Accounts Payable

Accounts Payable is the other side of Accounts Receivable: instead of they owe us, it's we owe them. In Solid Accounting that's purchase orders, bills, Pay Bill, the A/P aging report, and the 1099 Report. You'll find them in the sidebar under Money Out and in the Vendors menu.

Vendors

Vendors live in Contacts (Lists → Contacts) with the type Vendor. Two things on a vendor matter most for payables: the default payment terms and default account on new bills, and the 1099 details (1099 Eligible, tax ID, W-9 on file). See Vendors.

Purchase orders

A Purchase Order (sidebar or Vendors → Purchase Orders) records what you've ordered before the bill arrives. It doesn't post to the ledger. The flow is Draft → Approved → Partially received / Received → Billed, or Cancelled:

Approve marks it as issued to the vendor.
Receive Items records what arrived. For inventory items this raises quantity on hand and adds a cost layer. See Inventory.
Convert to Bill creates the bill from the PO lines. That's when the ledger changes.

Find Purchase Orders… in the Vendors menu searches existing ones. Purchase orders use the Inventory feature, which is included on every tier.

Bills

A Bill (sidebar or Vendors → Bills) records what you owe a vendor:

DR  Expense (per line, on the line's account)
CR  Accounts Payable                    total

Each line can go to a different expense account. Enter the vendor's invoice number in the reference field — that makes matching their statement easy later. The bill date decides the fiscal period; the due date comes from the vendor's terms or is set by hand. A bill can be entered in another currency; its exchange rate is stored on the bill, and a rate change by the time you pay posts as a realized FX gain or loss.

Drafts don't affect the ledger or A/P aging. Posted bills appear on the vendor's open balance and in A/P aging. To correct a posted bill, void it (with a void date and a reason) and enter it again. Voiding a paid bill also removes its payment, so A/P aging and the Balance Sheet keep agreeing.

Import Receipt in the sidebar reads a PDF receipt or vendor invoice and pulls out the vendor, number, dates, and amounts for you to check.

Pay Bill

When you pay, use Pay Bill (sidebar or Vendors → Pay Bill):

DR  Accounts Payable
CR  Bank (the "Pay from" account)

Pay Bill opens with every vendor's open bills; type in Vendor to narrow the list to one. Enter the Payment amount or the amount on each bill, adjusting for partial payments. One payment can clear several bills from the same vendor, so one check on your statement matches one entry at reconciliation. Pay from lists only accounts money can actually leave — bank accounts and credit cards, never Undeposited Funds.

If you pay a vendor on the spot without entering a bill first, use Write Check instead. It posts straight to the expense account and doesn't touch Accounts Payable.

Vendor refunds and credits

Solid Accounting has no separate vendor-credit form. To record a refund from a vendor, use Record Deposit and code the line to the expense account the original bill used. For a credit the vendor will take off a future bill, enter that next bill at the reduced amount and note the credit in the memo.

A/P aging and 1099s

A/P Aging (Reports → A/P Aging or Vendors → Aging Report (A/P)) buckets what you owe each vendor: Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, and over 90 days past due. Use it to plan what to pay this week.

The 1099 Report (Vendors → 1099 Report) totals payments to vendors marked 1099 Eligible, by form and box (1099-NEC and 1099-MISC). The box comes from the vendor's Default 1099 box, or the account or company default. The reporting threshold follows the payment year: $600 for 2025 payments, $2,000 from 2026 (Settings → 1099 Contractors shows the figures and lets you override them). Card and payment-processor payments are left out automatically because the processor reports them on a 1099-K. The report flags vendors with a missing or badly formatted tax ID, and shows only the last four digits of each.

At year-end:

Open Vendors → 1099 Report for the calendar year.
Fix any flagged vendors — add the SSN or EIN on the contact record.
Export the CSV for your filing service, or save recipient PDFs (Copy B).
File with the IRS yourself (IRIS) or through a filing service.

Solid Accounting prepares the numbers; it doesn't e-file 1099s for you.

Common gotchas

Vendor's bill number doesn't match. Put the vendor's number in the bill's reference field. The entry number (like JE-00042) is Solid Accounting's own.

1099 total is lower than what you paid the vendor. Card payments are excluded by IRS rule; the processor reports them on a 1099-K.

Pay Bill posted from the wrong account. Void the payment and pay again from the right account. Voiding removes the payment from the bill, so it shows as open again.

Bill in the wrong period. Change the date on the draft, or void and re-enter a posted bill with the right date.

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