creating better workflows within QuickBooks Enterprise or QuickBooks Online Advanced.
How to Merge Duplicate Vendors
If your business has multiple employees, there’s a good chance they’ll enter duplicate information into your QuickBooks system. If that occurs, you must merge the vendors to prevent confusion and mistakes. This procedure also supports data accuracy for vendor payments, cash flow, check review plan tasks, and purchase approval processes.
Here’s how to merge vendors in QuickBooks:
- Click “Expenses.”
- Choose “Vendors.”
- Find the vendor and open their profile.
- Click “Edit.”
- Remember the company name and Vendor Display Name (it might be helpful to write them down).
- Go back to “Vendors.”
- Find the profile of the vendor you want to eliminate.
- Click “Edit.”
- Change the display name to match the vendor you want to keep.
- Click “Save” and then “Yes” to confirm.
Once merged, you can continue to enhance vendor management using automation software or ap automation software for tasks such as vendor screen updates or journal entry postings.
How to Assign Vendor Types
You may want to organize vendors by type in QuickBooks. Unfortunately, QuickBooks doesn’t have that ability built-in for vendor type segmentation.
However, you can add the vendor type in the “Other” field of the vendor profile. To do so, you’ll need to:
- Choose a new or existing vendor profile.
- If new, enter all the information.
- If existing, click the “Edit” button.
- In the Vendor Information Window, enter the vendor type in the “Other” field.
- Click “Save.”
By specifying different vendor types, you can improve vendor relationships and effectively track them within your chart accounts. This step also ties into broader spend management or desktop support mid tasks when you need to manage your vendors list carefully.
How to Create Vendor Credits
QuickBooks makes organizing payments to and from vendors easy. Use the steps below if you don’t use physical bills to record business expenses. This process is also helpful when you want to track vendor credits in real time or maintain more accurate vendor QuickBooks data.
- Make a vendor credit.
- Click “New.”
- Click “Vendor Credit.”
- In the dropdown menu, pick the specific vendor.
- Add Category/Item details.
- Click “Save.”
If this credit is an inventory item, QuickBooks will return it to inventory so everything is current within your online advanced dashboards. This ensures your products services records match your vendor records.
Enter a Given Vendor’s Credit
What happens if a vendor gives you credit for non-refund reasons like a promotion? You can store that credit by doing the following:
- Click “New.”
- Pick “Vendor Credit.”
- Choose the vendor in the dropdown menu.
- Enter the credit details.
- Click “Save.”
Deposit the money to that account by doing the following:
- Click “New.”
- Choose “Bank Deposit.”
- Select the account where you want the money to go from the “Account” dropdown menu.
- Fill out the various fields in the “Add Funds to this Deposit” section.
- Click “Save.”
Apply Credits to a Bill
You may already have credits with a specific vendor and want to add them to a current bill. Here’s how to apply vendor credit in QuickBooks online:
- Click “New.”
- Pick “Pay Bills.”
- Choose which bill you want to apply the credit to (you’ll see available credits in the “Credit Applied” field).
- Complete the remaining fields.
Doing this can speed up invoice processing and ap automation efforts, while consolidating your vendor list and processing vendor payments more efficiently in QuickBooks.
Record Vendor Credits
Your business may have vendor bills in various states, with prepayments being one of them. Prepayments are common when working with vendors QuickBooks style. There are two ways to record these prepayments: “Accounts Payable” or “Asset Account.”
Using Accounts Payable, you’ll:
- Create a check for the vendor.
- Click “Write Checks” from the “Banking” menu.
- Enter the vendor and payment information.
- Go to the “Expenses” tab.
- Enter “Accounts Payable” from the “Account” column.
- Choose the vendor.
- Click “Save.”
To record the bill, you’ll:
- Click on “Enter Bills” or “Receive Items” (if you want to record the bill later) from the “Vendors” menu.
- Enter the information.
- Save.
To apply the prepayment to a bill, you’ll:
- Click “Pay Bills” from the “Vendors” menu.
- Choose the bill you want to prepay.
- Click “Set Credits.”
- Ensure that prepayment is checked.
- Click “Done.”
Using Asset Account, you record prepayments by following these steps:
- Find “Chart of Accounts” under the “List” menu.
- Click “New” in the “Chart of Accounts” menu.
- Go to the “Other Account Types” menu.
- Choose “Other Current Asset.”
- Click “Continue.”
- Enter the prepaid goods as the “Account Name.”
- Click “Save & Close.”
You’ll then write a check to your vendor:
- Go to the “Banking” menu.
- Click “Write Checks.”
- Enter the vendor information.
- Go to the “Expenses” tab and pick the OCA account you just made.
- Click “Save & Close.”
When It’s time to enter and pay your bill, you’ll:
- Click on “Enter Bills” from the “Vendors” menu.
- Choose the “Expenses” tab and pick the OCA Account.
- Put in the amount of the prepayment as a negative value.
- Enter what products you’re buying in the “Items” tab.
- Click “Save & Close.”
- Select “Pay Bills” from the “Vendor” menu.
- Pick the bill and then click “Pay Selected Bills.”
Properly logging these prepayments may also help with automation software, purchase approval steps, and other ap automation software processes.
Let Fourlane Walk You Through the QuickBooks Vendor Process
If you’re still unsure how to do something in QuickBooks with vendor records, Fourlane can help. We have many QuickBooks consultants that can walk you through the process and answer any questions, including real time changes in QuickBooks Online Advanced or best practices in QuickBooks Enterprise. Our guidance covers everything from ap automation to vendor management, ensuring tools like chart accounts align with your needs for invoice processing and vendor relationships.
Our consultants can help with all aspects of QuickBooks. Contact us to learn how we can help you use QuickBooks to its full potential—whether you want to add vendor details across multiple vendors QuickBooks set-ups, or integrate advanced features like mid check review and support mid check. By leveraging QuickBooks’ robust features, we’ll help strengthen your vendor relationships and maintain a healthy cash flow.
