{
  "question_id": "CG-P1B-FULL-090",
  "slug": "how-to-choose-a-tool-or-template-to-keep-track-of-bills",
  "display_title": "What tool or template can a business use to keep track of its bills?",
  "format": "article-v2",
  "applies_to": {
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      "US"
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    "tax_year": null,
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  "general_concept": true,
  "summary": "Three kinds of tool work: a spreadsheet or printable template, a shared list or task tool, or the bills function in accounting software. If you enter every bill there, its open bills and an autopay list can be your tracker; any second list must match them. Whatever you choose, give each bill one record with vendor, bill number, dates, terms, amount, approval, autopay, payments and balance, and a link to the bill, and check it before any payment.",
  "body": "## What should each bill record carry?\n\nGive each bill one row, card or record, with these fields:\n\n| Field | What it answers |\n|---|---|\n| Vendor | Who is owed, picked from one vendor list that also marks autopay vendors |\n| Bill number | Which bill this is, as printed on it |\n| Bill date | When the vendor issued it; terms usually run from it |\n| Terms and due date | When payment is due, or when a standing row's bill or charge is expected |\n| Amount | What the bill says is owed; blank on a standing row until the bill arrives |\n| Approval | Who agreed it should be paid, and when |\n| Autopay | Whether it is paid without anyone paying by hand, by the vendor's charge or your own recurring payment |\n| Payments and credits | Date, amount and reference of each payment, discount taken or credit applied |\n| Balance owing | Amount less payments, discounts and credits |\n| Class | One-off, recurring, or charged with no bill first |\n| Document link | Where the bill itself is stored |\n| Days to due | Due date less today, calculated rather than typed |\n| Status | Calculated by the rules below |\n\nAccountingTools' explainer on accounts payable says the payment date is based on the invoice date, and treats a discount taken as a reduction in the amount owed. Where a bill prints its own due date, copy it: a row without a due date or terms says what is owed but not when.\n\n## How are recurring and automatically charged bills carried?\n\nEach class enters the tracker differently:\n\n| Class | How it enters and closes |\n|---|---|\n| One-off bill | A row when the bill arrives, closed when its balance reaches zero |\n| Recurring bill of predictable timing and varying amount | A standing row each period with the vendor and expected date, completed when the bill arrives |\n| Charge taken automatically with no bill first | A standing row with the expected date and amount, marked autopay, closed from the statement at the amount charged |\n\nAutopay is a mark, not a class: a bill the vendor also charges automatically, such as a utility that still sends monthly bills, is marked autopay and closed from the bank or card statement, never paid by hand.\n\nZoho Books' undated help on other actions for bills says any recorded bill can be made recurring and any bill edited; correct each repeated bill to the vendor's actual one rather than entering that bill again. Trello's undated card-dates help says a card with a repeating due date, once marked done, takes the next date and reverts to not done, so keep each period's payment record elsewhere, such as a row per period.\n\n## How does the tracker show what is due next and what is overdue?\n\nMicrosoft's undated help page for Excel's TODAY function shows that subtracting TODAY() from a date returns the number of days between the current date and that date. In Excel, a column holding the due date minus TODAY() therefore counts down and turns negative once the date passes. The page adds that the result displays correctly only in a cell formatted as General or Number, so format the column as Number, and that if TODAY does not update when expected, Excel's calculation should be set to Automatic.\n\nEach row takes the first status that fits:\n\n| Rule | Status |\n|---|---|\n| Balance owing below zero | Overpaid |\n| Amount entered, balance owing zero | Closed |\n| Autopay, days to due zero or more | Autopay |\n| Autopay, days to due below zero | Check the statement |\n| No amount yet, days to due zero or more | Expected |\n| No amount yet, days to due below zero | Bill missing |\n| Days to due below zero | Past due |\n| Zero up to the days until your next review plus the days a payment takes to arrive | Due now |\n| Anything more | Coming later |\n\n## What does a working tracker look like?\n\nOn May 20, with the next review in 7 days and payments taking up to 3 days to arrive, Due now covers 0 to 10 days:\n\n| Vendor | Bill no. | Bill date | Terms, due | Amount | Approved by, date | Autopay | Paid or credited | Balance | Days to due | Status | Class | Document |\n|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Crane Legal | 7730 | Apr 1 | Net 15, Apr 16 | 2,150.00 | A. Reyes, Apr 3 | No | 2,150.00 paid Apr 14 | 0.00 | -34 | Closed | One-off | CraneLegal-7730.pdf |\n| Lakeside Printing | 1184 | Apr 10 | Net 30, May 10 | 1,200.00 | A. Reyes, Apr 13 | No | 500.00 paid May 8; 50.00 credit May 12 | 650.00 | -10 | Past due | One-off | LakesidePrinting-1184.pdf |\n| Riverside Water | — | — | Expected May 15 | — | — | No | None | — | -5 | Bill missing | Recurring | — |\n| Cloudbox Storage | CB-5521 | May 15 | Card, May 22 | 49.00 | A. Reyes, May 15 | Yes | None | 49.00 | 2 | Autopay | Recurring | Cloudbox-CB5521.pdf |\n| Metro Electric | 55813-05 | May 1 | On bill, May 25 | 318.45 | A. Reyes, May 3 | No | None | 318.45 | 5 | Due now | Recurring | MetroElectric-55813-05.pdf |\n| Harbor Office Supply | H-2207 | May 12 | Net 30, Jun 11 | 640.00 | Not yet | No | None | 640.00 | 22 | Coming later | One-off | HarborOfficeSupply-H2207.pdf |\n\nSorted by days to due, the open rows give the week's view: Lakeside Printing past due, Riverside Water's bill missing, Cloudbox Storage's card charge coming, Metro Electric due now and Harbor Office Supply coming later, still unapproved. Crane Legal's closed row stays as the record of its payment.