Accounts payable explained
When a vendor delivers goods or services and sends a bill you’ll pay later, you owe them money. Until you pay, that amount is an account payable: a liability on your balance sheet.
Payables go up when you record a bill and down when you pay it, take a credit or receive a refund. Recording bills when they arrive, not when you pay them, shows what you really owe and lets you plan payments around due dates instead of whatever the bank balance happens to be.
An A/P aging report groups unpaid bills by how late they are. It’s the list you work from when deciding what to pay this week, and it shows which vendors you risk late fees with.
Example: a bill paid in two parts
On April 2 a café records a $3,600 bill from its coffee roaster, due May 2. It pays $1,600 on April 15 and the rest on May 1.
| Date | Event | Payable balance |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2 | Bill recorded: Cost of goods $3,600 / Accounts payable $3,600 | $3,600 |
| Apr 15 | Partial payment by ACH | $2,000 |
| May 1 | Final payment by check | $0 |
The expense belongs to April on the accrual basis, even though half of the cash leaves in May.
Where you’ll see it in fiscal50
Vendor bills in fiscal50 create payables, and the A/P Aging report shows what is due by age. You can tick any number of one vendor’s unpaid bills and record one payment by Cash, Check, ACH or Credit/Debit Card, with a discount per bill, partial payments, and any overpayment kept as vendor credit.
Each vendor’s ledger lists every bill, payment and credit, and the vendor statement shows their activity and balance for any dates.