\n\n## What routine keeps the tracker current?\n\nStart with a row for every unpaid bill and add each period's standing rows as it begins. Then each bill follows these steps, in order:\n\n1. **Record it on arrival.** Whoever receives a bill searches the tracker for its bill number under any vendor name, and for its amount. A reminder or copy of a listed bill updates that row, and a bill matching a standing or autopay row fills it in; any other bill gets a row that day, with its file stored where the row's link points. A vendor statement listing a bill with no row means one is missing.\n2. **Record the approval.** Note who approved it and when; an unapproved row stays in view.\n3. **Review the view weekly.** Pass past-due and due-now rows to whoever decides what is paid, and overpaid rows to whoever handles recovering a duplicate payment, a separate task. Chase missing bills, and find out why any autopay charge is late before anyone pays it by hand. Choosing which bills to pay is a separate question about reading an aging report.\n4. **Check the row before anyone pays.** Run the check in the last section.\n5. **Record each payment the same day.** Enter its date, amount and reference when it is sent or scheduled, with any discount or credit, and close autopay rows from the statement. If the bill is also in your accounting software, record the same payment against it there the same day, so neither record shows the bill paid without the other; Intuit's help on bills, checks and expenses says a QuickBooks Online bill is closed with Pay bills, not a check or expense. A row at zero is closed, never deleted.\n6. **Agree the tracker at each month end.** Use the books or the statements, as the next section explains.\n\n## Is the tracker the record of what is owed, or a copy of the books?\n\nIntuit's QuickBooks Online help on choosing between cash and accrual methods says the accrual method records expenses when you receive the bill and the cash method when you pay it, so the answer depends on whether your books hold bills before they are paid.\n\n### What if bills are entered in accounting software?\n\nIntuit's QuickBooks Online help on the differences between bills, checks and expenses says to enter a bill for a transaction you will pay in the future. Once every bill is entered, the software's unpaid bills are the tracker, together with any QuickBooks Online bill still in the For review tab. Intuit's help on bills, checks and expenses also says to record a transaction paid on the spot as a check or expense, so automatic charges with no bill first are not among its bills; keep them as autopay rows on a short list (vendor, expected date and amount), reviewed weekly with the unpaid bills and closed from the statement.\n\nA separate tracker kept as well must agree with them. AccountingTools' guide to reconciling accounts payable describes a comparable check inside the books: verifying that the detailed total of payables outstanding matches the payables balance in the general ledger. At each month end, match every open row to an unpaid bill with the same balance, and every unpaid bill to an open row, leaving out autopay rows the software does not hold as bills. Intuit's help on entering bills in QuickBooks Online says bills you upload or receive through the QuickBooks Business Network appear in a For review tab, while bills added by hand appear in the Unpaid tab and require no further review. Review each of those the day it arrives and give it a row; at month end, one still in For review does not count as a match.\n\nBefore changing either record, find which one is wrong from the bill and the payment record. If the tracker shows a payment the software does not, confirm it went out, then record it against the bill there; if it went in as a check or expense, which Intuit's help on bills, checks and expenses says records the payment too, correct that entry instead of recording the payment twice. Reopen a row only once you confirm its payment was cancelled or never sent. If the software shows a bill with no row, add the row.\n\n### What if the books record bills only when they are paid?\n\nOn the cash basis, if you do not enter bills before paying them, nothing in the books shows what is owed, so the tracker is the whole record. It must hold every bill from the day it arrives, including disputed and unapproved ones, keep closed rows rather than delete them, and keep each row linked to its bill. A bill in the tracker, including one open when you started it, is listed there but not posted in the books; it reaches them only as it is paid.\n\nEach month end, check the tracker against the bank and card statements instead. Every bill payment on a statement should match a payment recorded on a row, open or closed, and every payment recorded on a row that month should appear on a statement. A payment not yet on a statement, such as an uncashed check, carries to next month's check; reopen the row only once you confirm that payment was cancelled or never sent.\n\n## Which option fits, and what can each do?\n\nWhether bills reach your books, how many there are and how many people handle them decide the choice:\n\n| Option | What it holds and does | Where it stops being enough | Fits when |\n|---|---|---|---|\n| Spreadsheet or printable template | Any columns you set up; in Excel, days to due and status calculated as above | Printed, it cannot calculate; in either form nothing ties it to the books | Bills are not entered in your books, and one person can review them all by hand each week |\n| List or task tool | Trello's undated card-dates help describes a due-date badge that changes within 24 hours of being due and again once the card is overdue, and a notification only if you set a due date reminder | That help covers dates, not amounts: confirm the tool holds amounts, part payments and balances, and nothing ties it to the books | Several people need shared reminders and it holds the fields |\n| Payables function in accounting software | Intuit's help on entering bills in QuickBooks Online covers terms and the bill date, due date and bill number as on the bill; Zoho Books' undated Manage Bills help lists Overdue, Partially Paid and, with transaction approval enabled, Pending Approval statuses | Right only if every bill is entered and every payment is recorded against its bill; charges with no bill need their own short list | You enter every bill there and it records approval and holds the file, or bills are too many to handle by hand |\n\nIf your software has no place for approval, decide where approval is recorded before relying on the check that a bill is approved. Whether to start entering bills before paying them, and what that means for your accounting method, is a separate question.\n\nWhen several people handle bills, keep one shared tracker all of them can open, and let only those who add rows, record approvals or record payments edit it. AccountingTools' explainer on accounts payable calls for a firm requirement that whoever receives an invoice forwards it immediately; here, that means adding its row the same day, so whoever pays can see it. Anyone who can edit a shared spreadsheet can change its approval column, so how approval is given and recorded is a separate question.\n\n## Where can you get a ready-made template, and how do you judge one?\n\nReady-made templates come from these classes of publisher, though neither is certain to offer one that fits:\n\n- **Spreadsheet makers.** Google's undated help on using templates says Google Sheets has a Template Gallery, where choosing a template opens a copy. The page's examples are resumes, budgets and order forms; it does not say whether the gallery has a bill tracker. If it has none, build a blank sheet from the field table. In Google Sheets, check Google's own help for the date function and recalculation setting before relying on the days-to-due column.\n- **Independent template publishers.** Vertex42's Bill Tracker Worksheet page, updated 2/2/2022, describes listing all your recurring bills with their expected payment amounts and checking them off when they are paid. The page presents it for use in a budget planner and marks its license Personal Use (not for distribution or resale), so check the publisher's terms before using it in a business, and expect to add most of the field table's columns.\n\nJudge any candidate against the field table, column by column, and add whatever it lacks; check especially that its balance handles part payments and credits and that its days to due or status is calculated, not typed. Where to find recordkeeping templates in general is a separate question.\n\n## Which document backs each bill, and how does the record point to it?\n\nThe bill itself backs the row. IRS Publication 583 lists invoices among supporting documents, says they support the entries in your books, and says to keep them in an orderly fashion and in a safe place.\n\nSave each bill as a file named from its row, such as HarborOfficeSupply-H2207.pdf, and put its link in the row. Keep a paper bill's original unless your storage meets IRS requirements: Publication 583 says originals may be destroyed provided the electronic storage system has been tested for compliance and procedures keep it compliant, points to Revenue Procedure 97-22 for details, and says penalties may otherwise apply unless the originals are kept. In software, keep the file with the bill: Zoho Books' undated help on other actions for bills says you can attach files to a bill. Intuit's help on entering bills in QuickBooks Online describes uploading a bill file as one way to enter a new bill; use it instead of typing the bill in, never as well, or one invoice becomes two bills. A row with no link has nothing to check its amount against before payment.\n\n## How does the tracker stop a bill being paid twice?\n\nAccountingTools' explainer on accounts payable says duplicate payments can occur when the same invoice is entered more than once, when an original and a copy are both processed, or when vendor names or invoice numbers are recorded inconsistently. So the check does not rely on vendor names. Before any bill is paid by hand, confirm on its row:\n\n- **Recorded once.** No other row carries the same bill number under any vendor name, ignoring spaces and hyphens, or the same amount and bill date; either match is a possible duplicate to resolve before paying.\n- **Approved and open.** Its approval is recorded and its balance owing is above zero.\n- **Supported.** The row's amount matches the bill behind its link, and the amount to be paid is no more than the balance owing, checked bill by bill, not as a batch total.\n- **Not paid automatically.** The row is not marked autopay, and neither the vendor list nor the bill says the amount is charged or sent automatically.\n\nThese checks show a bill is recorded once, marked approved, unpaid and supported. In a shared spreadsheet the approval column shows only what someone entered, so confirm the approval with the approver named in the row until approval is recorded where only approvers can give it, a separate question. The checks also do not confirm where the money goes. A bill or message that changes a vendor's payment details needs verifying before anything is paid, which is a separate question.\n\nIn accounting software, record each payment against its bill: Intuit's help on the differences between bills, checks and expenses says not to pay an existing bill with a check or expense, which may cause the bill to appear unpaid on your reports. Recovering a payment that went out twice anyway is a separate task.",
  "sources": [
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      "url": "https://www.accountingtools.com/articles/accounts-payable",
      "title": "Accounts Payable Explained",
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      "title": "Differences between bills, checks, and expenses",
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      "title": "Enter bills in QuickBooks Online",
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